Linn Talks About the Show's Genesis...

"While on tour in Europe with The Jews Brothers Band, summer 2009, I was invited to perform a solo show in an appartment on Berlin's famous Kurfurstendamm. I had previously had the idea of an auto-biographical musical about my time as a piano-bar performer in '80s New York. So there I was on the Ku'damm with a happy bunch of English-speaking Berliners, playing a fabulous Bechstein grand and telling the stories. That was the seed. As my award-winning New York director Colleen Black put it very recently, "Now it's like a fully-fledged off-Broadway show!""

And the Music...

"Many of the songs were written white-hot at the time, inspired by actual events. Others I've composed especially. I originally had a few 'standards' mixed in with the originals. But for NY theatre copyright reasons I replaced them with new originals that served the same purpose. For example the old Nat Cole favourite "End of a Beautiful Friendship" became my "Love Slipped In" which has the feel of an old standard by Porter, Rogers & Hart, et al. I still have fragments of standards to lend authenticity to the piano-bar scenes.

"As far as performing the show goes, I've lately added upright bass to give me more musical groove and more stage freedom. In New Zealand I played with Aaron Coddel on bass and in New York with Nori Naraoka. My partner Hershal Herscher also had cameos on both piano and accordion in my Don't Tell Mama NYC 2013 shows. More musical additions to come!"