I came home and finished producing four songs, co-written with Amanda, for a new animated feature Curious George: Royal Monkey. (I think this is our 18th animated feature for Universal!) The movie was released four weeks ago, and it’s marvelous!

Now we’re getting it ready for licensing. With its cast of 11 fierce women, this show has a lot of resonance in the era of Time’s Up.

Some are brand new songs - one that I wrote with Hillary Rollins, another with Adryan Russ. And a song that Amanda and I wrote decades ago at the behest of our beloved Margaret Whiting. I think I sang it once at Eighty-Eights when we wrote it, but no one’s sung it since then.

I’m doing another song that I wrote some 25 years ago that felt way too personal to present in public. But I believe that vulnerability can be a gift to an audience.

I’ve always told the singers I’ve worked with that our job as artists is to help people feel things! To lead people into deep places – as long as we can buffer that with laughter, of course. I call that “buying your ballads.”

6. What is making you nervous? I’m always nervous, Adam!! But somehow, this year more than ever, I’m feeling more excited than nervous!!

7. Which song in this show gave you the most trouble? Why do you think you had such a hard time with it? The song I wrote with Hillary's gorgeous lyric – it’s called “My Daughters.” As I was working on it, I kept recording different approaches to the piano part. Finally I got to one that I knew was exactly what I wanted.

Normally I’m very free in my accompaniments – but in this case, I wanted to capture that take note-for-note. So I transcribed it exactly. That meant I had to learn a fixed piano part – yet sing freely over it. I’ve been practicing that one a lot!!

Michele Brourman, Photo Credit: Mary Ann Halpin

8. What was the first song you knew had to be in this show? The “naked” song – the one that felt too vulnerable to share.

9. Since this show is entitled Love Notes, if you could write a love note to three people, who would you send them to? I’d need to send more than three!! I would send them to Margaret Whiting and Julie Wilson – the angel godmothers of so many singers and songwriters.

And to Michael Kerker! I’d send them to the great songwriters that I love and try to emulate.

And to my co-writers who are so brilliant and generous.

To Michael Feinstein for his recording of “My Favorite Year.” 

My beloved teachers. My husband. My sons.

My sisters - one of whom is a gorgeous songwriter and my co-writer on some of my favorite songs including “The Price of Love.”

And my parents who loved music so much, and sang every day.

10. What is something you have not told about yourself in an interview that you are ready to share with the world? Performing – singing – has always scared me. But there was something inside me that wanted to come forward. It’s taken me most of my life to feel like I can express that something.

I’ve been privileged to work with extraordinary singers – Amanda [McBroom], Ann Hampton Callaway, Dixie Carter, Heather MacRae. It’s easy for me to feel intimidated by them. I love accompanying those singers – there’s a kind of mind-meld that we experience together.

But I had this writing teacher a few years ago who would say, “Remember. What you have to say can only be said by you. What you have to say is valuable. And important.”