Anniversary editions can be cynical affairs, tapping into nostalgia to simply resell an album that was a hit decades ago. Few artists put in the effort to truly recreate their early works.
By Graeme Smith
Which is why Russ Lorenson’s A Little Travelin’ Music’s 20th Anniversary edition stood out to me. Here was an artist who had done the work, scrutinising the originals, rebuilding them, and creating something fresh.
It would have been easy for Lorenson to rest on nostalgia. He covers tracks from the Great American Songbook, after all. He hasn’t, and the result is a collection that shows classics in a new light.
“What fascinates me about these songs is that they were never meant to belong to just one performer,” says Lorenson when I asked him what drew him to the classics. “These songs were built to be reinterpreted. Every singer simply adds another chapter to the Songbook.”
He adds his chapter not just through his approach but also with his selection. A Little Travelin’ Music kicks off with the well known Come Fly With Me but its rendition is more intimate than you might be used to. He cuts through the bombast, injecting it with a real jazziness.
The same could be said for many tracks on the album with Lorenson giving a similar treatment to Fly Me To The Moon, A Foggy Day in London Town and I Left My Heart In San Francisco.
Elsewhere he revives some lesser-known classics, and I found myself encountering songs like Moonlight in Vermont, The Air-Minded Executive, and Rhode Island Is Famous For You for the first time.
I was interested in how Lorenson saw these songs fitting into the modern world of music. “Great songs tend to outlive the musical trends around them,” he says. “The way people discover music has changed dramatically – streaming, playlists, social media – but when a melody and lyric connect with a listener, the age of the song almost becomes irrelevant. A great song doesn’t really belong to any one era. If the writing is strong enough, every generation eventually finds its way back to it.”
He has a way of bringing each songs’ lyrics to the fore, luxuriating in them rather than letting them get lost among the instrumentals. I don’t believe I listened to the story of Fly Me To The Moon properly before I heard Lorenson’s version.
Much of the Songbook dedicates itself to love songs, but there’s plenty of wit on display too, whether its wordplay in The Air-Minded Executive or innuendo in Gay Paree. The album’s most poignant moment is reserved for Home To Stay which beautifully sums up the recurring themes of place and travel.
For Lorenson, the process of creating this anniversary edition “felt a little like restoring a painting rather than repainting it.” It’s not just a remaster. Whole parts were re-recorded, replacing things like digital piano with real grand piano to give it that authentic sound. Songs were presented anew as well. “The original recording of I Love Paris included a very cabaret-style performance of the verse,” says Lorenson. “For the anniversary edition we removed that section and moved directly into the more rhythmic, groove-driven chorus, which gives the song a stronger jazz feel and reflects how my musical approach has evolved over the years.”
Lorenson plans to apply the same technique to a wider anniversary project. Both his first two albums landed in 2006, so his holiday record What I Want for Christmas is to be recreated next.
I’ll leave the final word to Lorenson: “These songs have lasted for generations not because they’re nostalgic artifacts, but because they continue to invite new interpretations.
If anything, I hope this anniversary edition shows that great songs don’t stand still. They evolve along with the artists who perform them.”
A Little Travelin’ Music (20th Anniversary Edition) is out now, and you can listen to it below.
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