Maine's Morning Sentinel
by Lucky Clark
When I got a press release about a new album being released titled “December,” I knew I wanted to feature it in the month that shares the name. Ever since I started doing this, I’ve wanted to cover seasonal albums during this special time of year, and music had such an impact on me growing up, especially Christmas music. I requested and was granted a phone interview with Dove Award winning pianist and composer Paul Cardall — who is one of the most-played artists on Pandora with 2.4 billion streams on that platform so far. When he called me from his Nashville home on Nov. 30 he was more than happy to share his thoughts in a soft-spoken voice that reflects the instrumental music he creates.
Q: The first thing that I noticed upon listening to your new album was how much it reminded me of the great pianists that called Windham Hill Records home — like Liz Story, Barbara Higbie, Philip Aaberg, and of course George Winston.
Cardall: Those were remarkable days and I was signed with Narada (Records) — Windham Hills competitor — that had Peter Buffett, Tingstad and Rumbel, and David Lanz. It’s sad that all those labels got gobbled up, but a lot of the pianists are still out and around — and George is still doing stuff, but it’s not like the old days.