Gretchen Lieberum Previews New Jazz Standards LP With ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’
Singer-songwriter Gretchen Lieberum, who co-founded the Prince cover band Princess with Maya Rudolph, has released a rendition of “Come Rain or Come Shine” from her upcoming collection of standards, This May Only Be a Dream, out May 7th.
Lieberum’s take on “Come Rain Or Come Shine” — penned in 1946 by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer — opens with an experimental flourish, as if an old recording of the song had been shot through a wormhole. While the song settles into a slightly more traditional swoon about halfway through, Lieberum deftly balances reverence and nostalgia for the classics with some contemporary edge as she croons the song.
Lieberum’s “Come Rain or Come Shine” also arrives with a music video, directed by Raven Violet. The clip complements the feel of the song with a collage of archival footage projected onto the label of a spinning vinyl record.
“’Come Rain Or Come Shine’ is a song about lasting love persevering through good times and bad, which is a message that certainly speaks to me, and I imagine many of us, these days,” Lieberum said in a statement. “There are many versions of the song that I absolutely love — performed by Ray Charles and Billie Holiday for example. But the version that inspired our iteration of it is performed by Chet Baker. He does a really haunting version accompanied by acoustic guitar. I think you can hear our homage to his performance within ours.”
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Lieberum made This May Only Be a Dream with composer and musician Keefus Ciancia. The pair chipped away at the project over several years while balancing other commitments (Princess for Lieberum, composing work on Killing Eve and True Detective for Ciancia). Eventually, they united at Electro Vox studio in Los Angeles, where they completed the album with seasoned session musicians including Jay Bellerose, David Ralicke, Gabe Noel, Woody Jackson, Peter Smith, Gabe Witcher, and Wendy Melvoin of Prince’s band, The Revolution.
Rudolph, Lieberum’s Princess co-founder, also shared some early praise for her bandmate’s upcoming solo effort, saying, “There is a warmth and a twisted beauty to this album that keeps me coming back for more. Sometimes visual, you can hear it explode with color and at times vibrate around Gretchen’s gorgeous haunting vocals. This May Only Be a Dream is both mighty and humble all at the same time… just beautiful.”
