"A horse is a horse of course, of course. And no one can talk to a horse of course - that is of course unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed. Go right to the source and ask the horse - he'll give you the answer that you endorse. He's always on a standing course - talk to Mister Ed!"

Those were the words to the theme song of a popular 1960’s television show, Mr. Ed that was delighting fans about the same time as Gisele MacKenzie was leaving listeners in awe with her stunning vocal performances. It is only fitting then that almost a half century later MacKenzie’s daughter Gigi is delivering emotionally evocative lyrics, vocals and instrumentals and her Tennessee Walking Horse, On Easy Street played a key role in the creation of her debut solo album Skylark.

Gisele MacKenzie passed away after a yearlong battle with cancer in 2003, without having the opportunity to sing a recorded duet with her daughter Gigi, Through engineer Carlo Rizzo’s technical wizardry however the two were united for the song “Stranger In Paradise” a song that charted for Gisele MacKenzie following her 1955 blockbuster hit “Hard To Get”.

After her mother passed away, Gigi signed a record deal with Morpheus Music and pitched the idea of recording the mother-daughter duet. With the help of friends, she began a search for the masters of Gisele’s songs in such places as the archives of Capitol Records and BMG but she came up empty handed.

“I was so depressed but my friend Carlos (Rizzo) said, ‘I can do it if you just tell me you want me to do it.’ You could have knocked me over with a feather. He told me to get a track and bring it to his house. I found “Stranger In Paradise”. She (her mother) used to sing that to me a lot when I was a child. About a month later, Carlos called to say, ‘How would you like to come over and sing with your mother tonight.’ He got the equipment hooked up and when I heard her sing I was supposed to join in but I just sobbed. I was so happy but ruined inside. It took me eight tries before I could do it,” recalls MacKenzie.

MacKenzie was her own producer on Skylark and collaborated with Bobby Zee and Llew Matthews to write the arrangements.  “Being a producer was very frightening to me because I thought I was going to fall on my face as I had never done this before.  I suddenly realized that having someone over you (as producer) telling you what to do is so much easier because you can rag on them and say I hate my producer, blah, blah, blah. When all that was pushed away, I suddenly realized how hard it is to stand up on your own two feet and realize everyone relies on you. All of a sudden I was responsible,” comments MacKenzie concerning her debut as a producer.

Wearing the producer’s hat also gave MacKenzie the freedom to explore creative ideas that had been incubating while listening to songs in the past. “That was the best thing for me because I didn’t want to do them like Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney. I wanted to bring my own vision of a young person steeped in R&B. I wanted these songs to come alive for my generation,” she says.

This is where the beautiful horse (On Easy Street) that adorns the cover of her album enters in. When she needed to retreat from the recording sessions MacKenzie would go looking for her horse. “While I was saddling up I would say to my trainer, ‘I have no idea how I am going to do this song, “Shadow of Your Smile” or “Blue Moon”. She would tell me to get on my horse. When I came back I would say, ‘I know, I have it.’ That is how the whole record went,” says MacKenzie.

She speaks affectionately about her horse, “She has been incredible as far as letting me go as an artist. I am on this magnificent animal, go to the hills, walk around and sing to her. That is how this album came about and (why I wanted) to put her on the cover.”

Interview by Joe Montague for Riveting Riffs (www.rivetingriffs.com) ©

November 2006

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