We chose to cover one of our favorite Michael Penn songs, "Try", which we consider one of his most hook-laden songs, with lyrics amply demonstrating his mastery of the turn of phrase. The song's structure, and those lyrics, lent themselves well to the duet format, as both participants in any relationship might at times feel a need to stop "trying", no matter which of many interpretations of the word one might choose.

Our discussions about the song led to the realization that we ourselves had each interpreted the song slightly differently.  We both appreciated MP's exploration of all the possible meanings of the word "try" within one song.  But (to belabor the courtroom metaphor) to Randy, the defining characteristic is the "prosecutor" acquiescing to accept things as they are without pursuing further lines of questioning; while Cindy supposes that the narrator may ultimately end up being held in contempt for not even bothering to show up in court.

Our respect for the original's performance, arrangement and production was one of the biggest challenges in covering "Try."  Even as we attempted originality – turning it into a keyboard-based duet, taking some experimental liberties with the bridge, etc. – we just couldn't help but try to appropriate many specifics from MP's recording, thus remaining relatively faithful to the original.

Still, it was a daunting task.  This, our first musical project together, was also Cindy's first attempt at recording, (so she jokes that the lyrics were also about trying to get a decent sound out of her stage-frightened throat.)  We collaborated on the arrangement and production as well as the lead and background vocals.  Randy did the keyboards, rhythm guitars and drum programming, along with pseudo-engineering the necessary over-bouncing of what should have been 32 tracks of stuff down to the 4-track format we had available.

Credits: 

Produced and arranged by Cindy Graham and Randy Chepigan.

Cindy Graham - lead and background vocals

Randy Chepigan - lead and background vocals, keyboards, guitars, drum programming