Bruce Sudano

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. — John Lennon

Since his acclaimed last album, Rainy Day Soul, was released more than four years ago, Bruce Sudano has experienced the highs and lows of life. Two of his three daughters have married, but he also lost his father and a couple of his closest friends.

It’s an ongoing challenge to keep a positive focus and do fulfilling work, says the writer of hits for such diverse artists as Donna Summer, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Tommy James. But I’ve learned along the way that it’s the little things that are the treasures in our life and we so often lose track of that. We get lost in the reality of our responsibilities.

While Rainy Day Soul was an album of relationship-driven songs, Sudano’s new album, Life and the Romantic, is more about navigating the responsibilities of life and love. Everywhere you look these days you find fear. Everything around you perpetrates that foreboding, he says. You can get into a head space that steals the joy out of your life. But at the end of the day, it’s being with the ones you love and doing what you love to do. It’s a glass of red and the sunset.

Known for co-penning hits like Bad Girls (Donna Summer), Starting Over Again (Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire), and Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming (duet with Jermaine and Michael Jackson) and as part of the bands Alive N Kickin’ (which had the hit Tighter, Tighter in 1970) and Brooklyn Dreams, Sudano is more interested in looking to the future instead of the past.

I write best from a place of personal experience, Sudano says. That’s where I come from. I have written for other artists, for producers and publishers, but I feel more satisfaction writing from an emotional and spiritual point of view. I find more purpose there.

The first single from Life and the Romantic, (recently topped the charts on Adult Contemporary radio) speaks directly to that outlook:

The days roll on like rivers Running to the sea of time Driven by the things that we desire We’ve got to stop, take a breath If only for remembering Before we turn around and life has passed us by

Influenced by a wide array of styles from folk to blues, pop to jazz, Sudano recorded most of Life and the Romantic in Nashville, where he has lived for the last decade with his wife of 30 years, Donna Summer.

He visits his jazz influences on Beyond Forever beckoning his lover

Let’s fly away Somewhere beyond forever To our secret place A paradise where we can hide away.

And on Rainy Day Soul, he writes

Wings of a butterfly Colors of a rainbow You Know who you are It’s written on your heart You know who you are

A centerpiece to Life and the Romantic, is the lovely It’s Her Wedding Day, written from Sudano’s perspective as the father of the bride.

I talked to her on the phone last night You could hear excitement in her voice Not an ounce of trepidation She’s clearly made her choice And I know no man’s perfect And I know that it’s time Still letting go’s not easy When you’ve held her all her life

Life and the Romantic closes with a tender and touching tribute for his daughter, The Amazing Amanda Grace.

At first she was quiet in the shadows But quickly found her way into the light And from the time she started talking Let you know she knew her own mind

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Sudano first emerged on the musical scene with the popular group, Alive N Kickin’, whose first single, Tighter, Tighter went to number seven on the pop charts. Shortly after, he moved to Los Angeles and enjoyed a successful career as part of Brooklyn Dreams, with singles Music, Harmony & Rhythm and Heaven Knows, a call-and-response collaboration with Donna Summer.

After touring extensively with Summer for her Summer Nights Dream Tour, the trio delved into film by portraying the Planotones in American Hot Wax, and hosted NBC-TV’s The Midnight Special.

His 2004 release Rainy Day Soul sent three singles soaring high on the Adult Contemporary charts, and he was awarded Best Adult Contemporary Artist by New Music Weekly magazine amidst stiff competition from John Mayer, Seal and Josh Groban.

I think the older you get,the more important it becomes to focus on the things you’ve been given and not what you’ve missed. It’s living with a sense of gratitude and appreciation, Sudano says. I thank God for every day He’s given me. I refuse to stress out over meaningless things.