The Asylum Choir - Tryin' To Stay 'Live

You've mastered the basics of late-'60s pop-rock: Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Kinks, Dylan, Who, Hendrix, Joplin, Doors, Creedence, Stax, Motown. You've explored the second tier: the garage rock and mild trippiness of the box sets Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 and Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969; the stirrings of singer-songwriters; fusions of pop and rock with new forms such as metal and old ones such as country and jazz. You've liked much of what you've heard from these sources, so you've acquired a taste for early-'70s pop-rock that carried on late-'60s traditions: the power pop of Badfinger and Big Star; the glam of David Bowie and T. Rex; the folk-rock masterpieces of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell and so on, and so... Where do you go next, time traveler? Consider visiting the Asylum Choir.
Don't let the name fool you; the Choir consisted of a duo on its first album. Additional musicians appeared on its second, final release, but the assembled multitude never added up to a full choir, not even through the then-limited art of multi-tracking. In whatever form, the band probably never played in an asylum either. The duo consisted of Marc Benno, who sang and played guitar and bass, and Leon Russell, who sang and played guitar, piano, and drums. Benno hailed from Texas, Russell from Oklahoma. They met in LA, where Russell enjoyed an active career as a session musician, from early-'60s work with Phil Spector to mid-'60s work as a member of the so-called Wrecking Crew.
Benno and Russell's debut, Look Inside the Asylum Choir, appeared in 1968. It runs all of twenty-six minutes on the original LP, forty minutes or more with bonus tracks on CD (and the bonus tracks consist of mono mixes or alternate mixes). Benno and Russell cowrote all the songs, either just together or with others.
Like the best work of power-popsters and other lovers of period pieces from the '60s and '70s, so much about this album feels both retro in a good way and totally fresh. The original cover depicted a roll of (unused) toilet paper, a choice so controversial at the time that the album was soon reissued with a photo of Benno and Russell on the cover. Toilet imagery was forbidden in those days--the john on the cover of the Mamas and the Papas' If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966) had to be hidden, and the graffiti-laden loo on the Stones' Beggars Banquet (1968) was replaced with an elegant but faux invitation card. Decades later, indie rock bands would use shots of toilets, even the contents of unflushed toilets, for their album covers. The original Look Inside cover would fit right in--and has been restored on reissues.
Likewise, the duo's music, so affectionate toward its sources and painstakingly crafted, would fit in with late-'60s-style sound collages, pastiches, and homages from the 1980s through today. Think of the Paisley Underground bands Rain Parade, Opal, Three O'Clock, and early Bangles (and don't forget these bands' one-off side project, Rainy Day); XTC's psychedelic recordings and Dukes of Stratosphear alter ego; Bongwater and the Shimmy-Disc Records catalog generally; the Flaming Lips; the Fiery Furnaces; the Lennon-Claypool Delerium. If those references signify for you, if you've grooved on the box set Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era, 1976-1995, you'll probably love Look Inside. However, you might want to get your sugar fix there and not venture further into the Asylum Choir. Or at least you should go into the second album expecting something different than the first one. If Look Inside delivers high-quality bubblegum, its follow-up tastes more like homemade falafel, hummus, or baba ganouj.
Benno and Russell recorded Asylum Choir II in 1969 and were joined by studio musicians. The guitarist, Jesse Ed Davis, is now best known for work with Taj Mahal, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. One bassist, Carl Radle, worked with Eric Clapton, including in Derek & the Dominoes. The other bassist, Donald "Duck" Dunn, played on more Stax and other classics than this sentence could possibly do justice to. The drummer, Chuck Blackwell, played with Taj Mahal and Leon Russell as a solo artist. Asylum Choir II wasn't released until 1971, by which time the Asylum Choir was over and Russell had established himself as a star. While Benno and Russell cowrote seven of the songs here, Russell wrote the remaining four by himself, and the collection feels much more like his self-titled, guest-enhanced 1970 solo debut than like the original Asylum Choir. Eschewing his clipped vocal delivery on Look Inside, Russell lets his drawl hang out. Abandoning that first album's tightly controlled, highly produced, mildly psychedelic freneticism, the band sounds organic, relaxed, pleasantly stoned, a bit ragged. Filter Look Inside the Asylum Choir through Music from Big Pink and The Band and you might get Asylum Choir II. Put another way: this Southern-fried music sounds more like 1971, when it was released, than like 1969, when it was recorded. Maybe this analysis comes across as fitting angels on the head of a pin. However, the history matters if the music matters. Oddly, Asylum Choir II has been reissued on CD with most of Look Inside as bonus tracks, as though the first album was just a warm-up. Taken in chronological order, the two Asylum Choir albums illustrate how '60s pop transitioned into '70s rock.
Since the end of the Asylum Choir, Benno has released solo albums. He is most well-known as the second guitarist on the Doors' L.A. Woman (1971), which is one damn great album to be best remembered for. He also played guitar with Rita Coolidge and wrote a song by the System on the Grammy-winning soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop (1984). Leon Russell's career peaked in the early '70s, when he worked extensively with Joe Cocker, released albums that remain lower-tier classics, and enjoyed hit cover versions of his songs. In the following decades, he experienced partial eclipses and reappearances. His eclipse was nearly total by the time Elton John, a fan from way back, invited him to collaborate on 2010's The Union. Russell died in 2016, his recordings a mix of highs and lows, his time in the Asylum Choir a footnote, even a footnote to a footnote, but a highly entertaining and enlightening one.  From: https://www.furious.com/perfect/asylumchoir.html

PJ Harvey - Naked Cousin

"Naked Cousin" by PJ Harvey explores themes of identity, self-reflection, and the pursuit of freedom. The lyrics depict a complicated relationship between the narrator and their "naked cousin," who serves as a symbol for aspects of the narrator's own self that they dislike or want to distance themselves from. In the first verse, the naked cousin is portrayed as being scared and vulnerable, running around aimlessly in the headland. This can be interpreted as a representation of the narrator's own insecurities and fears, which they may be trying to avoid or escape from.
The line "My naked cousin can cook till he's good and done" can be seen as a metaphorical reference to the cousin's struggle to find his own identity and purpose in life. The image of his skin frying in the sun suggests a sense of discomfort and unease, highlighting the challenges he faces in navigating his own existence. The chorus, which repeats the phrase "He's running," emphasizes the theme of escape and the cousin's constant need to flee from difficult situations or confrontations. It can also be seen as a broader commentary on society, where individuals often find themselves running from various forms of oppression or personal struggles.
The third verse suggests that the cousin is actively running away from anything that disrupts his "master plan." This implies a desire for control and an aversion to anything that challenges his comfort zone or predetermined path. The narrator, on the other hand, acknowledges that if they "flip," they are as good as done, further emphasizing their sense of powerlessness in the face of their cousin's relentless pursuit of freedom. The outro repeats the phrase "He's running" multiple times, accompanied by lyrics that describe the narrator's fear and their willingness to go along with the cousin's escapades. This can be interpreted as a combination of admiration for the cousin's freedom and a desperate plea for the cousin to take them along on their journey. Overall, "Naked Cousin" delves into the complexities of self-perception, the struggle for autonomy, and the constant desire to break free from societal constraints. The use of vivid imagery and repetitive phrases adds to the song's emotional intensity and invites listeners to reflect on their own relationship with identity and freedom.  From: https://www.songtell.com/pj-harvey/naked-cousin

Pauw - Visions

The last couple of years have been a bit of a whirlwind for Dutch psych-rockers Pauw. They have followed hot on the heels of their compatriot Jacco Gardner and just before Christmas unveiled their debut LP Macrocosm Microcosm – a spangly piece of 60s-inspired pop that has drawn comparisons to Tame Impala and Caribou. What’s more, they’ve already bossed some pretty huge spaces after touring with Kasabian and Temples in Europe. The four-piece touched down on UK soil for the first time at last year’s Liverpool Psych Fest, but for those who missed them, we set out to find out a little more about Pauw with frontman Brian Pots.

How has the reaction to the record been?

It’s been amazing, especially in the Netherlands where I think people already knew us.  It was exciting to get the reaction we did because a lot of people had already seen us play live. They have extra patience so it was nice fulfill them. It’s all been positive, really great.

Did the success of those early live shows give you a lot of confidence?

Yeah, it gave us confidence, but also it made us kind of insecure. It put a bit of extra time pressure on recording the album. At the same time we were playing live a lot and we were still studying in school. We had to fit the recording in between these things – and some of the writing because there were still some songs that weren’t properly finished yet. It was pretty heavy, but we made it through!

Have the live shows felt different since you got the record out there?

Some people were singing along, which was pretty cool. The crowds were getting bigger and bigger at shows. Afterwards people were asking for autographs and to take pictures with us. That was all new for us, so it feels pretty amazing.

Was that a strange feeling, the sensation of sudden fame?

Yeah I think so. You know how the process goes, we’re still the same people as before the album came out, we’re still human beings. We couldn’t believe all that stuff at first, but overall it’s pretty cool.

You had some pretty big support slots early on – including Kasabian – how did that help your progression?

It was amazing. Kasabian were a band I was planning on going to see anyway, and then we ended up supporting them! I learned a lot from this experience of playing on the big stage and the whole production that comes with that. The day of the show is really different. There’s a much tighter schedule and obviously a lot more people are coming. Even though we were just the support act the crowd seemed really into our music!

Pauw clearly have an ear for a melody, who are some of your favourite songwriters?

It kind of depends from song to song, but in terms of stuff all four of us are into, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, also The Small Faces and King Crimson. With this particular record we took a lot from the 60s and 70s psychedelic scene.

Psychedelia has had a bit of a resurgence in popularity over the last few years, is that something you have noticed in the Netherlands too?

Yeah, somehow there is some hype from somewhere. There is something going on in the psychedelic scene. We already had our own Jacco Gardner, and you guys in the UK seem to love him too, which is pretty cool. And we have many more, so it’s great to see it is still alive!

Speaking of the UK reaction, how was Liverpool Psych Fest?

It was our first show in the UK and a really great experience. People are coming specifically to see psychedelic music so it was perfect for us. The reaction afterwards was really great, a lot of good reviews. We want all our future shows in the UK to be like this.

What’s next for Pauw? Any early ideas for the second record?

We’ve got some ideas floating around but we’re not really ‘writing’ at the moment. We’re playing live a lot at the the moment and really still focusing on that. But then after we will take some proper time for writing. From tomorrow we’re just going to rehearse for three days and really work on the set we have now. Some of the songs were written in the studio during the process of the recoding. So we need to really get them in our fingers, you know? It’s a bit like we’re playing covers of our own songs!

From: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/interview-a-far-out-introduction-to-pauw/

L'Ham de Foc - Voldrien

Cor de Porc is the third record from L'Ham de Foc and on this one they have taken the next logical step and actually lived in the Northern Greek city of Thessaloniki for six months before recording it. The forty hours of material that led to the twelve songs on The Pig's Heart were recorded between Efren Lopez and Mara Aranda's home regions of Valencia and Greece.
What led them to temporarily move to Greece was the need to more carefully explore the Oriental rhythms, still active in the city due to its proximity to their source, and the particular social characteristics of the city. They even utilized some Greek musicians to achieve this, on instruments such as ney, kaval, rebec and Black Sea lyra. Their Iberian spirit is very much alive, particularly in their use of a style of playing from Valencia called the Cant d'Estil, where a poet whispers the lyrics into the singer's ear who then improvises over a fixed melodic line in a mode not too dissimilar from flamenco. They named the record after the eternal human quest to delve deep and unearth the secrets of our existence, just like a pig searching for food. The results are fascinating. L'Ham de Foc have already proved that they can assimilate their influences from across the Mediterranean Sea, but this time they have moved further East, creating what I feel is the first entechno record by someone who is not Greek (a real accolade for a style of interpretation that is based to a great degree on the specific social parameters of Greece) while at the same time staying true to their own homeland.
The daring process that led to this record has produced a work that, while highly idiosyncratic, is rooted in the musical comings and goings of the Mediterranean and the Near East, the vast cultural space extending from Iran and Afghanistan (here lending instruments and modes of playing) to Valencian Spain. Like their previous efforts, there are moments when things might seem to get too serious or involved, but the sparks that fly as a result of this tension lend it a sense of timelessness.  From: https://rootsworld.com/reviews/porc06.shtml

Love - Live And Let Live

Love “Forever Changes” is one of the seminal sixties albums and one of the top psychedelic albums of all times according to serious music fans and critics. The band may not be familiar to many people but Love was Los Angeles’ biggest band before the incredible ascent of the Doors. Love also influenced many of their contemporaries including The Doors, The Seeds and The Strawberry Alarm Clock, and decades later have been a source of inspiration for bands including The Stone Roses, Teenage Fanclub and The Teardrop Explodes.
The early years of Love were defined by the dichotomy of their two lead talents – singer/songwriter/guitarists Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean. By the time they released their third album “Forever Changes” in 1968, the band were in disarray due to broken down relationships and heavy drug use. The recording sessions started with Lee and MacLean enlisting the help of session musicians for the first two songs. As producer Bruce Botnick remembers, “The group were present, too. I remember them physically crying at this session. The band was so shocked, so put out, so hurt that it caused them to forget about their problems and become a band again.”
Despite the tentative start, the final results were groundbreaking. Unlike other bands at the time, Love took cues from many musical sensibilities and fused together psychedelic pop, punk, folk-rock, and Latin with a heavy dose of lush orchestration. The sentiment of “Forever Changes” also set the band apart as it was juxtaposed to the prevalent “Summer of Love” attitude. Instead the album featured dark and brooding lyrics. Writer/producer Harvey Kubernick says, of Lee’s lyrics “He described things that were very menacing. We’re coming out of the Summer of Love, and he’s singing ‘Bummer in the Summer’. He’s talking about racial tensions, tensions between men and women.”
Despite this, the album was the band’s biggest success and even reached the Top 30 in Britain. Upon its release, critics such as Gene Youngblood of LA Free Press hailed the album, “Soft, subtle. Forever changing in tonal color, rhythm patterns, vocal nuances, lyric substance. Exquisite nuances.” Contemporary critics now view the album as a major musical turning point as Pete Pashides of The Sunday Times declares, “Forever Changes preserves, in notes, words and breathtaking energy, the precise moment that 1960s idealism started to sour.”  From: https://classicalbumsundays.com/love-forever-changes/

Children of the Sün - Reflection

Things don't always have to be related to negativity and the depression that has been going on worldwide, instead, life could be celebrated, enjoy the now and the hope that it could be better one day. There has been a long line of positivity, yet, most of it died after the 60s, leaving a huge gap for the actual reality to take over. The Swedish Hippies, Children of the Sün, wished to head back decades ago in a spiritual way and relive the Flower Kids through music. Steinmetal talked to Jacob Hellenrud of the band, about being a Hippie type of band, working with a new label, the new album "Flowers" and more.

Hello Jacob, it is a pleasure having you for this interview for Metal Temple online Magazine, how have you been doing?

Hi! It's going great! A bit stressful with all that comes with releasing an album and going back to school again and so on... But I couldn't be happier!

Well, it is not every day for me that I interview non-Metal artist, yet I must say that I find your band Children Of The Sün quite intriguing. Let's start a little about the band, how did this group came to be?

The band was formed in 2017 in the deep woods of Värmland in Sweden after a soul-concert our school made. So you could say in a way that the soul brought us together. Our bass-player and lead-singer wanted to create a Rock band and play covers by idols of theirs such as Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin, but when I got involved we started to write our own music. Soon people started to join our music collective and after a couple of weeks we were Children of the Sün, and hopefully we'll never stop playing.

Recently, you guys released your new album "Flowers", via The Sign Records, absolutely the right platform to hash this album out. How has it been received by your fanbase? What is your overall appreciation of the end result?

It has been really cool to be able to work with The Sign Records. We are all big fans of other bands at the label and to be a part of it is a dream come true. The album has got a good receive I believe from our old fans but we've noticed that we've get a lot of new fans along the road as well, and for that we are grateful. We are satisfied with the result and we hope that more people will discover 'Flowers'.

Why title it "Flowers"? What is the philosophy behind it?

We wanted to make a concept-album about earth in the beginning. And for that reason we wanted to use flowers as a metaphor for humans. We grow from being a seed to become this beautiful flower. None looks the same. But everyone is beautiful. It's also our reincarnation in a way. It is Children of the Sün becoming one with nature. The rest is up to the listener to discover their own idea of what the album is to them.

Children Of The Sün's music is obvious at first, especially the leading characteristic of the hippie movement in the notes. However, I sense that it is much more than that. There is Soul, classic Rock, Blues, a bit of vintage Folk Rock, a chance for the listener to sway between the lines. Do you agree with that assessment?

I would totally agree. We love music, and we love writing music. We don't define ourselves with just one genre, rather we write music with the world as our inspiration. Maybe that is a reason why the songs sound kind of different to each other sometimes. It's a musical goulash of all the music that we love.

What do you guys find so fascinating about the 60s? In particular, since your music sounds like a fine homage for the Woodstock Festival?

Simple. We are old souls in young bodies. Basically we're born in the wrong era. After hours digging through our parents' vinyl collections, we've all found a connection to this particular genre and era. It touches a bit of your soul and gets you high on music, and that's still legal. The music doesn't have algorithms made by a computer - It is made by real people with real feelings. That for us is very important because we put a lot of emotions into our own songs. We think that it is impossible to create something with emotional value without putting a bit of your soul into it.

In your songwriting, how were you able to connect Rock music, and its surroundings, with spirituality?

I think that they go well together. Often the spirituality comes first and it's the main focus of each song. Then we lay the groove to back it up.

Was the songwriting for "Flowers" a joint effort or rather an effort of a leading musician that carried it forward?

I almost always come up with the idea of the songs. Then Josefina writes the lyrics. Then we combine the two and arrange it together with the rest of the band. It is at this point the song becomes more than a just a demo, for every member of the band contributes with their own experience and their own style of playing the instrument.

Would you say that "Flowers" is a piece that represents that there is still hope for this world or there is rather an inner message suggesting otherwise? Does "Flowers" symbolize a string of positivity?

Even though many songs are about depression and anxiety about the climate, there are more songs about taking care of each other and becoming one with earth. So it's a balance between good and bad. But it is a record about more than hope. It's a celebration of life.

Continuing with that direction, how can such harmony, as you present in your music, exist in such a world, where apparently society is slowly decaying, as plenty of the harsher music artists suggest?

Music is hope, music is what unites people and music is healing. Therefore, we can never lose hope. But we can try to affect people with our music. I agree with you, but we can never stop living. If we do, then it's already too late.

How did the connection with The Sign Records came to pass? Was it mutual interest by both parties?

It's actually kind of funny. We reached out to The Sign Records two years ago when we were going to release our debut EP. We didn't get any answers back then. But a couple of weeks before we signed with The Sign we got a mail from Kaj at the label saying; “Sorry for the late response”. But the important thing is that they responded and we couldn't be luckier to be able to work with them. They are professionals dealing with 8 kids that wants to play music. Respect to them for dealing with us.

Which of the album's songs do you find the most meaningful to you? Please elaborate on your pick.

I would have to say "Flowers". It's a different song for us. I wrote it as a metaphor for earth. The song is touching more in the folk genre which I love and it's easy to listen to and remember the hook. It's hard to describe what I think is so good about it, but I really enjoyed writing it and I enjoy playing it. I don't think that it is the strongest song on the album, but it has an aura of sitting in the forest and just listening to what nature has to say to you.

What are your plans to support "Flowers" in the coming future?

For now, we are looking for bookers in Europe. A dream would be to buy a “hippie van” and drive through Europe and play at every venue that wants us. But for the future we want to make a new album with new songs and try out things we haven't done before, maybe add more instruments? We'll see!

From: https://metal-temple.com/interview/jacob-hellenrud-children-of-the-sun/

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Sessions at West 54th Street 1997

I've always been a big fan of Gillian Welch's albums. She and her musical partner, Dave Rawlings, made two records (Revival and Hell Among the Yearlings) for Almo Sounds with producer T Bone Burnett that I enjoyed. But it was the next album, the Dave Rawlings-produced Time (The Revelator) on their own Acony Records, which put them onto my desert island list. It's quietly stunning, both musically and sonically, and Gillian's new album The Harrow & The Harvest is equally as strong. I got a chance to speak with them while they were on tour supporting Buffalo Springfield. At first they seemed a bit bored by yet another interview, but when I mentioned I wanted Dave to stay in the room so we could talk about recording, they both visibly perked up. Although Dave is credited with production, Gillian also has some deep knowledge and opinions on recording. As befits two people who have worked together for over a decade, they often finish each other's sentences and thoughts. Their strong connection as musical partners is evident.

Time (The Revelator) is one of my favorite records. I think it's a classic album.

G: We made it in the old RCA Studio B in Nashville that was built in the late '50s. It had no gear in there.

D: We were looking for a recording space and I had been driving around Nashville trying to find an old studio to rent, or possibly buy. One day I drove by Studio B and the door was open. I thought, "Oh my God, that's Studio B. I've never been in there." I walked in, heard my footsteps on the floor and knew that I liked the sound of the room. Bob Moore was there that day — Elvis's bass player. He just happened to stop by. I was really interested in [renting] it. I then found out that the Country Music Hall of Fame — who had been running a lot of tours through it and whatnot — were building the new Hall of Fame. In the interim they were going to be too busy to do anything with RCA B. We approached them through a friend who was on their board and they said would it be all right if we brought our gear in and rented it on a monthly basis. They treated it as a donation to the new Hall of Fame, which was real nice. We rented it out for about 14 months. When we first got in there, I spent a month or two cleaning out the troughs and I fixed the plate reverbs. The place hadn't been used much as a professional space in quite a while.

G. It had not been a functioning studio.

But they had a little bit of gear, like the plates?

D: They had the plates in the other room and they had somebody doing some karaoke sessions out of the live room. The control room was basically empty.

G: The speakers were still there.

How long did Harrow & The Harvest take to record?

G: Four weeks. That's about how long our records take.

Is everything recorded live?

G: Totally.

D: Yeah, everything is live. It is pretty much all from takes one, two or three. Very few mixes. This is the first record we've done that Stephen Marcussen [our mastering engineer] listened to and said, "Okay, Let's transfer it." We didn't compress or EQ anything. Just transferred it from a machine of his that we really like, through the nice converters and a clean signal chain.

Do you have an engineer helping you?

D: We have worked pretty closely with Matt Andrews in Nashville for a while now, and our methodology has developed around the three of us. I'm not in the control room while we are tracking, so we rely on Matt, to some degree. We have some sense of whether or not we are getting there, but it's always good to have another set of ears. If we are going to be editing between takes, it's generally good to get parts from adjacent takes. I suppose I handle most of the responsibilities that you'd associate with a producer.

G: We all listen and weigh in on what the good takes are. Happily, we pretty much agree. It's pretty evident.

Do you do the mixing?

D: I do a lot of mixing. On The Harrow & The Harvest, we weren't really moving faders very much — we never really ride stuff. For most mixes we set the faders and let them run. It's very rare for there to be fader moves within a song. Matt did a lot of live mixing, where he would get the picture a particular way. If we liked it when we came in, we might only tweak things slightly. He did a lot of riding the preamps and then we would adjust from there as far as color and compression.

I'm assuming you work out the arrangements well in advance and bring them in?

G: No.

D: Some of the writing goes down in the studio.

G: It's a very "in the moment" dynamic process.

D: The improvisation is usually better early on, and of course you always have time later if you fail.

G: I tend to be... the positive way to say it is that I'm really consistent. But once I've been playing a song for a while it tends to solidify for me. That can be a problem if we are having trouble recording something, as it's unlikely that I'm going to change what I'm doing enough to make a difference. Dave's really good at suggesting arrangements. But, even broader than that, he creates musical changes that really crack things open. For instance, having me move from guitar to banjo or totally recasting a song from major to minor. A lot of these songs are very spontaneous takes on a new arrangement or even new music.

D: "Hard Times" is the second time Gil ever played it on banjo. The first take is un-listenable 'cause there are so many chord mistakes.

G: It's clam city.

D: As the second take was going down, I knew it was magic. I actually cut the solo short because I didn't want there to be any more time — I wanted less time for things to go wrong.

G: He shot me this look of, "Start singing again."

D: Let's get through the fucking thing! It was moving me so much.

G: "Six White Horses" was maybe one of the first times we ever performed it, with me hamboning and with you at the rack [harmonica]. This runs through the whole record — it's very spontaneous

D: ...but only after quite a bit of writing and working. The studio time is the culmination of the writing. "The Way the Whole Thing Ends," has approximately 25 verses. The studio is where we figure out how long the songs need to be and where to cut them down. It was the same situation with "I Dream a Highway;" it's a very long song and I thought it was appropriate for it to remain long. Most of the time they get better if you shrink them, but that one seemed nice long.

G: We had only ever sung that twice.

D: I said, "We shouldn't ever play that until we...

G: 'Til we have tape rolling."

D:We didn't know if it would fit on a reel. I cut out a couple of verses in the final — that's a composite of takes one and two.

You've done enough records in this format, and it seems like it's quick to get set up with Matt.

G: The interesting thing about this record is that we had never had a room that was great sounding to do duet records in at Woodland Sound Studios [Gillian and Dave's studio].

D: We made Soul Journey in the A room at Woodland. We have tried several times to do acoustic stuff — even during the first record with T Bone. We worked in Woodland in '95 and tried to do some acoustic stuff, but never really got anything satisfactory. AES held an event where they brought in Glenn Snoddy, who'd built the studio. We looked at the room and realized that what we didn't like was basically a '90s renovation. So we took the B room and tore it down to studs. We took the wood floor up and basically restored it to how it was in the '60s, when it was built, with linoleum floor and acoustic tiles — basically the same construction as RCA B, which is what Woodland B was built to mirror. We didn't know what we were going to get. We came back, finished the trim, worked for a few weeks, buffing the floor with the same wax compound. Then we set up mics and did one take of a song that ended up being an outtake. The next thing we played was "The Way it Will Be." We did one take of that and it was a master. We felt like, "Okay, this room is working well." ...Revelator sits back in speakers in a very nice, mysterious way — The Harrow & The Harvest throws out the speakers and combines in the space you are in.

From: https://tapeop.com/interviews/85/gillian-welch-and-dave-rawlings/