Nashville-based Janis Carnes sings classic

LOS ANGELES (Peer Music) - The music of Hoagy Carmichael, one of the best-known and beloved composers of the American popular song, recently emerged from the peermusic archives, for an exciting project titled Hoagy and Me. The CD features the smooth, dulcet vocals of peermusic singer-songwriter Janis Carnes singing numerous Hoagy classics in their original, retro style; all backed by her husband's world-class new group, The Rick Carnes Combo.

Among the songs included in this disc are "Vagabond Dreams", "Georgia On My Mind", "I Walk With Music", "Skylark", plus many others. The CD also features a number of original compositions by Janis and Rick Carnes, with contributions by writers Chris Faulk, John Jarvis, and John Peppard, that blend seamlessly with the style and charm of the Carmichael tunes.
"I always felt I was born to sing this music but we always lamented that I was too late to record this," said Janis. "When I went into this, I had to admit that I was a bit intimidated. It's easier to do [sing] my own songs - it helped me grow as a writer," she added.

Hoagy and Me was created primarily for use by the Television and Film community, and will be serviced by peermusic to Film and Television Music Supervisors and Executives. Although Hoagy and Me is not yet a commercial release, interest from record labels has already surfaced. "The original intent was to have masters of the 'Hoagy' material we would own, thus making sync licensing much easier. So, the original intent was to distribute this to Music Supervisors. However, as we worked on the project it took on a life of it's own," said Kevin Lamb, peermusic VP, Nashville.

Another extraordinary element about the project was the recording of the track "Someday Soon", which was a previously unrecorded song, written by Hoagy. "This was apparently one of Hoagy's all-time favorite songs," explained Brady L. Benton, peermusic's Senior Director of Film, Television and New Media. "He would sing it at the end of his television show in the 1950's. A demo was made with a session singer, but no artist ever released a commercial recording, which is a shame as it is a truly beautiful song, and Janis's versions is simply haunting."

Janis and Rick Carnes have been signed to peermusic since the early 1990's. Collectively, they have written hit tunes for artists such as: Reba McEntire, Eddy Raven, Alabama, The Whites, Lacy J. Dalton, The Kendalls, Karen Brooks, J.C. Jones, Steve Wariner, among many others.