Listen: THE BILLY JOEL PROJECT Releases 'New York State of Mind'

YELLOW SOUND LABEL has released the new single from The Billy Joel Project, the debut album from The Broadway Ensemble – an 11-member cast with a combined 48 Broadway credits. “New York State of Mind,” performed by Nicholas Edwards (Broadway’s & Juliet and Frozen) and John Treacy Egan (Broadway’s The Producers and The Little Mermaid), is available starting today, Friday, June 27. Listen here! 

The full album will be released on streaming and digital formats Friday, July 11, with a CD edition to follow later this summer. The album is produced by Phil Geoffrey Bond, the force behind the Grammy Award-nominated album series Sondheim Unplugged. Listen to “New York State of Mind” on Spotify or Apple Music.
 
Phil Geoffrey Bond, producer and founder of The Broadway Ensemble, comments: “When we went into the studio to record this, I sat in the control room just overwhelmed that here I was in NYC living my own dream — sharing music I love, sung by people I love — that’s magic that only New York City can provide; we’re all so lucky we get to do this. There are so many magnificent songs written about New York City. But Billy really captures the essence of the city and the anticipation it evokes with this incredible and timeless song — you can smell the city in the lyrics, hear the horns, the bustle, the pretzels mixed with newsprint. And Nicholas Edwards and John Treacy Egan, two of Broadway’s best and most versatile actors, truly make this a memorable recording of which I am profoundly proud. Add our incredible musicians and Zac Zinger’s gorgeous sax solo, and I’m a happy boy, indeed. And incidentally, I often take the Hudson River Line into the city, so I know what it’s like seeing that skyline in the distance grow closer and closer until you’re suddenly in the middle of it all.”
 
The Billy Joel Project is a new collection of songs, at turns intimate and explosive, that gets to the heart of one of the major singer/songwriters of our time. These new interpretations honor the original versions, but invite the audience to hear them in new ways. The album not only highlights beloved Joel classics like “She’s Always a Woman,” “Only the Good Die Young,” and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” but also a selection of deeper cuts, such as “Where’s the Orchestra?” and Joel’s latest single from last year, “Turn the Lights Back On.”
 
The album highlights the vocal talents of Farah Alvin (Drama Desk nominee, The Marvelous Wonderettes), Nicholas Edwards (& Juliet, Frozen), John Treacy Egan (The Producers, The Little Mermaid), Annie Golden (“Orange Is the New Black,” Assassins), Lina Koutrakos (10-time MAC Award winner), Aaron Ramey (The Visit, The Bridges of Madison County), Nicholas Rodriguez (Company, The Sound of Music), Courter Simmons (Jersey Boys), Rachel Ulanet (Beauty and the Beast, Lovemusik), Donna Vivino (Wicked, Hell’s Kitchen), and Michael Winther (Flying Over Sunset, Songs from an Unmade Bed). Music direction is by Jeremy Robin Lyons (Anastasia).