July 8, 2008

Notes on New EP When The Weather Turns Bad

This winter Jen Clarke set about writing some new tunes for her upcoming CD "When The Weather Turns Bad". Hunkered down at Livingston Taylor's old camp at Ceder Tree Neck and then on to Stonewall Beach when Liv finally had to turn the water off, Jen began to get a lot of new material together. In late winter/early spring she contacted islander Judd Fuller who has spent the last two years down in Nashville. He has been very successful joining country megastar Rodney Atkins band playing bass, recording and touring almost non-stop to sold out stadiums nationwide.
"Judd got the tunes in the mail and called immediately to say how great he thought they were and that he was hearing all kinds of stuff on them. This was wonderful because I didn't really know where to take them. I had made demo's with piano and guitar at Jim Parr's and loved them in that state so I was really at a loss as to how to develop them. Originally I had sent them to Taj Mahal through a Gay Head fishing contact of mine Capt. Buddy Vanderhoop. Taj was on the road but his "ears" Johnny Lee Schell heard the 4 songs in demo form and went nuts on them. He cc'd me an email he had sent to Taj saying "Produce this lady's project!!!!! This stuff is fantastic!!!!!!!". There was talk of flying out to Pasadena to record at his place, maybe hooking up in NYC, etc. but it soon became apparent that Taj's schedule just wasn't going to afford him the time to do it before the fall. That was unfortunate but I know it will happen down the line... Meanwhile I was thrilled to be able to work with Judd again!!!! He's brilliant.

His schedule wasn't much better then Taj's, but he set about trying to find a hole in the touring when he'd be stable for three or four days in Nashville. Miraculously in May Rodney Atkins decided to add a Pedal Steele player to his band and they suddenly found themselves anchored down in Nashville with a lot of rehearsals and some sporadic local gigs. I agreed to fly down immediately and Judd set the whole thing up for four days. He wanted to record at Duane Sciacqua's home studio in Hillsboro Village, Nashville. Duane is Rodney's guitar player but has an unbelievable background playing for years with the likes of Joe Walsh, etc. out in L.A. Judd knew he was a great player, and engineer and we could do things reasonably at his house. When I spoke with Duane the first time, we were immediately on the same page. We decided to forgo the "Go Yah" players (Nashville's A list sessionists) and go for a more organic sound with a small core group that would as usual cut everything live.

Judd was responsible for all of the players, the arrangements, the approach etc. And working with him for me has always been innate. We just finish each others sentences musically and we always know when something isn't right and we're not afraid to address it always striving for the absolute best. I honestly can't remember even having a serious temporary disagreement about anything with Judd. It's just magic and we both throw heart and soul into everything.

Rich Malloy (a young Texan drummer currently playing with Kim Richey down in Music City) was brought in to play drums and Liam Bailey (who Judd got Rodney to hire on fiddle) was forced off of his usual instrument and back onto guitar which he played on my first demo back in 2003 "Time Flies". Totally out of his comfort zone he was brilliant as always. Rich just blew our minds. Judd took his kit completely apart and had him play his own thing with all kinds of abnormal stuff instead of the standard. He went off on a tear and eventually refused to play even a normal snare drum most of the time!! It was awesome....

"Stay Awhile" went down instantly and Judd brought in Mike Webb (John Hiatt) the next day to play B3 and piano. We kept my one take vocal from the demo at Jim Parr's and brought in Fred Molin's horn guy Jim Hoke from my last album to finish it off with saxophone and trumpet. They both wrote the charts as they went. We sat back and listened at the end of the session and just smiled... .

"When The Weather Turns Bad" was a piano driven demo in 6/8 and we tried it a couple of different ways. At the end of the next day Judd said I have an idea of totally re-approaching this one. I was game so he sat in the main room (Duane's living room) with an acoustic guitar and I went out in the garage with a mike to sing. We decided to do it in ¾ and I thought I'd never sing it right but it went down in one take again and the next day we had Rich play to the vocal and guitar while Liam hunkered down on Resofonic Guitar my favorite thing he plays.... Duane layered up the electric and Judd doubled some of his parts on Baritone Guitar. It got the "spook" we were looking for.

"Forever Is Fine" was another one we tried a couple of different ways. I had written it also in 6/8 and on piano and basically it went the way of "Weather" coming together in ¾ with the original one take live vocal from Jim Parr's now completely guitar driven. Duane added the slide guitar the night I flew home as a last minute thought he and Judd had and I listened to it online the next morning back here and loved it.

"You Never Even Try" was my favorite basic track we recorded when I left town. Duane just killed it with the guitars and the rhythm section was in full chemistry by that time (day four). I came home and cut the vocal with Mike Benjamin at his studio in Edgartown. Judd was still wondering whether we should take a more "campfire/Jack Johnson) approach to it as it was being mastered by Casey.

That was the last step and as seamless as the rest of the process had been; mixing and mastering. No one knew where to go but I had Casey Wood in mind from the get-go. Another one of Fred Molin's brilliant team over the years down there Casey is the protégé of the infamous producer Kyle Lehnig (Randy Travis). Fred introduced me to him on the last album that we mixed in Kyle's "pool house". We work as well together as Judd and I and everyone was blown away by his mixes!! He's just brilliant and he gets what Judd and I are after intuitively. We just let him go and see what he comes up with. Normally we don't change a thing and that's pretty cool.
We only had time to do four songs but I had to get them out there... . So until next fall when we hopefully re-convene the same team, ENJOY!!!!!!!

August 27, 2006

I performed at a great charity event last night on the island. Darryl "DMC" McDaniels (of Run DMC fame) and Mark Wahlberg got a few hundred people together to raise money for their foundation which sends adopted kids off to incredible camps for fun. Our good friend Patty Ross emceed, Lenny did the auction and I sang. Lots of industry people there from television and film that seemed to have a great time. I sang "Home" off the new CD and I picked it because it’s all about what it was like for me as a kid growing up. A lot of people really loved it and I wished I’d brought along CD’s to sell… After my song Darryl came back up and we sang a duet. It was pretty cool stuff. He’d cut a single awhile back "Just Like Me" which is a rap song over Harry Chapin’s "Cat’s in the Cradle" music bed and had Sarah Mclachlan sing the choruses along with some harmonies. They did a video together as well. She’s incredible… I sang her parts and had a blast doing it. I never thought I’d end up singing with a rapper…

We raised almost $100,000 for a great cause when all was said and done and got out of there just as the police were coming back for the third time to try to quiet things down. All in all it was a very fun night. What a great guy Darryl is and what a treat to get to perform with him.

September 2004

Wow...it's been awhile! Things have been hectic all summer as usual. I've been traveling down to Nashville on a regular basis throughout the entire fishing season to write and at the same time I've been re-recording all of the vocals on the first record "Time Flies" at Parr Audio with Jim Parr. That with the commercial bass season, charters and tournaments has had me a bit crazy.

The Nashville thing has turned out to be a tremendous opportunity. This couple that I met in March at a big charity event in Colorado really liked the songs on the record. After driving down to Nashville to meet with them in late May they invited me back to co-write with them and some other folks down there. I flew back as soon as I could just after the 4th of July and went on my first series of "writes". My contact Aaron was kind enough to work with me the first day and to accompany me on the rest of the sessions throughout the week so I'd be comfortable getting the hang of things. It was difficult and strange as hell but it went really well, and I think Aaron was very happy. What a privilege to write with some of these guys. They've all had numerous chart hits and in most case's many number ones. I went back for a second series of "writes" a couple of weeks ago and things went even better. I was a lot more comfortable and we actually finished up a song that I really like and wrote another strong one. All in all I now have six or eight songs written (co-written) and Aaron said he may be taking two of them into the studio. I'm just waiting for the final word. I'll probably head back down in mid to late October.

The vocals with Jim Parr have presented their own set of challenges and rewards. I had Chris Rival who mixed "Time Flies" dump the whole record into pro tools about a month ago. He had to lay down time code and then take the reels out to a studio in Acton to make the transfer. I purchased a hard drive and I picked it up from Chris with everything on it ready to go. While I was down in Nashville Jim Parr got familiar with the tracks and we were ready to start just after Labor Day. It's never easy to go back and try to re-sing old stuff. But I thought that the songs, the musicians, the vocal ideas were tremendous and that with a cleaner stronger warmer vocal recording the record would be stupendous all the way around. So after a bit of a rocky start Jim and I got into a groove and it has been an incredible experience all the way around. The vocals are sounding amazing!!!! They still retain all of the character of the previous performances but they stand out so much more. They are now where they needed to be, front and center in the mix. It's been a blast!! We're almost done.... Three songs left!!! Now I own them in a whole new way and I think it will be of tremendous benefit when we take them out to perform this winter.

My days at Liv Taylor's camp are winding down. The old North wind has begun to blow and winter marches across the island ever closer. This is my favorite time of year to write, to record, to venture out and play. It always reminds me of school and of learning new things and meeting new people and that always excites me. There's an energy of change hanging in the air, of motion and moving on. I like that. We'll see what it brings.

I'll stay in touch more often now I promise,

April 2004

I've been holed up in Jim's studio for the past few days (as spring arrives of course). But it's paying off big time. I'm going to have all four tracks we've been working on this winter rough mixed to take to Nashville with me next Sat. I'm going down there to meet with some nice folks I met earlier in the year and to check it out. Can't believe I've never been. Memphis was the closest I ever got. That was ten years ago on my way out to L.A. I'll stop off and see my parents, sister and her kids on the way in Virginia. The songs have taken a lot of work but they have been worth it. It's a little tricky going back in the studio so quickly after finishing an album. You want to maintain the momentum but need for songs to be fresh and moving ahead in a creative way. But I figure after waiting so long to make the first record the subsequent ones will probably roll off quickly. We tracked the new four with a new drummer Mike Levesque, Judd, Stu and Duke and tinkered with the instrumentation a lot on a couple. I felt like I knew what I wanted but it took a little while for me to translate that and get it done right. I didn't spend much time on the vocals and I feel that they are infinitely better then the last record. So much so in fact that I've been thinking about re-recording all of the "Time Flies" vocals... Most people say I'm crazy but we'll see.

January 17, 2004

We're getting ready to move into Jim Parr's studio. We've decided to try pro-tools on this record instead of 2" analog. It just makes more sense. On Thurs. we were joined by Mike Levesque on drums. We took a new song in and re-cut one we'd cut at Audiolutions. I'm going to miss those guys over there a lot but I know I'll be doing more work with them in the future. Mike and Judd (on bass) and I (playing piano) Cut the basic tracks and we had a blast!!! One song was so new I really didn't know how it would come out but Mike played brushes and Judd played a big old stand-up that Jim had and it was way cool! I can't wait to go back in and hear it.

Mike, Judd and I are taking another song from audiolutions over to Jim's on Sunday the 25th. We're going to re-cut it (Judd has a total new vision) put some horns on it in the afternoon. Then on Thursday of that week Duke comes down. I can't even think about that because I'll lift off from this snow covered ground right out of my shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's going to be incredible.

Stay Warm,