Performing At The Utah State Fair

Utah State Fair

On Sunday September 9th we performed at the Utah State Fair, with Sheena Easton in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a pretty hot day with temperatures in the 90s.

We did our soundcheck about 3:00 pm and the sun was blazing, but there was a wind that would come up and cool us down for a quick minute.

The staff at the Utah State Fair was very nice and they took care of us quite well. For instance, while we were doing our soundcheck the wind kept blowing the smell of BBQ our way, which made us that much more hungry, so guess what the staff had for us for dinner before the show? B-B-Q pulled pork and it was scrumpdileicious, if there's such a word. It was tender and the sauce was so good it made you want to smack somebody.

Sheena Easton

We were scheduled for a 7:30 performance but came on just about 7:40. There were about 1800 people or so in the audience with more coming in as the show began. As usual we always have a great time on stage. We had a pretty lively audience for the most part. There were people up front that were mouthing all of Sheena's words and enjoying themselves and dancing to the show

After the show Sheena did a meet and greet and there were some that wanted to meet the band as well. We took pictures and met some new people. They all said that the performance was great and asked us to come back. So hopefully in the future we'll be able to make it back to the Utah State Fair and have yet another great time.

PS - I hope they have the BBQ pulled pork available - LOL!

Utah State Fair - Fairgrounds

Working With Paul Young

Paul Young in the 80s

For much of the 80's Paul Young rivaled Simply Red's Mick Hucknail as the top blue-eyed soul/pop singer in the U.K. In the U.S, Young was known primarily for his song "Everytime You Go Away", but was able to sustain his commercial success in the U.K. for much of the decade.

In 1990 Paul Young did a remake of the Chi-Lites hit "Oh Girl". Oren Waters, Kevin Dorsey and myself were called in to sing the backgrounds on this song which became Paul's single. This cover of "Oh Girl" peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Peter Wolf produced this project and Oren, Kevin and I also sang background on quite a few other songs for the project as well.

Because of the popularity of "Oh Girl" Paul was asked to perform the song on The Tonight Show.  Paul asked if Oren, Kevin and myself could do the show with him, which we did.

The next time our paths crossed was when I was called in for the film, "Friend Green Tomatoes" which I BLOGGED about a while ago. Paul had recorded a re-make of "What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted" and we sang backgrounds on the song which was also used for the film.

After we recorded the song for the film our paths never crossed again. It seems that Paul had moved back to the U.K. and was doing work there.

We met Paul a few years after his huge success with "Everytime You Go Away", this song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.

Paul Young Today

 Paul was always nice to work with, of course he had a strong British accent which stood out. Our paths crossed for just a few short projects, but again it was nice to play a small part of someone else's career.

I enjoyed working with Paul Young.

Until Next Time - Phillip 

Working With Eros Ramazzotti

Eros Ramazzotti

As you know, I've been called to work with some amazing artists even ones from afar. Eros Ramazzotti is an Italian musician and singer-songwriter. Eros is enormously popular in Italy and is well known in most non-English European countries and in the Spanish-speaking world. Most of Eros albums were released in both Italian and Spanish.

Since 1984, Eros Ramazzotti has released 11 studio albums, one EP, three compilation albums, three live albums and 37 singles. Eros has sold over 40 million records in his 25-year career.

Studio Album By Eros

I got the call to first work with Eros back in 1996. I was asked to put together some singers for a very famous Italian artist. I called Jim Gilstrap, Alex Brown and Lynn Davis. The producer was very pleased with our work and have called us to do other projects with Eros since then over the years.

Many famous artists from around the world come to the United States to work with American Musicians and singers. This is how I first met, Anri from Japan, and Amaia Montero from Spain. The same producer that produced one of Eros Ramazzotti's albums also produced Amaia Montero's first album, that's how we were able to work with her. 

We always recorded Eros's albums at the old A&M Recording Studios. This is since been bought out by Jim Hensen Productions and is now called Hensen Studios. We still record Eros projects at this studio.

Silelibero

Usually we would work for about 2-3 days putting the backgrounds on Eros Ramazzotti projects. When we first started working with Eros, his producer would always order lunch from this FABULOUS Italian restaurant here in Los Angeles. It's sad that it took someone from Italy to introduce us to a fabulous Italian restaurant right here in our own backyard.

It's always a pleasant recording session, we always have fun. We usually don't sing a lot of Italian words, some, but mainly we're singing 'oohhhss'.

Unless you're from Italy most people here in the United States are not familiar with Eros Ramazzotti's music. All together we have recorded about 4 of Eros Ramazzotti's projects.

Eros Ramazzotti.

Eros doesn't speak any English so we're usually working with the producer that can convey some of Eros musical ideas to us. Even though he doesn't speak English, nor we Italian he's always happy to see us.

The last time we worked with Eros was about 3 years ago. We enjoy his music, the recording sessions and we always enjoy working with Eros Ramazzotti.

Until Next Time - Phillip

Working With Olivia Newton-John

ONJ - Oliva Newton John

Olivia Newton John has had an illustrious career. She's a singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Olivia has had many hit records and of course her role as Sandy in Grease became the biggest box-office hit of 1978.

Fast forward 20 years, it's now 1998. Olivia Newton John recorded an album called Back With A Heart. The first single was a re-make of her #1 hit single "I Honestly Love You".  This version was produced by David Foster and it featured Babyface on background vocals. The song charted the Pop charts to #67 and it went to #18 on the Adult Contemporary Charts.

Well this is where Olivia and I met for the first time. Olivia was starting to promote her new album and was going to be doing some television performances and concerts. Because of the soulful backgrounds that Babyface had put on the re-make of "I Honestly Love You", Jim Gilstrap and myself was called in to do the Tonight show, the Today Show in New York and a concert in Nashville.

Olivia, Jim Gilstrap and myself on the "Tonight Show"

Olivia is a very pleasant lady and we really enjoyed working with her. We performed the Tonight show singing "I Honestly Love You".

We then flew to New York to do the Today Show with Olivia. The Today Show was doing a series of summer concerts with various artist.

It was a quick trip to New York to do the Today Show and since the show starts at 7:00 am EST that meant it would be 4:00 am PST. We got to New York and basically had to be ready by 4:00 am EST for rehearsal. Remember 4am in New York is 1am in LA. The performance was a success. Everyone loved Olivia.

My wife Rebecca, Daughter Denice, Dave Koz, Olivia and Myself.

Literally right after our performance for the Today Show we got into a limo to catch a flight back to Los Angeles. It was now about 9am EST / 6am PST. We were so tired when we got to the airport Olivia bought Jim Gilstrap, the keyboard player Randy Waldman and myself a neck pillow for our ride home. I've used that pillow many trips and I always remember Olivia.

After arriving home from doing the Today Show which was a Friday morning, we were home for one day Saturday and then we had to head to Nashville on Sunday. We were in Nashville for a couple of days with a rehearsal and then the concert.

After that performance the next time I ran into Olivia was a few years later when I was performing with Michael McDonald. After the concert Olivia was backstage and we took the time, along with my wife and daughter and Dave Koz to snap a quick picture.

Olivia - Today

I haven't seen Olivia since. From time to time I'll run into someone that may have worked with her and I'll get "Olivia says hello".

Olivia has since left the United States and is now living back in Australia. I met a a very gracious and classy lady and I really enjoyed working with Olivia Newton-John.

Until Next Time - Phillip

TEMECULA: Ronnie Laws, Phillip Ingram playing at winery

Ronnie Laws

On July 21, 2012 it was a Romantic Evening of Jazz, Soul and R&B on the enchanting concert and wedding lawn at Leonss Cellars.

Just about a month before this event Ronnie Laws called me to see if I would like to perform with him at the Leoness Cellars Winery as his Special Guest. Of course the answer was 'yes'.

Ronnie and I go back quite a few years. As SWITCH was recording their 2nd Album, Ronnie Laws was working on a project at the same studio and we met back then in 1979 and have remained friends over the years. I've sang backgrounds on a couple of his projects and about 2 years ago we did the 'Jazz Informance' along with Walter Beasley.

Wedding Lawn at Leoness Cellars

It turned out to be a great intimate evening. There were a little over 300 in attendance and they all had a great time. We performed where they have weddings on a regular basis, so the view was spectacular. The Wedding Lawn overlooks the Leoness Vineyards with the rolling mountains in the background.

The show started with M.C and Opening Act, Kim Horn. Kim is a great singer and another dear friend of mine whom I've also known for many years. Kim does Jazz like Nat King Cole and does a great job with it. So Kim opened up the show.

Another spectacular view at Leoness Cellars

Kim was followed by Joel Reese who came up and did a little bit country. After that I came up and performed "Most Of All", which is a song that I co-wrote with Todd Carlon and is the #1 downloaded and played song on the Phillip Ingram App.

After that I called up Ronnie and we performed "I Can't Make You Love Me",  it seems that this song stole the night with my portion of the performance. After the 2nd chorus Ronnie and I went back and forth with some improvisations and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ronnie, doing his thing...

I finished my 3rd song with the Duet "Wonderful", which I sang with Nikki Harris on the JPG Project. I had Dana LeBlanc do the duet with me at the show, and she also did a great job. Ronnie played on this as well and then we danced our way down the aisle on the ending of the song while the audience was singing the chorus.

After that Ronnie did his thang performing many of his hits. His encore song was a tribute to Grover Washington where Ronnie performed "Mr. Magic".


This was a first for Leoness Cellars. They never put on a concert of this caliber but from the success of this particular concert I think we may be seeing more 'intimate evenings' at Leoness Cellars.

Until Next Time - Phillip