Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life

by Robin Meloy Goldsby

Overview

A pianist in lounges and lobbies around the world, Robin Meloy Goldsby tells her warm-hearted stories by linking people she has met with places she has played. Along the way, she connects the humanity of her audiences—princes and paupers, dreamers and doers, moguls, mobsters, wanna-bes, and has-beens—with the quiet soundtrack of her peripatetic, melodic life. Goldsby's autobiographical stories and essays deliver insights into the art and craft of piano playing, the merits of live music, and how the right song at the right moment can add color and depth to a drab, one dimensional world. Music, it turns out, connects us in unpredictable ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493056194
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/18/2021
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	1,060,217
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Robin Meloy Goldsby is the author of Piano Girl, Waltz of the Asparagus People, Rhythm, and Manhattan Road Trip. She has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered and Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland. Goldsby is a Steinway Artist and cultural ambassador with artistic ties to both Europe and the USA. Her newest solo piano album, Home and Away, launched at Buckingham Palace in November 2017 at a gala hosted by HRH, the Prince of Wales. She currently performs about two hundred live piano gigs a year at Excelsior Hotel Ernst in Cologne, Germany, and tours internationally with her popular concert/reading program.

Table of Contents

Foreword Mike Edison ix

Introduction: The Piano Zone xiii

1 Blonde Ambition 1

2 The Notes That Got Away 7

3 The Bear 13

4 Music for Naked People 23

5 Don't Eat Pie 37

6 The Girl Who Curtsied Twice 45

7 The Accidental Insult 57

8 The Hostess Is on Fire 61

9 Sing 67

10 Astoria 77

11 Magic to Do 85

12 Still Life with Grape and Hot Dog 95

13 Curves 103

14 Badass Randy and the Beauty Queens 105

15 Varmint on the Roof 111

16 The Mister Rogers' Songbook 121

17 The Magnolia Sessions 133

18 Enough 141

19 Wake Up, Santa! 151

20 Beach Song 163

21 I Am Not Tom Wolfe 171

22 Song for My Daughter 177

23 The Krankenhaus Blues 181

24 Picture Perfect 193

25 Love Note to a German Castle 197

26 Last Train to Clarksville 207

27 Baubles, Bangles, and Queens 215

28 Playing Nice 221

29 Runway: Tempest Storm, High Heels, and the Adventures of an Aging Model 225

30 Pretty, Pretty: Piano Girl versus Trump 235

31 Hold the Zucchini 239

32 The Summer of Love 243

33 Holding On, Letting Go 251

34 Remember Me: A Gentleman, a Steinway, and a Couple of Stubborn Ghosts 259

35 My Celebrity Endorsements 263

36 I'll Take Manhattan 273

Acknowledgments 283

Index of Song Titles 287

Index of Key Terms 289

About the Author and Illustrator 293

Editorial Reviews

In “Casablanca,” Humphrey Bogart tells the pianist in his bar—-Sam, a man—-to “play it again.” In a remake, Sam would be Samantha, and she’d be played by Robin Goldsby, the undisputed queen of the lounge and lobby, and, by day, an accomplished writer. Piano Girl Playbook distills what she’s learned about music and people and life. It’s the exact opposite of easy listening.

- Jesse Kornbluth

“Piano Girl is one of the funniest and most poignantly revealing accounts of a musician's life I have ever read. .. full of wry observation and self-effacing charm. I can’t wait for my copy of Piano Girl Playbook!”

Don Airey, Steinway Artist and Keyboardist, Deep Purple

From the Publisher