My Friend Alpha

This is my friend Alpha and his daughter Stephanie

I have a very good friend named Alpha Bangura whom I have never met in person. We connected on the internet 11 years ago when I was looking at information about various causes and people making a difference. Alpha lives in Sierra Leone, Africa. He helps children who have been orphaned by the terrible wars in his country through his school and his orphanage. I've worked on fundraisers and fund-raising for Alpha ever since then and find my relationship with him deeply rewarding. He is a truly lovely man. About two years ago, he and his wife had a baby boy who very sadly died because of poor health care. It broke Alpha's heart and I almost thought Alpha wouldn't survive. A year later they had a baby girl and Alpha emailed me to ask if he could name her after me.

My new cd

I wanted to find an organic, folky, pure sound for my third cd, Daisy Petal in the Dirt.  No fancy tricks! I had always admired a band in Chicago called Sons of The Neverwrong. I love their vibe, their music, their live show. And as I was once a rocker chick, the thought of recording it folk & roots like the Sons seemed pretty enthralling. You can’t get away with anything when you’re in the raw, a girl and a piano.

In July of 2009, I went to Sons’ producer/writer/guitarist/singer Bruce Roper’s studio pad on the north side and began laying down scratch piano and vocal tracks for 15 tunes. It took several months just to get those done because I was stealing hours during the day from my mom and jobbing band duties and I happened to be intensely loaded up, schedule-wise. But, it was worth the time because in all my mistakes and re-dos, we nailed down tempos and keys pretty well and had a decent enough basis for the rest of the musicians. I especially loved Bruce’s microphone, an Audio Technica AT-4050, and vocal set-up. The scratch vocals sounded so purdy.

Then we started bringing in some players and sent tracks to Stevie Blacke, a fantastic LA-based strings musician (who has played with some pretty famous people like Pink and Beck), two different drummers and a bass player.

While the Stevie stuff came back so gracefully, our Chicago sessions were sort of uninspired. Not because of the musicians but by the lack of vision and skill on the part of the “producer,” moi. I was hoping things would just come together, not realizing players generally appreciate more direction than “that sounds nice.” I expected the whole thing to unravel naturally, effortlessly. Although I loved the players we brought it, I knew something wasn’t adding up when it all came together. The recordings sounded soulless. My options were: 1. To finish what we had; 2. To trash the whole thing and start again;  3. To find a proper producer who could work with what we had and enhance what we needed or 4. To quit music entirely.

I spent about four or five months contemplating what to do while Bruce comped vocals and met me here and there. I was thinking: should I re-do what we have or should we mix it and hope for the best? I sent a few songs to various mixers and friends to see if they could rectify the situation or offer advice. Yet still, I wasn’t excited about the recordings. If I could find someone who wouldn’t charge a ton, I could send the material out of town and work the tracks from a distance (maybe I needed some distance at that point!).

I found an old college friend, Craig Havighurst, who referred me to Neilson Hubbard, a Nashville producer. Neilson spent about a month organizing the pieces after bringing in his guys to re-track rhythm. Believe it or not, he kept two things: my scratch piano parts and Stevie’s strings. Oh, and he also loved a lot of the quirky background vocals Sue Demel (of Sons of The Neverwrong) had done – she’s so cool.  I found out later, when I went down to Nashville to sing my leads, that Neilson didn’t receive any click tracks on the hard drive I sent him. So, for each song, he and his boys had to follow my scrappy piano parts and play to them! Awkward. So much for all that time Bruce and I spent on programming the click to all my weird tempo changes!

I went down to Nash (with bronchitis) on March 8^th, 2011 and spent two days singing with Neilson after he had spent some time re-tracking and recycling what I had sent in the instrumental tracks. He’s sweet and low-key, a Mississippi boy. He knew what he was doing, but you might not think so by his humility. No ego at all. We did six, seven or eight vocal takes of each song – 7 songs the first day and 4 the next day – in a smooth, easy-going, yet purposeful manner. He had chosen 11 of the 15 to work on. He did reject one of my old standbys, Something’s Missing, but it wasn’t too hard to let that one go after I’ve been playing it since 2003 or 2004. All the other songs he chose were written more recently. He rejected another one I loved, Sweet Color, but maybe that one will reappear later (it has multiple annoying tempo changes and it arrived with no click track like all the others).

Neilson brought the boys back in and they tracked three more songs: Hand of a Rebel, Marie and Walk To the Water (which I later 86’d). I sent Marie and Walk in there last minute just to give them something extra, but “Walk” wasn’t a fully developed song yet, so it made it to the trash pile. Again…maybe next record.

Neilson came to Chicago in April 2011 to play a show with one of his artists, Kim Richey. So, I booked a couple days at Transient Sound, a St. Ben’s-area studio owned by my friend Vijay Tellis-Nayak and his partner Steve Gillis. We recorded lead vocals for Hand of a Rebel, Marie and one other song that needed another look, Come Orion.  I also invited two brilliant Chicago pals - Liam Davis and Cheryl Wilson - to come in for some background harmonies. Since Dan Mitchell, the keyboard player he works with, was here with Neilson, he sang some and played some piano and organ as well. It was a very productive day and-a-half!

Neilson went back to Nashville and I got busy laying down background vocals for a couple songs, recording at home on my M-Box. Not exactly high-fi, but good enough for backgrounds, Neilson assured me. Then, we realized I needed to get down to Nashville for final mixes and some last-minute vocal changes, so I spent a day in late May in his studio and we finalized our mixes.

So, after starting a total of 18 songs in Chicago two years ago, we had now collectively whittled things down to 13 tracks, then ditched a piano-cello piece, Easter Day, in the 11th hour. My old friend from Northwestern, Thom Russo, offered to give me some re-mixes at this point, so Neilson sent him the files in June 2011. Thommy did so well with those, he ended up re-mixing the entire record. I can’t wait for you to hear it. It is so beautiful (in my opinion). I haven’t made a cd in almost nine years, and this one is my most proud. For sneak peaks, please go to soundcloud to hear some of the songs. 


CD release party for Daisy Petal In The Dirt will be at Mayne Stage in Chicago on September 15th, 8pm. Tickets are $15 for general seating. 

Nash

I'm probably no hot studio singer. The process of recording tends to stress me out. Directing the emotion of a big song into a small metal tube is a challenge to this live-lovin' performer. But, I'm making a record (yes, they're called records), so I gotta record. In a studio. This time, I opted to do it in Nashville.

So, seated next to an inebriated ex-Marine with gold teeth and billowy muscles, I amble down in a rickety ol' can of tin (thanks, American Eagle) and hightail it to Neilson. Neilson is a Mississippi fella, a touring musician, a no-kidding producer with a vibey studio in east Nashville.

Neilson Hubbard

We meet. We talk. Music, marriage, religion, politics. Then, I sing. And sing. And sing. I sang from ten in the morning until seven at night that first day. And I couldn't wait to do it again the next day.

Maybe now I kinda get the studio and maybe it kinda gets me. Maybe one awkward flight, a Marine, the Nashville hills, a bottle of throat spray and a smart southern dude just turned me into a singer.

Taking Care

Being sick, which I seem to be sometimes, is often a pain in the ass and yet it's also a blessing. It's a chance to reform, renew and reinvigorate a life. I've noticed in these past few homebound days that I've strung myself along the emotional pull - from annoyance and regret to joy and hope - just to find that I am, once again, emerging a little bit stronger and hope-filled. I had been chained to a box of tissues while reading Newsweek and the lyrics of Leonard Cohen when Karen Maezen Miller's "Hand Wash Cold" arrived at a most serendipitous moment. It's a Zen-infused instruction manual (and autobiography) about enjoying the wash, the chores, the moment.

Thank you Momma Zen because today, as I am recovering, I am grateful for the chance to be home these past few days. To have gently made simple, nourishing meals for my sick family, to have had the luxury of sleep and hugs and herbal baths, and to have relished this beautiful book... 

Indie Wed

I was really thrilled to be an attendee at Indie Wed last weekend. Indie wed is a wedding show event that caters to unique, hip, conscious couples. I met lots of amazing people who are raising the eco-friendly bar in their floral, stationary, catering, photography, video and jewelry businesses. I also saw some great re-purposing of gorgeous wedding accoutrements and some incredibly creative green and vintage companies. I loved the inspiration and vibe. There were a couple DJs and a smattering of individual musicians (a string quartet, a guitarist, a harpist), but no band representation. This event made me really think about how I can incorporate best green practices into my work in the band. While we do use electricity and cars to lug gear, we rarely print our promo materials (we use email and pdfs a lot!). I also try to buy previously owned gear and I donate a portion of our proceeds to great organizations like Donors Choose, Kiva and the Lemonaid Fund in Sierra Leone. I'd love to find more ways to bring consciousness to my business, so please send me any suggestions if you have them!


Some of the groovy vendors at indie wed 2011:
http://layercakeshop.com/
http://www.larkspurchicago.com/
http://idofilms.net/
http://greenweddingalliance.org/
http://jfod.com/
http://lovelulumae.com/
http://vavoompinups.com/