Count your blessings is the order of the day. Besides getting to play with a bunch of great folks over the years, producing records has been another way to intersect with a lot of great artists, some familiar, some once in a lifetime, and some obscure.
Being in Seattle, I have intersected with an embarrassing amount of crazy talented artists, many of whom have received very limited recognition, but I was (and am) thrilled to make music with, and in some cases help them make records.
Cathy Croce is, artistically, the one that got away. To the best of my knowledge this CD was essentially her last act as a musician, although I may be wrong about that. An insanely gifted songwriter who, I think, just knew all along that she didn’t want an artist’s life.
This week’s download is “The Man Inside of Me”. I didn’t write it, I played a small bit of organ towards the end, my involvement was as a producer, engineer and mixer. Tim Young is on guitar, and I believe Gary Shelton on bass and Ben Smith on drums—two longtime Seattle musicians that are really not part of my world here, but great musicians who really know how to work with songwriters. I am guessing that is Julie Wolf on background vocals.
This song is lovely, moving, and hilarious all at once, and I hope you like it as much as I do.
My favorite line: …”a kind of a lifeguard, for the already drowned"
Some better know productions I am particularly enamored of, even after many years are by the late Fontella Bass-best known for her hit “Rescue Me” and the first tune on the first record I produced for Bill Frisell entitled “Is That You”.
Both of these projects were super exciting, very hands on, and I got to work with so many great players including Lester Bowie, Joey Baron, David Sanborn and one of my favorite keyboard players of all time, Donald Smith (brother of Lonnie Liston Smith I believe).
I can’t offer them as downloads but they can be found on YouTube, in fact the Frisell record is posted by Warner Brothers,
so its legal and good quality.
The songs are “No Ways Tired” and “No Man’s Land”.
Here’s to the friends we meet along the way.
I hope you enjoy the music.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ntNHcNoTs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ntNHcNoTs