Everything But the Girl: Tomorrow Is a Lovers' Town, Volume 2: Piano/Vocal/Guitar Book

This collection captures a distinctive era of intelligent pop songwriting with arrangements that reward both skilled pianists and ensemble performers. The variety of tempos, styles, and vocal ranges across these tracks gives you genuine programming flexibility, whether you're building a cabaret set, creating a jazz-pop showcase, or teaching arrangement concepts through real commercial recordings.

These songs carry the polish and sophisticated wit of 1980s and 1990s intelligent pop, blending conversational lyrics with jazzy chord progressions and clever harmonic twists. The arrangements balance simplicity and subtlety, inviting you into an intimate performance space where clarity and emotional directness matter as much as technical skill.

This book works well for pianists and guitarist-vocalists who are developing skills in pop and contemporary commercial music at the intermediate level and above. Vocal students building performance portfolios will find accessible yet musically substantial material, and ensemble coaches can use individual selections for audition preparation or concert programming.

• Balance the vocal line against the piano accompaniment by treating the voice as the primary melodic voice; the written piano part often contains counter-melodies and harmonic fills that support rather than compete.
• Pay attention to the rhythmic precision in the rhythm guitar notation, as the interplay between piano comping and guitar rhythm defines the groove in many of these arrangements.
• Use the varied tempos across this collection as an opportunity to work on stylistic flexibility; moving between intimate ballads and uptempo pop numbers requires different approaches to phrasing and accompaniment.
• Lock the harmonic movement between piano and guitar voicings so that chord changes land together; these arrangements often feature sophisticated jazz-influenced harmony that needs clean execution.

This collection suits concerts celebrating contemporary songwriting, cabaret-style recitals, or mixed-repertoire vocal recitals where you want to anchor a set in recognizable, well-written material. The breadth of tempos and moods allows you to program contrasting selections back-to-back, and the arrangements are accessible enough for student performance while maintaining artistic credibility.

• Reading and interpreting jazz-influenced chord symbols and alterations
• Balancing vocal line independence with piano accompaniment and harmonic fills
• Coordinating piano and guitar voicings in ensemble settings
• Phrasing and interpretation within a contemporary pop songwriting idiom
• Sight-reading commercial arrangement notation and performance markings