Tony Carey – Songs and Stories

Tony Carey is known either as an American songwriter who penned hits such as “Room With A View” and “A Fine, Fine Day”. Or he is known as the producer behind Peter Maffay (“Tabaluga und das leuchtende Schweigen”) and Milva. Or you might know him as the keyboardist for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow in the 1970s. These are very different sides to Tony Carey. Born in Watsonville, California, in 1953, the multi-instrumentalist is a lifelong traveller in matters of creativity, who refuses to be dictated to about what music he plays. “My career would probably have followed a more straightforward path if I’d stuck to one style,” says Carey, “but I didn’t want that – I just do what I like.” Carey’s musical career began when he moved with his parents (his father is an entomologist, his mum a painter) from Turlock, California, to Westport, Connecticut, in 1969. The talented musician briefly considered a career as an orchestral musician but ultimately opted for rock ’n’ roll. Carey’s first band, Blessings, was formed on the East Coast, but the group (in which he played keyboards ) soon moved to Los Angeles with a record deal in hand. However, there they fell victim to Steely Dan producer Gerry Katz, who was notorious for his perfectionism Steely Dan producer Gerry Katz – the recordings take a year and a half, and the album is never completed. Ritchie Blackmore hears Carey playing the organ through seven walls and recruits him for his band Rainbow – the rest is hard rock history. From Los Angeles, his path led to Germany, where he has lived ever since. Carey released wonderful solo albums, including “Some Tough City” (1984) and “Blue Highway” (1985), which caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.

The song “Room With A View” (1988) was written for the ARD three-part series ‘Wilder Westen’ and became his biggest hit in this country. His meeting with Peter Maffay leads to a collaboration lasting several years, during which Carey produces several albums for the German megastar.

Over the years, he does the same for, for Jimmy Barnes, John Mayall, Chris Thompson, José Carreras, David Knopfer and the aforementioned Milva. He also produces a handful of albums with his Planet P Project, in which the multi-instrumentalist blends electro, 80s sounds and prog rock together. Because Carey’s experiences with the record industry have not all been positive, he has been producing various albums independently since the mid-1980s and supplies his global fanbase with physical recordings via his online shop. In 2019, to mark his 50th anniversary on stage, just under a dozen of these albums will be released for the first time to the general public as remasters or (in some cases) remixes. The wealth of musical material reflects the wealth of knowledge and experience that Tony Carey has gathered throughout his career as a musician.

And it paves the way for ‘Lucky Us’, in which one can sense his accumulated experience, understanding and skill in wonderful songs. ‘Lucky Us’ ties in with the American sound mentioned at the outset – this is where the roots of his work lie. And yet “Lucky Us” is once again something Carey has never done before: an album featuring piano and orchestra. “The world around us is falling apart,” he explains. “I think what we need right now is a warm blanket and some peace and quiet. I tend to warn people, in relatively calm times, about what might be coming. When it actually happens, the events speak for themselves. I don’t need to sing about them as well.” Listening to the songs on “Lucky Us”, one is grateful for this attitude. Carey sings melancholic, beautiful songs at the grand piano, imbued with a deeply felt American tone – one is reminded of Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen and the Eagles, but one hears Tony Carey, who began and conveys a timeless feeling. You wrap yourself up in these songs as if in a blanket.