Brorby Music ... The Old Crooner: * Home

Webster defines "a lark" as “having fun” and “frolicking” – and that is what this project has been – me having fun singing. Doing that in one’s 80s is particularly satisfying!

In 2004, when I was 79, I decided to make a CD of songs that I had sung to my wife when we were courting and to our five children at bedtime when they were young. The intent – a Christmas present for our children.

But I wanted a “professional” quality CD, so I hired an excellent pianist, César Cancino; recorded the songs in a professional studio with David Austin of Diamond Audio Productions; had the CD mastered by Mike Bemesderfer, Digital Audio Solutions; and the CD cover designed by a lady with a silky voice who is also a neat designer of CD jackets, Linda Kosut, Jizel Music. The result – five very grateful children!

I also knew that the children’s songs on that CD would appeal to the current crop of young’uns, so I added a few other songs and made “Aren't You Glad You're You ... songs for the young and the young at heart ..."

I didn't stop there. You see, my musical tastes were developed during my youth when I was 10 to 20 years old, in the mid-1930s through World War II. I listened to Bing Crosby, Nat “King” Cole and Perry Como; to Ginny Simms, Ella Fitzgerald and Helen Forrest. I loved the sophisticated lyrics and the melodies of Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern, Ira and George Gershwin, Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart - romantic songs and comic songs. So my second CD S'Wonderful was born - one song from each year starting with 1925, the year of my birth, through 1950, the year of my marriage, sung in the crooning style of that time. Some of these songs are still popular today; others are not. I think folks of my generation and my elders will remember the songs and the times.

For me, this has been a time of sheer joy. And a year of this website will complete my "lark."

I hope you enjoy your visit to this site.