Andrew Penketh

FOREWORD By Andrew Michael Storm

As I look back over more than 50 years of working in and around the business of Music, years of writing Lyrics and working with Composers, the truly shinning spot of those years has been my collaboration with the UK Composer Andy Chesterton. When I first became aware of the music Andy was composing I felt drawn to work with him. I ventured out and sent a set of Lyrics across to him. It was the Lyrics to HOLLOW. I was amazed by the demo I received form Andy. HOLLOW became the first song from our first Musical Play UNSEEN ANGELS. Since that time we have collaborated, or are collaborating, on much more. UNSEEN ANGELS inspired a Trilogy of works known as THE STAGE DOOR GHOSTS. The Trilogy consists of the Musical Plays UNSEEN ANGELS, TWILIGHT TIME, and HOLY GHOSTS. We could have stopped there and had a nice body of work to be proud of. But, we both have a true creative drive which overcomes all the outside forces that steal our time. And so, we started once again to work together. Springing from this new start was the first Musical Play in yet another Trilogy, THE FALL OF THE FINAL CURTAIN. And after that the flow kept coming. We are now working on the first Musical Play from a new Trilogy of Plays, EVERY MOMENT SINGS and also working on a stand-alone Musical SWIFT RIVER. If there is any bright light to show from the entire Covid19 tragedy which has befallen our world, it is that it has given Andy and I time to create and I feel we are doing some of our best work! Since the vast majority of our work is related to the Theater, in more than just being Musical Theater pieces, we feel it appropriate that the proceeds from this Songbook of selected works by us should be directed to Charity connected to the Theater and Theater people. We each selected six of our favorite musical numbers from the shows we have worked or are working to make up the twelve musical numbers found within this Songbook. Such selection is always hard since we each have far more than six favorite numbers we have written. Represented herein are numbers from four of our Musical Plays and from our stand-alone Musical. From UNSEEN ANGELS are ONLY GOD KNOWS, I SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN YOU A LOVE SONG and CONVERSATION PIECES. From TWILIGHT TIME you will find FAMOUS, THE PRICE OF FAME, I WILL and IN YOUR EYES. From HOLY GHOSTS comes THE BEAUTY OF THE THING and again FAMOUS which actually is used in both Musical Plays in different ways. From THE FALL OF THE FINAL CUTAIN we offer HOME, WHY DO WE TRY and THE HARDEST PART. And finally from SWIFT RIVER you will discover FIREFLIES AND INNOCENT LIES. Andy and I are still working toward the first full production of any of our shows. Not to say there has been no movement or success from our collaboration. Several of our songs have been recorded by others, even including a recording of a Spanish version of a number from UNSEEN ANGELS. Most recently two of the numbers from UNSEEN ANGELS have been recorded, quite stunningly, and released by International Recording Star Ferdinand Rennie, I SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN YOU A LOVE SONG, and ONLY GOD KNOWS. Ferdinand has also asked to work with two of our most recent songs from the Musical Play EVERY MOMENT SINGS and we hope he will be recording them. The demo recording Andy did of I WILL from TWILIGHT TIME was discovered by fans from South America and has now received quite extensive airplay in several countries. In 2014 two of our numbers, THE PRICE OF FAME and THE BLINKING OF AN EYE, from TWILIGHT TIME were chosen to be a part of a Juke Box Musical HOLLYWOOD FAÇADE which saw some 20 performances in Los Angeles, California. We were honored that our music was chosen to appear with music from a list of very famous Writers and Composers such as Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Frank Wildhorn, Stephen Swartz , Tim Rice and others. In fact we had the had honor of being the only non-famous composing team to be represented in this Juke Box Musical. You can find I SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN YOU A LOVE SONG, ONLY GOD KNOWS, I WILL and THE PRICE OF FAME here in this Songbook. Andy and I hope that you will enjoy the musical numbers herein and maybe even sing and play along, or record your own versions of them. Or perhaps you will discover them and wish to perform them live or in musical Theater. We also hope that proceeds from this Songbook help the work of the Charity involved, since that will help Musical Theater. And, who knows, perhaps this Songbook will finally aid in making our fondest wishes come true and we will see our works performed before audiences worldwide. And we are not resting on our modest laurels, we feel our finest work is yet to come. Don’t be shy, we would love to hear your feedback on this Songbook and the Musical Numbers found within. Best wishes to those who find their way to this Songbook. And may EVERY MOMENT SING in your lives!

Andrew Michael Storm