Out singer Ann Hampton Callaway rings in 2020 in North Texas
Out chanteuse Ann Hampton Callaway is perhaps best-known as composer and performer of one of the jazziest TV theme songs ever — “The Nanny Named Fran” from the Fran Drescher sitcom The Nanny. Of course, there’s more to Callaway than that. She’s the older sister to singer (and occasional duet partner) Liz Callaway and has released more than a dozen albums during the course of a recording career that has lasted more than 25 years. On her latest, Jazz Goes to the Movies (Shanachie), Callaway applies her impressive vocal skills to a set of 14 songs written between 1927 (Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” from The Jazz Singer) and 1962 (Rodgers and Hart’s “This Can’t Be Love” from Jumbo). As the opening cut states, the album “’S Wonderful” (composed by the Gershwins for “An American in Paris”) in the way that it offers listeners another way to enjoy these classic tunes.
We spoke with Callaway prior to her New Year’s Eve concert at Bass Hall with the Fort Worth Symphony, which celebrates Gershwin.
— Gregg Shapiro
Dallas Voice: After years of living in New York, and being a Chicago-area native, you relocated to the Southwest — how do you like living in Tucson? Ann Hampton Callaway: I love living in Tucson! I got lucky and found an incredibly beautiful home that makes me feel like I moved to heaven and God is my roommate. I’m on the road so much of the time that it doesn’t really matter where I live. I was living in New York and almost never doing anything in New York except paying its prices. My better half [Kari] is from Tucson, and it was time to switch turf and give this a try. What’s great about what our life is is that when I come home from touring and doing what I love, I have this beautiful, relaxing, stunning home with the mountains and the big skies. As a songwriter, it’s a very inspiring place to live. We have lots of great friends here. I get to New York every six weeks. I rent an apartment in the city per night. Instead of living in Westchester, where I lived before, I have immediate access to everything I want to do, all the people I want to see. It’s turning into a beautiful lifestyle of performing, spending time in New York, and of course we visit my hometown maybe once or twice a year. I am a woman of the world. Anyone who’s fortunate enough to have a career, you’re basically on the road a good percent of the time. Wherever I hang my hat is home. I have dear friends wherever I go. It’s a kind of exhausting and amazing life. I feel blessed.
On Jazz Goes to the Movies, you cover 14 songs from movies made between 1927 and 1962, from The Jazz Singer to Billy Rose’s Jumbo. What was the song selection process like? The CD started with my good friend and beloved record producer Lisa Schiff. She’s the woman who is probably responsible for creating Jazz at Lincoln Center. She’s a real mover and shaker and huge fan of mine who’s recorded many of my CDs. She said, “Ann, I think it’s time for you to record another CD. I’d love to work with you. Here are some songs I’d love to hear you record.” I listened to the songs she gave me and I noticed the ones I related to had something in common. They were all from movies. We had something really beautiful here, a theme without even knowing into it. I’m kind of an old-fashioned person and I love breathing new life and energy and taking a listen to words and music to see how it’s relevant today. We had a ball! We sifted through the various things we both brought to the table until it looked like we had a gorgeous show. Some of these were arranged already and some had to be arranged. The result of it is a CD of love songs from a time when some of the best songwriters of the great American songbook were writing. It was during a similar time in national history when Americans were going through a lot of angst. I feel like we are [also] in a challenging time. There’s so much unknown and anxiety; people are feeling alienated. The idea was to return to songs that were written during World War II or the Depression, [when] people were coming up from all of that, that bring beauty and inspiration and hope to people and are so well-made and timeless. The response I’ve been getting, traveling around and doing the shows and radio, has been very positive. I’m so happy that the CD is in the pre-Grammy nomination category.
One of the shows for which you are currently touring is The Linda Ronstadt Songbook in which you celebrate the music and career of Tucson’s most famous native recording artist. Do you focus on a specific period or do you incorporate the full Ronstadt spectrum? It’s not possible to put on a great show and do the entire spectrum. It would need to be a three-night series. I just saw the documentary about her, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice. What a powerful, extraordinary career she had. I’ve sort of unknowingly created a legacy series. I love celebrating women, the trailblazers, who inspire me, who made it possible to what we now take for granted: having a career as a woman doing many kinds of music about which I am passionate. I thought I would be spending more time focusing on my normal wheelhouse music — the Great American Songbook — [for] which she did fabulous albums with the great Nelson Riddle. But what I found was that I was really more interested in the pop stuff that she did. She did folk pop and jazz pop and country pop and rock pop. When I was growing up, part of me wanted to be a singer/songwriter in that genre, more pop. I feel like I’m having Linda Ronstadt’s career backwards [laughs]. She turned to her early childhood music later in life, and I’m tuning into my old college years when we were jamming on James Taylor and Carole King and Joni Mitchell — the wonderful singer/songwriters of that time. It’s been a thrilling thing for me to put my own stamp on these great classics and to work with one of her guitarists, Bob Mann. It’s a thrilling show and the audiences go berserk. They love Linda and they love these songs. It’s not just nostalgic. As a serious actress and interpreter of the lyrics of these songs, I think I’m having fun helping people hear them for the first time, in a way. Sometimes when a song becomes a part of your memory bank, you take it for granted. You just get into the beat and feeling of it. But people are beginning to listen to songs such as “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” and go, “Wow, that’s a more serious song than I realized.” There’s a deliciousness in returning to these songs that I’m loving. It’s up there with when I put together the Streisand songbook. The response is off the charts.
Have you heard from Linda about the show? Yes! She and I have a mutual friend, Dan Guerrero. He’s the one who put me in touch with her. She helped me find some of the charts. I’m using some of her charts when I do symphony shows. She put me in touch with various people in her life. She gave me a beautiful quote. She said she was so happy someone of my caliber was performing her music. She felt like my voice brought a lot to it. I asked her, “Of all the songs that you’ve ever sung, which is the core of who you are?” She wrote back, “Heart Like A Wheel.” We have occasional correspondence, and I’ve spoken to her on the phone. She couldn’t be a nicer person, an amazing human being – The way she’s living through this chapter of her life. To have a voice and career like that and not sing anymore when you love to sing so much and you have all that talent. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to say thank you to her for her inspiration and the way she took a lot of music that I love and made it famous and loved again. I think that’s a great gift.
Linda is known for being a longtime supporter and advocate for the LGBTQ community. Does that have any meaning to you as an out artist? Of course, it has meaning to me! I always appreciate people who have the love and generosity of spirit to think about people who are less advantaged and face certain challenges. We’ve made many great strides through the years, but now we live in a climate where some things we now take for granted, like being able to marry someone you love, could be taken away with the current administration. I applaud anyone who is open about who they are or about embracing people, remind people that we’re all human and that all have a right to love. No matter your religion, race, sexual preferences — we’re all human beings and have the same needs and wants. She’s one of the braver people who’s never made any bones about what she believes in. I love her fearlessness. I think that’s one of the reasons she’s had an extraordinary life. One of the things I admire most about her is that people would say, “That’s not going to be good for your career. You should only do this. You can’t do that; it will never make any money.” She never let anyone stop her from being political or making the records she wanted to make. She always said, “No, this is what my heart says I must do. If I don’t do this, I’m not going to be me.” Her speaking out for LGBT people and immigrants and so many of the people she cares about is just a part of who she is. She wouldn’t be her if she didn’t speak out.
On New Year’s Eve you are performing a Gershwin show in Fort Worth. Are you someone who enjoys all the New Year’s Eve brouhaha? I do! When I was a kid, with [the threat of] nuclear war and everything, I thought to myself, “Are we still going to be here at the end of my life expectancy? Will the planet still be here?” I have this tremendous sense of gratitude for whatever forces keep us somewhat at peace. I went through a breast cancer scare in 2012, and I’m very grateful that I got through that very well. Any time I can celebrate a new year of life and a new year of setting good intentions for a better world, to be a more useful artist in this world. I love having a chance to sing great songs and bring people together.