A little while back I called up my friend Darryl because I wanted his opinion on an idea I had for Sound Waves Magazine. I asked him if he ever watched the T.V. show Ally McBeal. He told me he loves the show. I asked him what he thought of Vonda Shepard. He told me that sometimes he puts the show on just to hear her sing. That was all I needed to hear and I couldn’t agree more. I also love the show. I love it because of all the quirky characters, the wonderful Calista Flockhart who plays Ally, all the beautiful women who are part of the cast, and the incredible music of Vonda Shepard.
During my pre-interview research I was amazed at just how much music Vonda has released over the years. There are four multi-million selling albums featuring the music of Ally McBeal that are now available. They include “Songs From Ally McBeal,” “Heart And Soul – New Songs From Ally McBeal,” “A Very Ally Christmas,” and “Ally McBeal For Once In My Life.” Although it is Vonda who is most prominently featured on these recordings, they also showcase all of the many musical guests who have appeared on the show through the years. They include such legendary singers as Al Green, Barry White, Tina Turner, Elton John, Sting, Gladys Knight and many others. These recordings are produced by Vonda along with Ally creator David E. Kelley.
Vonda has also released four solo CD’s as well. Her first recording simply called “Vonda Shepard” was released way back in 1989. Since then she’s released “The Radical Light” in 1992, “It’s Good Eve” in 1996, and “By 7:30” in 1999. All of the discs are loaded with original material.
On April 19th, Vonda will be coming to our area to play at the new B.B. King nightclub inside the Foxwoods Casino. This phone interview took place on the evening of Thursday March 14th.
Vonda was at her home in Los Angeles.
BH – Have you ever been to Foxwoods before?
VS – “I heard it was some kind of casino but I’ve never been there and I really don’t know anything about it.”
BH – Are you familiar at all with Connecticut and this part of New England?
VS – “A little, I have friends who have houses there. I’ve been through there a few times and it’s beautiful. I always thought that I would end up on the east coast somewhere around there but I don’t really know that much about the area except that it’s really beautiful.”
BH – Can you tell me about the band that you’ll be bringing with you to Foxwoods?
VS – “It’s funny you should ask because I’m right in a transition. I had a bass player and a drummer going off to work with Elvis Costello. So I have two new people that are the most incredible musicians, Jerry Marotta and Tony Levin. Do you know who they are?”
BH – I’m not sure, what is their backgrounds?
VS – “They were with Peter Gabriel for ten years. They were on those ‘Red Rain’ and ‘So’ albums. So they will probably be with me. It’s going to be kind of interesting because I’m going to be right in the middle of changing but it should be pretty cool. Anyway one of these two groups will be with me. And normally I have bass, drums, guitar, and a woman who sings and plays percussion and another keyboard player. And then I play piano and guitar. I like to break it up too. I do a few songs alone at the piano and then the full band and then we rock out a lot and do the r & b stuff from Ally. But I do a lot of originals too.”
BH – I’ll get back to the music in a second, but I wanted to congratulate you on the 100th episode of Ally McBeal.
VS - “Thank you, it was really exciting. We had this big press day where we all were supposed to come to the set. And I saw Calista and we were about to walk in to the room and I said ‘isn’t this amazing,’ And it hadn’t really hit her you know because she was working all day. And she said ‘yeah I guess it is actually.’ And I said ‘you know you should be really proud of yourself.’ It’s so weird, so much has happened in those five years. It’s been amazing for all of us.”
BH – Do you choose the songs that are song on the show?
VS – “Actually David Kelley chooses 98% of the material and he just loves music. Lyrics are so important to him that he incorporates it as part of the dialog right in the script. He chooses most of the songs based on lyrical content and then I produce the music. I get a tape of the songs and learn them and basically try to capture the tone of the scene that he wants. And occasionally I’ll suggest a song and he’s very open to my suggestions, which is nice. He’s a great guy to work for.”
BH – How are the songs picked for the Ally McBeal CD’s?
VS – “What we do for the CD’s, for all of them, is I make a list of my favorites and David makes his list. Usually most of the songs are the same so we have this kind of understanding. We want to capture what was an integral song in the show. So it’s pretty easy to make the album list. And I like to picture what I want to do live, that influences my decision for the album. And he wants the sentiment conveyed on the albums that really capture the show. The funny thing about us is that we don’t talk incessantly about anything. When I look at the script I can usually tell what he wants and it’s very rare that I’ll miss the mark with the music and what he’s looking for.”
BH – There’s a song on “Ally McBeal For Once In My Life” called “You And Me” that is also on your “By 7:30” disc. Can I assume that this song has special significance to you?
VS – “Yes you can assume that. I really like that song. I think it’s one of my better songs and ‘By 7:30’ got some exposure but the Ally albums do much better in general. David like the song, it was on the show and so I asked him if we could put it on there and he was open to that. Part of my dream, and some of it has happened, is that through the Ally albums and being on the show, I expose people to my own material. It’s really important to me and people seem to be open to it as well as the cover songs.”
BH – Most people who are fans of the show probably aren’t aware that you’re a singer/songwriter with four solo recordings.
VS – “Yeah, that’s true. And even when they hear it on television they don’t know that I maybe wrote whatever song like ‘Maryland’ or ‘The Wildest Times Of The World’ which David has used about ten times now. He kinda gravitates to certain songs that speak of recurring themes like ‘A Hundred Tears Away’ is another one. So when I play live I’ll say ‘this is from an album I did in 1989’ and people, really they don’t even know after five years that I have other albums out.”
BH – Are you working on something new now?
VS – “I actually am. I’m starting to record a new solo album on Monday (March 18th) and so all the musicians are flying in and we’re just doing pre-production for the next four days. It’s actually coming along really well so I think we should be done with the album by the time I leave to go on tour which is May 10th. The album should be out sometime in the summer.”
BH – Is it all original material?
VS – “Yes it is. I co-wrote one with Mitchell Froom who’s my co-producer. Do you know who he is?”
BH – I know he helped produce your last two records.
VS – “He’s incredible. He produced the first three Crowded House albums. He just produced this new band called Phantom Planet and he did the new Bonnie Raitt album that’s coming out in a couple of weeks. He’s worked with Paul McCartney, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and so we wrote one song together. He’s really a brilliant producer.”
BH – Getting back to the show, with all of the duets you’ve done what is the one that stands out the most?
VS – “Working with Al Green stands out because when I was about 16 I used to listen to the ‘Bell’ album practically everyday, so it was surreal to meet him and an honor to work with him. Luckily I had done a lot of work on the show so I wasn’t really nervous but I was excited to work with him. He has this laugh that he does on the end of one of the songs on the ‘Bell’ album, this unique Al Green laugh. So we’re out there in the studio singing on two separate mikes but at the same time. And we’re almost done and he’s going for all these cool licks and we’re going back and forth and all of the sudden there’s that laugh that I first heard when I was 16 and I’m thinking ‘holy shit, I’m working with Al Green’!” (laughs)
BH – I saw Mariah Carey on the show recently. Was there any talk of doing a duet with her?
VS – “Not really. She was like a one day experience. She came on the set for basically one day and shot her scene. I met her but I didn’t produce the song that she did. She came in with a finished track. Some artists want to use their ownproducers and have their own finished tracks and of course that’s cool. If we wanted to have more of the Ally sound then I get to produce it, like Sting when we did that. But I met her briefly and watched her lip synch and that was about it. But it would have been fun to do a duet with her.”
BH – Are there any plans to do a duet with Bon Jovi?
VS – “There’s a good chance of that. We actually did a song kind of together. If you notice when you watch the show, a lot of times they’ll start with one singer and then they’ll blend into my voice and I’ll take over. We did one of those and I don’t think they actually used it but I’m sure that David will have another song that we can do because Jon is a really cool guy and it’s fun to sing with all these rock stars.” (laughs)
BH – He seems like a really cool guy.
VS – “Yeah he’s really nice and it’s kind of funny working with him because as you know a lot of times I work with actors in the studio and they don’t know a lot about the recording process. I’m used to walking them through it. And then all of the sudden people like Bon Jovi and Sting walk in and I’m dealing with the big leagues. It’s really exciting.”
BH – Vonda, I saw you on TV a while back singing “This Old Heart Of Mine” with Rod Stewart. What was that?
VS – “That was the TV Guide Awards. I don’t know if that was the first time it ever aired but I hadn’t ever heard of it. (laughs) That was a strange night. He didn’t look at me once while we were singing together which was so bizarre. I mean it wasn’t like we were supposed to be staring into each others eyes the whole time but I felt like yelling over ‘hello dude I’m here’!”
BH – Will Robert Downey Jr. be coming back?
VS – “I know that they’re hoping that he’ll come back for a couple of appearances but I don’t know. There’s no way of knowing. I think that everybody wants him to come back, it’s just up to him now. David wants him to come back.”
BH – Wouldn’t it be great to get Ally in a love triangle with Bon Jovi and Downey Jr.?
VS – “That will be perfect to end this season.”
After a brief respite Ally McBeal will be back on the air for a two hour special on April 15th. Won’t it be fun to watch that show and then see Vonda Shepard live in concert just four days later. For me, that’s an even more perfect way to end the season.