The right mix of spices in a dish, for example a balance of yams to butter, nutmeg to orange juice, will create a particular flavor and when eaten provide a certain satisfaction. Bringing together the right ingredients, the right spices, the right heat in an artistic collaboration can be more challenging. When I first heard “Solid Ground” I loved the sound that represented artists who clearly had profound respect for one another and were able to create a song that stands in this moment and yet reaches back in time. No wonder, with the multi-talented Lisa Marie Simmons bringing her deep diving poetry and rich voice and compositions to the song, with the strong musical foundation and inspiring creative impulses of composer and pianist Marco Cremeschini. In addition there are the powerful vocals of The Flamingos, Terry Johnson, who has a multi-page list of accomplishments in singing, songwriting, composing, and producing, which have garnered him deserved inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame, Rhythm & Blues Foundation, HAL Award, Doo-Wop Music Hall of Fame, and Avenue of the Stars, Wildwood, NJ., and his partner Theresa Trigg with her sensitive voicings and decades of experience as a skilled vocalist, songwriter and producer in her own right. After listening to this successful venture, I wanted the three of them to break down how they collaborated in a recording that mixed musical genres, artistic disciplines, and generations. (I encourage you to follow the links for some wonderful music experiences!)
dm: When I look at the credits it seems that “Solid Ground” is the definition of collaboration. How did this collaboration come about?
Lisa Marie Simmons: It came about in my favorite fashion – kismet! I was visiting my brother in Las Vegas when I met Terry and Theresa, and we all felt an instant recognition, as if we’d known each other all our lives. They shared their stories, I shared mine, and we saw ourselves in one another. I called Marco and said, ”We need to write a song with The Flamingos.” My friend Marie-Claire Giraud introduced me to Vernon Reid, whom I have deeply admired for many years, and we too took an instant liking to one another. I had him listen to demos for NoteSpeak (In a Word) and asked him to choose what he’d like to play on. He gravitated immediately to “Solid Ground (Meet Me There).”
What followed was a true meeting of creative minds. NoteSpeak (In a Word) is a concept album, and when I spoke with Terry, Theresa, and Vernon about the direction we were heading, they were intrigued. From the start, we wanted this record to be genre-crossing, cross-cultural, intergenerational, multi-disciplinary – the biggest mashup we could manage. The Flamingos brought timeless, lush harmonies that rooted the song in legacy, and Vernon’s guitar added fire and urgency. Every collaborator contributed their lived experience, so the track became, as the best ones do, something far bigger than any one of us.
dm: Terry and Theresa, what have you learned or gained from this specific collaboration?
Terry Johnson: Working with Lisa and Marco has been such easy work. It seems as though the four of us think about making music in very similar ways, even though we come from different genres. Our collaboration brought us into their world of music (jazz) which we have not been recording in.
Theresa Trigg: When Marco created the track for Solid Ground (Meet Me There), he said he had listened to a lot of our music on our YouTube channel, and even though we record so many different genres, he said that he heard our souls and that’s when he decided how to create the track. We agreed on 100% of the lyrics, the arrangement and the mix. We plan on doing more projects together. It’s not easy finding people you can write and produce with so well.
dm:
How does Solid Ground fit into your new album NoteSpeak In a Word?
Lisa Marie Simmons: “Solid Ground (Meet Me There)” fits into NoteSpeak (In a Word) as both anchor and invitation. This album asks hard questions about where we’ve come from and where we might go. Our track, ‘Solid Ground,’ insists that, even amid fracture and fear, love of self, of community, and of the planet is the land we can, we must stand on together. Bringing in The Flamingos and Vernon Reid made that message multi-generational, cross-cultural, and, hopefully, deeply resonant.
dm: While “Solid Ground” seems to be a love song, it also stretches far beyond romantic love with lines like… Do you want this song to be received on a number of levels?
Lisa Marie Simmons: I do, and I love that you caught that. I’ve always been entranced with Peggy Seeger’s idea of “wedge songs”, songs that sneak into your head and then, suddenly, reveal their deeper meaning. Romantic love is beautiful, but here I’m reaching for something more universal: the kind of love that bridges divides, dismantles fear, and calls us back to our shared humanity. Lines like “you don’t need that gun” and “let’s leave this frontier town” are about letting go of old narratives and choosing connection instead. If someone hears it as a personal love song, that’s wonderful, but my hope is that with each listen, some new layer comes through and that it resonates as a call to collective healing, too.
dm: Terry, You have worked with so many artists over the decades. How did this work affect your own performances? What did you learn to do or not do through working with these artists?
Terry Johnson: I found myself trying to change my style to sing soulful like some of the Motown artists, instead of doing what I did best which was more in line with the style of Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr. or Billy Eckstein. As a vocalist it was a challenging time and a learning experience for me. The lesson learned is you have to be yourself in this business and not try to imitate someone else. We all have our own individual gifts that are to be appreciate. To thine own self be true. The positive side of working at Motown was working closely with Smokey Robinson as a song writer and producer. We were together in every session recording great artist like The Miracles, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, The Vandellas, The Marvelettes and more. He taught me patience and how to bring out the talents within each artist and how to work with the studio musicians, the Funk Brothers. They were actually jazz musicians but extremely versed in all styles of music. I learned how to inspire them to enhance the ideas that we brought to them for each song. The technique was to first write the song, lyrics and melody, then get with the arranger. We would all go into the studio to record the musicians, and when we were satisfied with what we had, we would bring in the artists to record the song.
After that we would go to the engineers to mix the song, then have it approved by quality control, then have it mastered, then put it on Barry Gordy’s desk for approval. Then Barry would invite people off the street, about 10-20, to come into the Motown studio and play the songs and ask which songs they liked the best, and that’s how he chose the hits to release. He would also have staff meetings once a week and ask all of us if we had a song ready for one of the Motown artists. Whoever was prepared would get the shot to produce and record that artist. So, the lesson learned was “always be ready.”
dm: With that in mind, what do you think you have gained from these decades of experience? How have you seen the music industry change, especially in the new century?
Terry Johnson: The knowledge and ability to respect other artists because we all have a gift. I’ve tried to hold my ego in check and have tried to show kindness in collaborations. Music will always continue to evolve and yet, what’s old is new. So, the new artists are creating their own sound but have been heavily influenced by what has preceded them. I love listening to the new artists and music of today.
dm: Theresa, you have an interesting background. Whereas Terry Johnson has always been a singer and songwriter you moved from helping to manufacture Air Traffic Safety devices producing managing and recording as a vocalist. how did this happen?
Theresa Trigg. My father was a retired Lt. Col. from the Army and one of his fortes in the service was problem solving. After he retired, he invented the Signal Trigger Unit, which is an over height detector. I was still in high school living at home, so I helped him do roadside R&D and eventually started working in his machine shop building the units in the early years. They are now manufactured in a bigger facility and are installed all over the United States and Europe, detecting over height vehicles to prevent them from hitting structures in their path. My brother carried on the business (Trigg Industries) while I pursued music. My vocal and music interest date back to grade school and have always been my true passion. So, it was only logical that when I met Terry, I went on the road to learn more about music and performing.
DM: Lisa, your poetry seems to fit in with different musical genres jazz, soul, pop. Do the poems change with the genre you perform them in? Is it the music that finds the poem, or the poem that finds the music?
Lisa Marie Simmons: Both, really! My writing partner, Marco Cremaschini, and I collaborate closely; sometimes it starts with a lyrical concept – we’ll talk about what musical approach would best support the idea. Other times, one of us has a musical phrase that inspires a poetic response.
On this album, with featured artists like Terry and Theresa, we were also thinking of their styles and adapting the work to exalt them in the best way possible. Sometimes the poem comes first, arriving with its own rhythm and tone, and the music grows around it. Other times, Marco will play something that opens a door for the words to walk through. I love that fluidity. The genre is the frame, but the poem is the picture, and each frame reveals new colors and textures in the words.
dm: Terry, You are a prolific recording artist and songwriter. Why do you think that your music, especially “I Only Have Eyes For You”, is so popular with young people today?
Terry Johnson: Every generation will always look for romantic music to express their love for each other. Love will never go out of style. I feel blessed that Gen Z is crazy about our music and I feel doubly blessed that that song arrangement came to me in a dream from God. Sixty six years later as of 2025, the song is even more popular that it was then. On Spotify alone, it has over 145M streams and counting.
dm: Lisa, speaking of the old becoming new again, “What the world needs now is love sweet love” was one of the anthems of my young adulthood. Is using phrases like this a kind of sampling, the way hip hop shares songs across time and genre?
Lisa Marie Simmons: That particular moment wasn’t written by me; that was Terry vamping at the end of the piece, and I love it. Yes, I think it functions very much like sampling: honoring what came before, carrying it forward, and weaving it into something new.
dm: Could each of you please tell me, what keeps the fire in your belly strong?
Terry Johnson: I’ve never done anything else in my life to earn a living other than music. I started when I was 14 years old and have never stopped. It not only is the only thing I know how to do and love to do, but music is the core of who I am. I love listening to new music and I learn something new from it. Music is the source of my joy in life. It’s just something I was born and made to do. The fire will be in my belly until I leave this earth and hopefully, I will have left music that people will not only enjoy listening to but will be able to relate to in their lives, bringing them found memories.
Theresa Trigg: Music is the career I chose, and I have enjoyed all that I have learned from it. I don’t think anyone should retire and think that the days will be full and meaningful if they don’t have a mission to accomplish for that day. For me, releasing new music and working on marketing, especially with the exciting opportunities that AI has to offer, is keeping me young and aware of what’s happening and not just relying on what I use to know, but learning new things to keep my mind in tune with the rest of the world.
Lisa Marie Simmons: The state of the world in both its most beautiful incantations and its most dire are what keep the fire in my belly! I’m an artist, but I’m also a citizen of the world, and I feel a deep responsibility to respond to what’s happening around me. On one hand, there’s all of the beauty and magic in the world. The small acts of kindness, the resilience of the human spirit, the way music and art can bring people together and bridge divides, the light during magic hour when everything seems possible and sun kissed. So much wonder. All of these moments fill me with hope and inspire me to create. On the other hand, there’s the dire reality of the world. The conflicts, the injustices, the fear and division that seem to be everywhere. I can’t look away from that. Instead of making me feel hopeless, although occasionally it does that too, but mostly it fuels a sense of urgency. The fire in my belly burns because I believe art can be a part of the solution in this pivotal historic moment of divisiveness. It’s a way to speak truth to power, to offer a sanctuary…The need for collective healing and for us to come back to a shared humanity is a powerful motivator.