“My wife and I have been a two person company for several years. Trying to do everything – and not having the knowledge on how to do it – made our lives very difficult. There’s just too much to know. Too much to do. When we found Tony we breathed a huge sigh of relief. No longer will we be putting in days, weeks and years doing things we weren’t quite sure were right. Now everything is falling into place, one step following another.

And we’re having fun!

We had seen many marketing experts in the past few years and things didn’t really work out and in working with Tony we realized that the big difference is that he is an artist with decades of experience in our own business, so we speak the same language and all his advice is directly relevant to exactly what we need. 

But all of his expertise wouldn’t have been enough for us if he was someone who was difficult to get along with. Tony is the perfect match. His patience (and with us he really needs it), his sense of humor, and his general “good guy-ness” makes working with him a pleasure. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we’ve gone from banging our heads against a wall to really having fun playing the game!
Tony, we can’t thank you enough. “

http://theconspiracyproject.org/

“I noticed from the beginning of the album and throughout, the great deference you gave to the words. Though the arrangements and the mix became increasingly exquisite, there was never a point where you were in danger of burying the poetry of the lyrics, which indicated that you were at one with the spirit of the work. What I did for Bettina and Tom, by entering into their lives and bringing out exact duplicates, you did for me, and transitively for them, by your scrupulous respect for the material. You duplicated my intention and the spirit of River Oak.

At one point I found myself pulling the flannel shirt closed and buttoning it, not because it was chilly in the house, but because of the frisson of chills that kept recurring as I listened. Greg (Smith) was this mischievous spirit that kept flitting about kissing the the music in every sweet spot. I felt great friendship for him, as I do for you.

When it was over I walked out, stunned, into the library/guest room, where Lavada was packing for our drive to Savannah later today. She looked up and saw me…saw the state I was in, and asked, “Well, how was it?”

It was then I broke into tears.

Then I played it for her and at the end she opened her eyes and her first words were, “It’s like a play. It feels like a play, a stage production.” I was glad to hear that. Your and Greg’s sense of the dramatic arc are the cause.

She was blown away, as I was.

The album is just perfect the way it is. I keep hearing things, like the woodwinds on When Love Lives a Life, that are staggering in beauty.

I have a strange ambivalence about your moving on to the next project without me. I am both jealous and anxious for you to be on your way, living your magic in the lives of other hopeful songwriters and artists.

Merry Christmas Tony, my dear friend, and thank you so much for this fine work which is so good as to be stunning.”

http://tonybaker.com