Paul was such a gifted player, and it is bittersweet to share his playing through these old recordings. There are songs from The Evelyn Situation, Brooklyn Ferry, and Area Code (201) (which became the de facto catch-all name for our various earlier unnamed projects).

I've left this page largely unchanged, with the exception of adding some new songs if you scroll down. You are welcome to help yourself to any of these songs. Save them, share them, enjoy them.

I'll be adding more songs over the next few weeks as I unearth more recordings, so please keep checking back.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I love you.

--Jill

Songs from old recordings by The Evelyn Situation. (You can click here for lyrics.) Scroll down for new additions to this page!)

The Evelyn Situation: Adam and Eve.   Danielle Franklin singin' the lead. This isn't mixed fully... (Recorded at Hillside Sound, Englewood, NJ.)

The Evelyn Situation: Building a Fire. This was recorded live in a fabulous, dark stone church, lit only by candles. I remember holding hands with Donna and Danielle during this take. I'm very proud of this performance, even though the sound quality faded over the years before I had a chance to digitize it. (Recorded at First Reformed Church, Upper Montclair, NJ.)

The Evelyn Situation: Fruits and Vegetables.   I love the lyrics to this song; they're a good time (click the linky below to see the lyrics). (Recorded at First Reformed Church, Upper Montclair, NJ.)

The Evelyn Situation: Halloween.   I frikkin' love this song. Awesome lyrics, catchy as hell. Donna sings lead on this tune, and in real life she knocked it out of the park every time she sang it. Unfortunately, for this entire recording session she had a horrific head cold and lost her voice, but we still had to keep recording to stay on schedule (that's good thinking!). Please don't take her scratchy, cracky vocals here as an accurate representation of her normally gorgeous, velvety voice. (Recorded at Hillside Sound, Englewood, NJ.)

The Evelyn Situation: I Wish I Was You.  Danielle Franklin is singin' the lead. (Unmixed.   Recorded at Hillside Sound, Englewood, NJ.)

The Evelyn Situation: Secretaries and their Bosses / Coffee.   Everyone gets a crack at singing lead on this one! First, the very ill and phlegmatic Donna; Second the yes-shes-purposely-trying-to-sound-stuffy-and-silly Danielle; and on the Coffee section, Jill. This recording here is the original, full Evelyn version. (Recorded at Hillside Sound, Englewood, NJ.)
     Interesting tidbit: Durkin morphed that song's middle "Coffee" section (the section Jill sings) into a new song called Coffee/Coffee Retrograde, which The Industrial Jazz Group, played the heck out of in 2005-2006, and which will be appearing on an upcoming Industrial Jazz Group release.

The Evelyn Situation: The Job Song. Jill Knapp and Donna VanderGaag singin' the lead; Danielle Franklin on the greatest kazoo solo known to man. This song has also been retooled by the Industrial Jazz Group, but this recording here is the Evelyn original, and is as mixed as it was gonna get. (Recorded at Hillside Sound, Englewood, NJ.) The new version of The Job Song was released on the Industrial Jazz Group album, LEEF.
     Side note:If you want to laugh from listening to a live version of The Job Song played so fast you cannot even comprehend what the hell is happening, check out this live version by The Industrial Jazz Group, recorded on closing night of Jill's old coffeehouse. Here's a much more reasonable version from IJG's album LEEF, which was recorded live when IJG played at The Bimhuis in Amsterdam in 2007. ("LEEF" means "Live" in Dutch.) Whichever version you listen to, I think you'll be giddy to hear what a 17-piece big band can do to an already awesome tune. (In the IJG version, Jill sings the whole tune.)

The Evelyn Situation: The Piano. We weren't orginally going to record this song, but I distinctly remember the three girls (me, Donna, and Danielle) being really sad that it wasn't on the docket. We talked about it and tried to figure out a way to approach Andrew about recording it, because we really wanted him to say yes. We felt like children scheming how to get Dad to buy us a new Star Wars figure or something. So when Andrew was on a break from recording some guitar tracks for a different song, we steeled ourselves and pounced... and he replied, "Oh. OK, sure," or something completely agreeable like that. In retrospect, I have no earthly idea why we thought he'd say no or why we were worried about approaching him since he's the most approachable guy alive and we were basically telling him we loved his song so, so, so much. Anyway, obviously we recorded it. I love this song; it's always been one of my favorites-- especially the way the word "cemetary" is arranged as it comes out of the bridge. Gives me chills every time. It was written about The Other End Coffeehouse in the basement of a building at Drew University. Brooklyn Ferry used to play there pretty often, and they had this awesome red upright piano there, which was perfect since we really didn't like gigging with a keyboard... there's nothing like a real piano. And one day Durkin stopped by to book us a date to play, and the piano was gone, with no explanation at all from the people who worked there. It was a sad day, and I don't think we ever played there again. Donna VanderGaag sings the lead on this song; Jill is on the bottom, Danielle sings top. This version is as mixed as it was gonna get. (Recorded at Hillside Sound, Englewood, NJ.)

The Evelyn Situation: The Hands of Time.   The song that will haunt Andrew Durkin for all eternity. It doesn't matter that Andrew has gotten National Endowment of the Arts grants, that he's written award-winning exciting avant-garde jazz for 17-piece big band that was played on NPR, and that we toured the US and Europe with that jazz band (The Industrial Jazz Group)... nope, doesn't matter at all, because all the damn crowd wants is this "three-chord chunker" of highschool heartbreak poetry. As I believe Paul(?) once said: "Simple proof that corn sells." Durkin wrote it in 1987 and included it in his famous rock opera "Dancing Days," and I don't care, I will always love singing this song. This is me (Jill Knapp) on vocals, and Andrew Durkin on piano. (Recorded at Odyssey Sound, Long Branch, NJ, where the engineer looks like Peter Gabriel. August 1995.)

The Evelyn Situation: They. This is the only song that The Evelyn Situation ever performed that wasn't written by Andrew. Paul Badalamenti wrote this tune, and it's really neat, and it's very, very Paul. :-) The few times we performed this live, Jill sang lead and the other two girls sang the backing vocals (Danielle on top; either Donna or Carolyn on bottom), but Jill was the only singer in the studio for this session. This was recorded in August of 1995; the band had officially disbanded, and it was just a day or two before Durkin was to fly out to California to start his new life earning his PhD at USC, and just a few months before Jill shipped out and moved to Arizona, and Paul left the US to teach English in Korea. That recording session was VERY VERY cathartic, in a "ma fin est mon commencement"/get-back-to-our-roots-before-we-say-goodbye kinda thing. In addition to recording The Hands of Time (above) and They, we asked the engineer to "let the tape run" and the three of us (though mostly Paul and Andrew) recorded 30+ minutes of piano + guitar improvisation, with me randomly yelling/saying stuff in German (as you do). It might sound ridiculous, but there were moments of sheer beauty, transcendence, and comedy in that session. We wound up releasing a snippet of that improv (a quiet bit that evolved into a hilarious evil polka thing) on the Jay's Booming Hat album "Gruel" of 1996-- Durkin named the track "Dance of the Dingleberries" which is apropos. ANYWAY.   Jill Knapp, vocals; Andrew Durkin, piano; Paul Badalamenti, guitar. (Recorded at Odyssey Sound, Long Branch, NJ, August 1995.)

The Evelyn Situation: Winter. This was recorded at The Evelyn Situation's last gig ever. The sound quality is bootleggy, but you get the idea.   Jill Knapp on the bottom, Carolyn Schneider in the middle, Danielle Franklin on top vocals. Andrew Durkin, acoustic guitar; Paul Badalamenti, electric guitar. (Recorded Live at Java Jack's in Bethehem, PA. Bootleg audience recording by Jeremy Moskowitz.)

HOLY CRAP! "New" Stuff Added January 2017:

Were you one of the proud owners of one of The Evelyn Situation's compilation tapes? I found one, and I've digitized it here, track by track. Some alternate versions of these songs can be found elsewhere on this page.

SIDE 1:

1. Medusa (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ, with Steve Bergamini)
2. The Job Song (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ, with Steve Bergamini )
3. Rhiannon (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ, with Steve Bergamini )
4. Prayer (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ, with Steve Bergamini )
5. The Brilliant One (First Reformed Church, Upper Montclair, NJ)
6. King Obadiah (I think this is from First Reformed Church, Upper Montclair)
7. Building A Fire (First Reformed Church, Upper Montclair, NJ)
8. Avalanche (I can't tell if this was recorded at Hillside Sound in Englewood NJ or at First Reformed Church in Montclair.)
9. Halloween (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ, two guitars, sick Donna)
10. Secretaries and Their Bosses/Coffee (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ, two guitars, sick Donna)
11. I Wish I Was You (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ, two guitars, sick Donna)
12. Guilty Pleasures (Common Ground, one guitar, Carolyn's birthday show?)
13. Winter (Common Ground, one guitar, Carolyn's birthday show?)
14. Fruits and Vegetables (waaaaaaay too fast!! Java Jacks, with Carolyn)
15. Adam & Eve (Live show, dying know where. With Carolyn; One guitar? Maybe Java Jacks, maybe Common Ground/birthday show?)
16. PLAY BEES! (Common Ground, one guitar, Carolyn's birthday show?)

SIDE 2:

1. Rocks In Your Head (MSU with Carolyn 1995)
2. One Day in Health Class (MSU with Carolyn 1995)
3. The Enemy (MSU with Carolyn 1995)
4. Coins (MSU with Carolyn 1995)
5. Number 12 (Rolaids) (MSU with Carolyn 1995)
6. Planet of the Apes (Last Common Ground Show - with Carolyn 1995)
7. They (Odyssey Sound; just Jill, Durk, and Paul, August 1995)
8. The Hands of Time (Odyssey Sound; just Jill, Durk, and Paul, August 1995)
9. The Piano (Hillside Sound, Englewood NJ)
10. Keeping Me Together (Mixolydian, Ernie's Garage, Stramaglia, 1992?)
11. The Balance (Brooklyn Ferry - Ernie's Garage, 1991)
12. Parents' Day (Brooklyn Ferry - Ernie's Garage, 1991)
13. Ugly (Brooklyn Ferry - Ernie's Garage, 1991)
14. Life Without The Hero (Brooklyn Ferry - Ernie's Garage, 1991)

Alternate Versions of Some of these songs:

Uploaded January 2017: The Evelyn Situation: Building a Fire (different live version). This version was recorded at The Common Ground Coffeehouse in Summit, NJ, from the same show above... it was the very first Evelyn Situation show that Jeremy ever saw (and bootlegged). I'm so grateful for this recording; it's one of the rare performances where none of us three girls had the plague. :-) Common Ground Coffeehouse, November 12, 1994. Summit, NJ. Bootleg audience recording by Jeremy Moskowitz.)

Uploaded January 2017: The Evelyn Situation: King Obadiah. Jill on lead; Donna and Danielle on the other vocal parts. Durkin on acoustic, Paul and Leo are playing electric-- one playing the "picked parts" and the other playing slide guitar... not sure who was on which. (Barely mixed; Recorded live First Reformed Church in Upper Montclair, NJ.)

Uploaded January 2017: The Evelyn Situation: A live version of King Obadiah. This was recorded at The Folk Project in Basking Ridge, NJ when we had the wonderful opportunity to open for Bob Franke... this was Donna's last show with the band and a very bittersweet night. Jeremy Moskowitz digitally bootlegged this (and every) live Evelyn show on his portable Fostex DAT recorder, and for that I am eternally grateful. This is a live audience recording, complete with pre-song banter where we compared Mike Agranoff to Dr. Seuss' character, The Lorax (it's a compliment!). (January 1995, The Folk Project, Basking Ridge, NJ. Bootleg audience recording by Jeremy Moskowitz.)
Fun Fact: The very next morning Jill hopped a plane to teach music on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona with two other Montclair State music students and two music professors. One of those two students was Carolyn Schneider, whom Jill got to know in Arizona, and thought she'd be a great third voice for the band since we needed to replace Donna. Carolyn accepted and remained in the band until its demise at the end of the summer of '95. Jill moved to Arizona in October of 1995; Danielle followed in February of 1996. Jill moved back east (to Delaware) in 1999; Danielle is still there.

Uploaded January 2017: The Evelyn Situation: The Brilliant One. This was recorded at the same Folk Project show above in January 1995. Donna sings lead, Jill is on the bottom, Danielle on top. Durkin on acoustic, Leo and Paul on electric guitars. (January 1995, The Folk Project, Basking Ridge, NJ. Bootleg audience recording by Jeremy Moskowitz.)

Uploaded January 2017: Septimus. This is a piece of pre-Evelyn (even Pre-Brooklyn Ferry!) ancient history from 1992, if I had to guess. This is me (Jill) on a scratch lead vocal; we never had a chance to record real lead vocals or the backing vocals (hence the awkward pauses in the choruses). Jill would have recorded the backing vocals since we didn't have other singers in the band at the time. This is Durkin on piano, Joe Bergamini on drums, Paul Badalamenti on lead guitar, and I don't think there's any bass on this. Recorded in Ernie Schaeffer's garage studio in Green Brook, NJ. Paul's guitar solo is epic. There is a version of this song where I am singing over the guitar solo, but that version gives me hives, so you get this version.

Brooklyn Ferry: Starving Artists (1992) I guess we were called Brooklyn Ferry back in 1992, who the hell knows. What I do know is that this song is just me and Durk; he's playing piano, and I'm singing. So teeny wee are we! :-)   I remember we were struggling to get the right vibe on this recording; we couldn't figure out where to go with it. There was a weird energy in the air that night and both Andrew, Ernie (the recording engineer) and I were feeling a little out of sorts. We took a little break-- Andrew went outside, and I went back into the vocal booth to zen a little. When Andrew returned from outside, he stuck his head in the booth and announced, "Hey Jill, it's snowing." I looked outside and it was really coming down; there was probably 2" on the ground at that point. There was something magical about that snow. After that announcement, I got this vocal. I love the imperfection of it... to coin a Durk-ism, my voice "falters," and there's a realness to the imperfection which captures what he was going for in the piece. (Recorded at Ernie Schaeffer's garage studio, Green Brook, NJ. 1992.)

Uploaded January 2017: Firing Line. This is another piece of pre-Evelyn (even Pre-Brooklyn Ferry!) ancient history from that same session as Septimus (above) in 1992, if I had to guess. Same deal as before: This is me (Jill) on a scratch lead vocal; we never had a chance to record real lead vocals or the backing vocals. I would have recorded the backing vocals since we didn't have other singers in the band at the time. This is Durkin on piano, Joe Bergamini on drums, Paul Badalamenti on lead guitar, and I don't think there's any bass on this either. (Recorded in Ernie Schaeffer's garage studio in Green Brook, NJ. 1992. Anthony Stramaglia also made it Stramagli-icious somehow at some point. This was a community effort, this song. :) )

Uploaded January 2017: Ugly (1991). This is a song recorded by the first incarnation of Brooklyn Ferry. This song features Durkin on acoustic guitar (which he had very recently learned to play), Jill on bottom vocals, Linda Onorevole on top vocals, and Paul Badalamenti on guitar. I forget how we got the percussion in there-- it was probably just a click track with some effects on it; and we referred that booming sound as a "dooodghe." I remember us trying to figure out how many dooodghes were too many dooodghes, and we have a snippet of studio banter on tape (that I'm trying desperately to find) of Paul discussing "judiciously-placed dooodghes" and us laughing over that. Anyhoo, this was recorded in 1992. (Recorded in Ernie Schaeffer's garage studio in Green Brook, NJ.)

Uploaded January 2017: Life Without The Hero (1991). This heartbreaking tune about divorce from the kids' perspective was recorded before we called ourselves Brooklyn Ferry, but it still features Jill and Linda. Jill is singing lead here, with Linda Onorevole providing the backing vocals, and Durkin on piano. (The piano was recorded (I thiiiiiink) at Odyssey Sound in Long Branch, NJ because they had that gorgeous Bosendorfer, and then we took those piano tracks to Ernie Schaeffer's garage studio in Green Brook, NJ to put the vocals on.)

Uploaded January 2017: You Are God (1990). A big ol' FU to televangelists. This was recorded before I learned that not all things must be sung fortissimo... good god, this makes me cringe. ANYWAY... this is me on all vocals, Durkin on organ and I thiiiiiiink keyboard bass (?), Joe Bergamini on drums, and I'm not sure who on guitar (help?). Maybe Darren O'Neill? Maybe Paul Badalamenti? (Recorded at Graphic Sound Studio in Ringoes, NJ. 1990.)
Fun Fact: My brother Jeff used this song for the closing credits of his movie "The Diner Variations."

Uploaded January 2017: Keeping Me Together (1989 or 1990). Andrew taught me this song in the summer of 1989 (I think), and we recorded it in 1990, I think. Prior to this recording session, everyone in my musical social circle had recorded all of our music at The Sanctuary in Roseland, which was an 8 track analog studio. But for this song (and for the song "Spain" below), we wanted a bigger sound than just 8 tracks could provide, so we moved over to Mixolydian Studios in Boonton, NJ which was a 24-track studio with digital capabilities... my mind was BLOWN. This song was mixed and remixed a few times with new parts added and old parts moved around... but I'm pretty sure this is the "most final" version, though still doesn't have bass on it, I don't think. It features Jill on lead vocals, Angela Acosta on a 3 or 4 backing vocal parts in the intro, Anthony Nole on saxophone in the intro, Joe Bergamini on drums, Darren O'Neill on guitars, Durkin on piano. I love this song-- it's so hopeful and good. (Originally recorded at Mixolydian in Boonton, NJ; remixed and tweaked (possibly re-recorded the piano and drums?) at Ernie Schaeffer's garage studio in Green Brook, NJ. Anthony Stramaglia also made it Stramagli-icious somehow at some point. This was a community effort, this song. :) 1989-1990-1991.)

Uploaded January 2017: Spain (1989 or 1990). I admit I don't know what this song is about, but I love it. That's me singing lead, Angela Acosta singing 43 layers of backing vocals (I love that pretty "fly fly fly fly" part at the end and the angelic choir of "away"s), Darren O'Neill on guitar (LOVE that intro!), Joe Bergamini on drums, and as usual I can't remember who the hell played bass, or if anyone even did. (Mixolydian Studios, Boonton, NJ. 1990.)
Fun Fact: My brother Jeff used the beginning of this song for the opening credits of his movie "The Diner Variations."

Jan. 2017 Updated File (Better quality): Area Code (201): Paramaribo (Jill singing lead, Jodie DiMinno singing BV, Durkin playing keys, Joe Bergamini playing drums, this guy Holden playing bass.) I don't know if we had a band name back then, but the oldest band name I can recall is Area Code (201), so that's what I'm going with. This tune, Paramaribo, was written and recorded in 1990-- I was 19 and Durk was 21. Paramaribo, in case you're wondering, is the capital of Suriname. I think, even after all this time, this song still stands up nicely; I always really liked this one. Admittedly, there was a poorly executed a cappella thing in the middle of the instrumental, but thanks to the miracle of wave editing, I chopped it out. Please pardon the resulting 6/4 measure... :-) (Recorded at Graphic Sound Studio, Ringoes, NJ. 1990.)

Lyrics for the Evelyn Situation stuff can be found here, since our diction is pretty horrendous.

Jay's Booming Hat Stuff

Jay's Booming Hat was an experimental studio band comprised of Andrew, Jill, a 4-track recorder and a delay pedal. Durkin was living in Los Angeles and Jill was living in Arizona, so we were able to collaborate by visiting a few times per year. We released a CD called Gruel on the now-defunct Superpickle Music Arts label; I think we sold like 12 copies. (Woot! Now I can buy a Ferrari!)

Jay's Booming Hat: Gibbous Moon (Demo Version) (Jill singing lead, Danielle Franklin also singing in there.) This was recorded as part of the "Folk Band From Hell" project in my apartment complex's clubhouse in Arizona. It was done in one take.

Jay's Booming Hat: Driving Man Jill singing lead, Andrew as the little tap dancing guy. :-) This was recorded in Arizona, probably in Jill's workplace breakroom after midnight some time. The whistlers (Mark Kooy [lead whistler], Jeremy Moskowitz, Danielle Franklin and Jeff Davey [backing whistlers]) recorded their part in Jeremy's old apartment. Gotta love a portable 4-track. FOSTEX 4 LIFE, BITCHEZ!

Jay's Booming Hat: Sharks (Jill singing all vocals) I really dig the harmonies on the chorus of this tune; they're fun. We never did figure out what to do with the bridge; that's unfinished and sucky.

Jay's Booming Hat: You're Late (Jill singing lead; Andrew as the "late guy voice.") Durk said that he got the inspiration for the kooky "late guy voice" from the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry describes the voice of his girlfriend's bellybutton. I was very proud that I contributed to the lyrics of this song. Originally, the last verse had a line that said "...were killed in a freak accident playing golf one day." But I changed it to "playing cards one day" because it just struck me silly (but then again, doesn't everything?).

Jay's Booming Hat: Don't Walk Alone Late at Night Without a Pal (Andrew Durkin, Mark Kooy, Jeff Davey and Jeremy Moskowitz are singing the manly part, and Jill is crooning in the background.) This tune was written as a 30-second public service announcement as part of the Superpickle Music Arts release "'Til Someone Loses an Eye."

Jay's Booming Hat: Nosepickin' (Andrew Durkin singing lead; Jill supplying teeny bits of BV). Durk recorded his voice and then sped up the tape during mixdown to give him that "lad of four" sound. This song cracks me up. "And you'd be pickin' yours right now if only you could..."

For Butch:
The Contents of the 1988 New Jersey All State Chorus CD. (I know you only wanted tracks 7-10, but hey, this stuff isn't copyrighted, so let's go nuts.)