My favorite musical theater composers have all been formidable pianists: Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim, Frank Loesser, Cy Coleman. When I was supposed to be learning Bach and Mozart for my piano lessons, I was instead spending countless hours playing through West Side Story and Sunday in the Park with George, relishing the challenge of reproducing the sounds I heard on the original cast albums and movie soundtracks. Meanwhile, I was writing songs inspired by my pop heroes: Billy Joel, Elton John, Carole King, Stevie Wonder – again, a group of pianists of great technical facility and truly individual style.

Over time, I developed a very specific personality of my own as a pianist, something that doesn't sound quite like anyone else. Of course, anything that is unique is going to be difficult to reproduce, and so it is with the notated piano parts of my songs. I work very hard to ensure that the written accompaniments really represent what I might play on any given day, and so there is a lot of detail – to some pianists, a daunting level of detail indeed. For twenty years now, I've had singers tell me that they can't find pianists who can play my songs "right." It's hard enough singing my material properly under the best of circumstances, but when the accompaniment isn't correct – when the singer doesn't feel supported by the pianist – it can make some of my stuff all but impossible to learn.

Hence these two volumes, which consist of eleven songs each for male and female voices (based on the gender for which they were originally written). The intention wasn't to provide performance tracks – I firmly believe that my songs, like all the best musical theatre songs, depend on a give-and-take between singer and accompanist that can only be achieved live. Nor was the intention to document some "definitive" version of these accompaniments; I'm not sure I believe in such a thing. Simply put, these recordings are just one additional tool to help pianists and singers better understand and implement my intentions and style, to be used in conjunction with the published sheet music and the cast albums and solo recordings on which those songs have been featured.

The best versions of any of my songs are the ones where the musicians (singers included) are deeply engaged with the emotions and the passions hiding underneath and around the written rhythms and pitches and lyrics. It is my hope that the recordings collected here help singers and pianists alike to bring these songs to life in their own way. Enjoy!

I'm trying to remember how I subscribed to this blog. If I recall correctly, this used to be a blog about a composer and the music he wrote. Also, I love Billy Joel, who doesn't, but NO ONE decides they want to listen to Billy, and then listens to a cover instead. I hate to say it too, but this is affecting my enjoyment of your music (LFY in particular). Now all I can picture is Jamie writing Hardy Boys fan fiction in his 40's.

When I was 11 years old, Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a concert in Central Park which was broadcast on television. I didn't know the songs all that well, but I clearly remember being moved by the two of them singing the Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie," a song which had obviously inspired them as kids and through which they communicated a genuine if complicated affection both for each other and the music they grew up with.

Likewise when Joni Mitchell released Both Sides Now, we got to hear a singular artist bringing her own soul to the music she loved in her youth. I could also mention Todd Rundgren's Faithful album, or Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl, or, oh let's get crazy, Stravinsky's "Pulcinella" or Brahms's variations on themes of Haydn and Paganini. As a composer, my own act of creation mystifies me – why do I pick that chord? why do I want the melody to go in that direction? – and interpreting the work of other artists at best helps me to understand my own creative impulses, and at least comforts me that such mystification is part and parcel of the process.

But hey, if none of that is interesting to you, there are only five more songs left on The Stranger, so this probably won't drag out for too much longer. In the meantime, there are more than thirty other songs on my SoundCloud page available for you to listen, free of charge. And if you feel inspired to reinvent one of them for yourself, perhaps you'll find that some people are encouraged not just by your finished products but by the sounds of your explorations and inspirations.