Sometimes entire projects unfold without much mention. A few years ago, the astonishing singer and actress Gia Mora made an entire CD of my songs. It was called, unsurprisingly, Gia Mora Sings Charlie Barnett. Here’s one of my favorites from the album: “One Thing I Have Learned About The Weather.” It’s a stellar performance.
We landed at Cue Recording studios and began laying down rhythm tracks this week. 
Ken Schubert (not pictured, sorry Ken) is again our recording engineer—we love him!
Tommy Barrick on drums and selfies. Pete Ostle on bass, Marilyn Older on singing scratch tracks and selfies Charlie on guitar and piano. It feels great to be back in the studio again. We’ll get the horns in here soon. And just so you know, the choir—yes, I said “choir”—comes in April.
It has been ages since I stepped onstage alone—literally decades—but when a colleague invited me to put together a singer-songwriter act for a venue he books, for some reason I said yes. I’m not sure I was fully aware until I started putting together the show what a gift it has been to work with so many talented players and singers over the years. These musicians consistently take the burden of performance away from me, or at least share the load. That lone spotlight can be awfully hot, I am coming to recall. So I have been shedding like crazy. Come January 16, I’ll be playing and singing 16 songs on piano, guitar and five-string banjo at the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland. I’m a little nervous, but I’m trying to experience that nervousness as excitement, and as an opportunity to revisit a lot of songs that I wrote and tucked away for some future date. That date is nigh. If you’re in the area, you can find tickets at blackrockcenter.org.
I love Christmas music, so I was thrilled to be asked to arrange some carols and seasonal music for the chamber orchestra of the Washington National Cathedral. The medley became part of this year’s holiday light show. One joy of this job was getting to write solos for the amazing singer Crossley Hawn. It was a dream working with her—it felt like working with Julie Andrews. Crossley has a bright, pure soprano voice and can swing whenever she needs to. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to find a way to work with her again.
The musical I’ve been working on, 19, just closed its world-premiere run in Washington, DC, and I was pleased to see this thoughtful positive review by John Stoltenberg of DC Metro Theater Arts: "In 19: The Musical, Women Sing and Dance Their Way To Suffrage."
Along with my creative partners, Jennifer Schwed and Doug Bradshaw, I’ll be refining and retooling the show before its next run. This show is being produced as a nonprofit endeavor, and tax-deductible contributions can be made here: https://www.19themusical.com/donate