Lisa Dillan - Love Me Tender - The Quite Quiet Way

In this project Lisa Dillan has selected her favourite songs from the repertoire of Elvis Presley. These are strong, beautiful and expressive melodies and lyrics. Most of them are, nevertheless, unknown for most people. Elvis had a particular talent for finding good song material, and there are many hidden gems in his large production. Lisa Dillan has been a fan of Elvis since 1977, the year Elvis passed away, and she has detailed knowledge of his career and, not least, his repertoire.

In 2003 she began carefully sifting through his repertoire, and the songs on this album revolve, to a large degree, around the ballads he did in the '70s. She has concentrated on finding songs that fit into the framework she wanted, simplifiying and distilling the power in these songs -- hence "Quite Quiet".

In 2007 Lisa met Asbjørn Lerheim on a deserted island in the far north of Norway. The silence, the timing and the dedication to details were meeting points for these two musicians, and quite soon Asbjørn became the second member of the Quite Quiet Project.

Both Lisa Dillan and Asbjørn Lerheim have long careers as improvising musicians. Even if the result may not appear to be experimental or even jazz-focused, the interpretations feature Lisa Dillan's experimental approaches and the placement of the voice in an instrumental context, and also Lerheim's excellent timing and placement in relation to the vocal framework, where space and transparency in the encounter with each detail are important. 

Seven of Elvis Presely's most trusted live and studio musicians perform/contribute on this record, together with two more from the ranks of American pop history's elite. These are world class musicians who have accompanied many of the greats of pop music: From Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan, to Joe Cocker, Lionel Richie, Emmylou Harris, and Joan Baez. With the sound and interpretations of Lisa and Asbjørn we get an exciting mix between different musical signatures.

Glen D. Hardin, Elvis' regular pianist and arranger from the TCB Band, which was Elvis' live band in the 1970s, has written the orchestra arrangements, recorded with musicians from our renowned Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

The result on this record has in many ways become what the title says: "Love me tender -- the quite quiet way". We hope that you, as listener, find points of contact into your own "Quite Quiet" world, and enjoy the album.

Quite Quiet Project: Lisa Dillan - vocals, Asbjørn Lerheim - electric guitar, together with some of Elvis Presleys most dedicated musicians: James Burton - electric guitar, Glen D. Hardin - grand piano, Charlie McCoy - harmonica, Steve Gibson - electric guitar, Norbert Putnam - bass and Paul Leim - drums