PORTLAND, Maine — More than 50 years ago, Lawrence Schulman left the U.S. and settled in Paris where he became the personal assistant to Claude Francois, a hugely popular French singer and songwriter who co-wrote the original version of "My Way."
It was a heady time.
"To be young, in love, and in Paris was potent to this romantic wanderer," Schulman writes of himself, "And I felt alive."
Schulman, who lives on Mount Desert Island but still spends considerable time in France, remains captivated by music and has just published a book of reviews and essays called "Free – Words on Music by a Hi-Def Critic in an MP3 World." The volume runs more than 500 passages and gives readers a wealth of Schulman’s insights into many singers and composers associated with the "Great American Songbook."
We narrowed the list down and talked with Schulman about three of his subjects in "Free": Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline (who, admittedly, is an outlier in a work on the "Great American Songbook"), and the song "Singin’ in the Rain." Watch our 207 conversation to see what he had to say about them.