A pianist in lounges and lobbies around the world, Robin Meloy Goldsby tells her warm-hearted stories by linking people she has met with places she has played. Along the way, she connects the humanity of her audiences—princes and paupers, dreamers and doers, moguls, mobsters, wanna-bes, and has-beens—with the quiet soundtrack of her peripatetic, melodic life. Goldsby's autobiographical stories and essays deliver insights into the art and craft of piano playing, the merits of live music, and how the right song at the right moment can add color and depth to a drab, one dimensional world. Music, it turns out, connects us in unpredictable ways.

This entertaining memoir provides a glimpse into the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business perspective of a world-traveling lounge musician.

The Piano Girl journey continues. Waltz of the Asparagus People follows Robin Meloy Goldsby and her family to Europe, recounting their adventures and frustrations as they learn a new language, adapt to a new culture, and find new friends. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, and always insightful, Goldsby's lyrical stories reveal the trials and triumphs of an expatriate musician's life, as Goldsby connects her music to family, friends, and home, past and present. "Goldsby has a wicked sense of humor and a keen eye for the absurd. This is big-hearted, funny, truly eye-opening memoir." Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Piano Girl "Goldsby's witty sequel to her memoir Piano Girl matches its predecessor's humor and breeziness. The first book recounted her experiences playing piano in New York City hotel lounges before moving to Germany. This collection of more than 20 essays includes episodes from before and after her move, starting slowly with "Mr. President," a tale about how she crossed paths with former president Bill Clinton while recording a segment for National Public Radio. Goldsby hits her stride with the title essay, in which she recounts a bizarre display at the Grand Hyatt of over 200 asparagus stalks arranged to form a village and "hand-painted, shellacked, and dressed in little outfits." Her trials and tribulations while trying to obtain a driver's license in Germany--complete with a road test on the Autobahn at a speed of 100 miles per hour and a written test with extremely esoteric questions--is another high point. But pride of place must go to "The House on Sorority Row," which describes Goldsby's portrayal of a doomed sorority sister in a 1980s cult slasher film--a role that gained her a degree of celebrity." Publishers Weekly "Robin Meloy Goldsby's collection of short-story memoires is as palatably more-ish as a fresh fruit sorbet. Goldsby is a pianist, mother and writer, an American living in Germany. Her stories are varied and whimsical, ranging through a terrific amount of incident and emotion, all of them evoked with a keenly observant eye and well-wrought language that never takes itself too seriously. If this is all part of life's rich tapestry, then Goldsby's stitching sparkles with detail, while its background is infused with a sense of beauty that manages to wear its lyricism lightly." JESSICA DUCHEN, International Piano "Goldsby's tales are often laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes poignant, and always abundantly human." Kathy Parsons, Mainly Piano "Robin Meloy Goldsby is a great storyteller. You'll feel as if you're sitting beside her on the piano bench, observing all the people she recalls with such intimacy and personal warmth." Barbara Cloud, Pittsburgh Post Gazette "Be it a ballad or an up tune, this plucky lucky pianist arranges her memoir medley for us and plays it in the key of life." Cheryl Hardwick, Saturday Night Live musical director, 1987-2000 "Goldsby's wide-ranging stories possess a low-key, party-girl sense of humor. Exuberant, keen, and at times very funny." Adam Bregman, Seattle Weekly

Sometimes hilarious, often poignant, Piano Girl Playbook--a sequel to Robin Meloy Goldsby's popular memoir Piano Girl--reveals the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the player's side of the Steinway.

This Musical Showstoppers edition of the brilliant Piano Playbook series offers excellent new arrangements of 35 of the greatest, most enduring showstoppers from the biggest musicals of all time. All tunes are arranged for solo Piano, including vocal melody and chord symbols so you can stop your very own shows with these powerfully perennial numbers. Certain songs from certain musicals have that winning combination of emotion, melody and a cracking singer that elevates the tune into the upper echelons of the show itself. These songs are the ones that everyone remembers, the ones that effectively stop the show, and this Piano Playbook collects the best of these Musical Showstoppers so that you, too, can relive those moments that send shivers up your spine. Songs like I Dreamed A Dream from 'Les Misérables,' Can You Feel The Love Tonight from 'The Lion King' and Defying Gravity from 'Wicked.' Each of the tunes in this Musical Showstoppers songbook perfectly encapsulates what the show itself is about, this is why they are so well-loved. You'll be able to play Dancing Queen, Cabaret, A Whole New World and Singin' In The Rain on the Piano, among many others. You can take as your inspiration for learning from this show tunes sheet music the many incredible singers who originally performed such songs and the composers who wrote them. Each song has been beautifully arranged, allowing you to recapture the quintessence of the musicals that you love and the songs to which you keep coming back. This selection has been chosen to reflect a number of moods and has been produced to the highest standards. So if you love musicals, adore accomplished songwriting, or just want some classics to add to your repertoire, the Piano Playbook: Musical Showstoppers will satisfy your desire for musical sheet music mastery.

This Jazz Standards edition of the Piano Playbook series is a delectable collection of 45 timeless jazz tunes that have become some of the most well-known and well-loved songs of all time, arranged for Piano and Vocals. Each of the Jazz Standards in this Piano Playbook shows the kind of incredibly accomplished songwriting that lifts a song out of its creators' mind and into the realms of the timeless masterpiece. This excellent jazz sheet music song book has been collated to reflect a variety of moods, but also to show a beautifully natural progression through time, so you can see how the jazz standard developed and changed, while retaining the thread of magic that has kept them being played for decades. Featuring some amazing tunes like the bop classic Anthropology, Coltrane's improvisational masterpiece My Favourite Things and Miles Davis' post-bop, impressionistic So What. Some other well-known tunes include Mood Indigo, Honeysuckle Rose, All The Things You Are, La Vie En Rose, and jazz arrangements of songs like Singin' In The Rain and Strawberry Fields Forever. These are just a minute selection of the wealth of brilliant songs in this Piano Playbook and, whether you play your favourites or discover new ones, there will undoubtedly be a huge number that you fall in love with playing. With some songs arranged for solo Piano, and some for Piano and Vocals, this Playbook really is a wonderful collection. Reading the list of songs is like looking at a rundown of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. Bill Evans, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and so on. You are guaranteed to love playing these songs, and your audience is sure to love hearing them as much. Like the rest of the Piano Playbook series, this book of Jazz Standards sheet music boasts a great many incredible tunes in a durable and convenient format. The idea of a Jazz Standard is nothing definitive, as it means broadly that they are songs widely known and widely recorded. Some were meant to be jazz tunes, but some Great American Songbook tunes were appropriated by ingenious musicians. This Piano Playbook, however, is one of the best guides out there. A comprehensive collection of fantastic jazz standards, you are sure to love playing each and every one.

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century.