In 1967, singer, composer, and all-around American renaissance woman Anita Kerr was operating out of Los Angeles. In addition to forming a new version of her vocal group the Anita Kerr Singers, writing and recording jingles for radio and television, and working as the choral director for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, she began a new collaboration with poet and songwriter Rod McKuen on an instrumental/spoken word LP called The Sea. With McKuen's supple voice providing romantic meditations on the natural world and Kerr acting as composer, arranger, and conductor to a studio orchestra that would be credited as the San Sebastian Strings, The Sea and its successors The Earth (1967) and The Sky (1968) were quintessential volumes in the late-'60s easy listening movement. Under Kerr's direction, the San Sebastian Strings would provide the musical landscape to McKuen's musings on over a dozen more releases before the partnership ended in 1975. ~ Timothy Monger