"I began piano lessons in the 4th grade in Charlottesville, Virginia. I continued two more years when my family lived in Italy with a teacher from England, and then studied with Viola Misko Hartman in Washington DC until I graduated from high school in 1972. I met Janice because she also studied with Mrs. Hartman. Chuck was the boyfriend of a different friend of mine, and often played guitar with us. The three of us began playing together informally and then made the album together. I've heard from both Janice and Chuck over the years but we're not in regular contact. We played live only a few times -- at several parties and at a retirement home. None of us continued in music, though I'd bet Chuck still plays the guitar, and I know Janice performs in a women's choir at her church. Janice and I performed once at a college near where I was going to school.
We decided to record the album when one of our parents offered to help with funding for studio time. It was a very exciting and fun experience for us, of course. We then sold albums to friends (and to the very few people who heard us perform!) We simply looked up local studios in the "yellow pages" (the phone book for companies) in the area until we found reasonable prices. The studio we used was very small, named JRB Sound Studio. ACAS, we explained to our families, stood for "and catch a star", signaling reaching for our dreams. I did go on to write over 100 more songs during college, and recorded many of them at a sound studio owned by one of my friend's husbands -- but never made another album.
We were all based in Washington, D.C. I went on to college and graduate school, married a fellow graduate student, and we obtained jobs in Chicago, where I still am today, having raised my family here. I for a time held two jobs, one in Wisconsin and one in Chicago but I now only work my Chicago job. Janice is, I believe, in New York, and Chuck is in Washington, D.C.
Thank you for your kind interest! I would love to see anything you are posting about your interests in music. Beth Mertz, December 2017"