Chip Deffaa Releases THE CHIP DEFFAA SONGBOOK

"The Chip Deffaa Songbook"-a double-album featuring nearly 40 theater songs by ASCAP Award-winning playwright/songwriter Chip Deffaa--is out now. The two-CD set gathers songs that Deffaa wrote or co-wrote for such shows of his as "George M. Cohan Tonight!," "The Seven Little Foys," "Mad About the Boy," "Presenting Fanny Brice," "The Family that Sings Together," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Song-and-Dance Kids," and "Theater Boys." The set, with a suggested list price of $17.00, is available from Amazon, CDBaby, iTunes, Footlight Records, etc. It may be ordered here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thechipdeffaasongbook.

The performers include such Broadway and Off-Broadway pros as Giuseppe Bausilio ("Cats," "Aladdin," "Newsies"), Jon Peterson ("Cabaret," "George M. Cohan Tonight!"), Matthew Nardozzi ("Dracula," "Inherit the Wind"), Seth Sikes ("Yankee Doodle Boy," "The Nance," "Fame"), Michael Townsend Wright ("Irving Berlin's America," "The Seven Little Foys"), Beth Bartley ("Fortune's Fool," "Orpheus Descending"), Emily Bordonaro ("The Irving Berlin Ragtime Revue"), Keith Anderson ("Fairy Tales"), along with promising younger artists discovered by Deffaa, such as Alec Deland, Gabriella Green, Bailey Cummings,. Rayna Hirt, and Clark Kinkade.

The album is dedicated to Seth Sikes. Deffaa says: "I hold Seth in the highest esteem, both personally and professionally. I've loved that radiant voice of his ever since he first arrived in New York. His nightclub appearances always sell out--and for good reason. There isn't a better make vocalist on the club scene today. And everybody likes him."

The album includes both new, freshly-recorded performances and reissued performances from original-cast albums of Deffaa's shows. "I often think I'm the luckiest guy on Earth," Deffaa reflects. "I've gotten to write shows for, and work with, performers I really love. It's really a joy to have so many members of my 'musical family' on one album.

"There's no more assured song-and-dance man working today than Jon Peterson, and of course this compilation includes some songs of mine that Jon introduced Off-Broadway in 'George M. Cohan Tonight!' and has performed since then everywhere from Hollywood, to London, to Seoul-- touring with the show over the past decade. But I'm just as excited about the talent of young Giuseppe Bausilio, who at 19 already has four Broadway shows and one TV show under his belt. I don't know of a teenage gal with better pipes than Emily Bordonaro has. Matthew Nardozzi, who has Broadway and Hollywood credits, and has won the national Young Artist Award, has that likable, all-American boy-next-door quality that makes him perfect for some roles and songs. Beth Bartley, whose singing has knocked me out since she was a Juilliard student--long before she reached Broadway is here. And wonderful Clark Kinkade is here. . And Michael Townsend Wright. And Amanda Andrews. And Peter Charney. It feels like a family reunion."

Championing new talent, no less than working with established greats, has long been an important part of Deffaa's mission. He notes: "I'm delighted that the album with help introduce some rising newcomers I have great belief in. Bailey Cummings, whom I first spotted on stage up in Waterbury, Connecticut, when he was a kid--long before he got his Equity card--shines on 'Magnetic Waterbury'--a song that was inspired by some long-ago offhand remarks by Jack Saleeby and friends, up in Waterbury. And I was so won over by Alec Deland and Gabriela Green when I saw them performing at Stagedoor Manor, up in the Catskills, that I crafted special material just for them, to help introduce them on disc: 'A Stage-Door Kind of Love.' And I couldn't be happier with their work." The album includes fresh performances by Joris de Graaf, John Brady, Cody Jordan, and Katherine Paulsen, who've appeared in such shows of Deffaa's as "Theater Boys" and "Mad About the Boy." And the album includes a reissue of "Please Wait for Me, Miss Leacock," as first recorded by Maxwell Beer ('one of the best younger actors I know," Deffaa notes.)

"It's great fun," says Deffaa. "There are no places I'd rather be than in a recording studio or a rehearsal hall. And many of my favorite performers are part of this album. This will be Deffaa's 17th album. His 18th album, "Irving Berlin Revisited," will follow in just two weeks. And the 19th album, "Irving Berlin's America, with Matthew Nardozzi and Michael Townsend Wright, will follow just a week after that.

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