lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: chuck will's widow

2021-07-23: daemonrecords.com:

the new single, "chuck will's widow", from amy ray band, is a song inspired by a bird's song - the incessant mournful melody of the chuck-will's-widow, a nocturnal bird in the southeastern united states. in the song she penned, amy imagines the aching in the heart of the bird as it sings for its lost mate, and celebrates the healing act of singing your song "all night long," and accepting what the days throw your way.

a self-described, night owl, amy says, "the songs of the chuck-will's-widow, along with its fellow nightjar, the whip-poor-will have always haunted me, their relentless, compelling exchange happens all night when the summer comes to my neck of the woods. i find that i witness the most profound moments in the midst of their songs when everyone else is asleep. while i am often in need of rest, the respite i find in being awake under a miraculous and melodic night sky is too tempting for me to sleep. it's a conundrum that inspires me, but also leaves me bleary-eyed."

"chuck will's widow" is a straight-up americana-country song, and was recorded with her band remotely in their respective homes. the song was produced by brian speiser and mixed by bobby tis who both helped create amy's most recent country release, holler. bobby and brian hail from the ranks of the tedeschi trucks band.

amy says, "i laid down a scratch track of electric guitar and singing, then we built this one from a foundation of jim brock's drums and percussion, with kerry brooks' bass. the rhythm track was important to get right, it had to feel sad and happy at the same time...ha ha...that's my sweet spot. the first melodic instrument for us to play off of was dan walker's accordion riff, then we added matt smith's pedal steel. i put some mandolin and acoustic guitar down and sang a final vocal track, then we had jeff fielder record last. he usually goes first, so it was a lot of experimentation for him to find which instruments he wanted to play. we came around to both the dobro and electric guitar being what the song needed. we always had in mind what we wanted for harmonies, using both the band's version of springsteen's "atlantic city" and the classic record, trio from emmylou harris, dolly parton, and linda ronstadt as inspiration. georgia singer, michelle malone was a perfect fit for this. then i asked my heroes tanya and michael trotter from the war and treaty, to give us the other two harmony parts to make it complete."

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2021-07-29: in the mix: amy ray talks new solo single and tour, plus more indigo girl shows, atlanta intown

q. "chuck will's widow" is your gorgeous new single, and the harmonies are special. did you have michelle malone and war and treaty in mind when you were writing it?

a. not when i was writing it, but as soon as i finished it and was listening to it and editing and getting it right, i thought it would be super special to have some innately spiritual southern voices. both michelle and michael and tanya came to mind.

q. this is your third single release this year. is a new solo album on the way, and if so, what can listeners expect?

a. yes yes yes! i am always working towards another amy ray band and indigo girl record. i enjoy song writing and the pursuit of the craft, so am always making time for it. also i love collaborating. my band is just so joyful and fun to play with so i am always looking towards the next project and when we can create together. we are going to nashville to record for a week in december, hoping to release vinyl, whenever we can get it all done.

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2024-01-15: roots rednecks and radicals podcast (amy ray)

will houk: so i wanted to talk about chuck will's widow as well because i love the kind of the metaphor of the song. right? like, it's a nocturnal bird that's singing at night and you really kind of play on that in the, in the lyrics and whatnot. um, yeah. can you just kind of tell us a little bit about that song?

amy ray: well, that's exactly what the song's about. you, you nailed it. [laughing] it's a metaphor. i mean, it is, it's this bird that in the south and i think other parts of the u.s. too, it's pretty incessant and it's a cousin sort of in, in, in mythology to the, the whipper will, which is like whip poor will and then chuck will's widow is the widow of will who got whipped. it's like a weird connection that has some weird, some, like, not, not great connotations in history. but, um, i've always been... the whipper will and the chuck wills widow both sing at night and the chuck wills widow is very incessant [laughs] and it's very, uh, it's kind of a pining keening call that everybody associates with in the south (unclear) it was like with like this bird that just will not stop and it's obviously missing somebody. um, that's why it's called chuck will's widow. and i just am up all the time at night um, because i'm a night owl and so i was thinking about (unclear) the pandemic and i was just, you know, kind of feeling sorry for myself in a way, even though i had it really good. so, i, i was thinking about just kind of that idea that, like, the nighttime is when you really can, like, sing your laments to the stars and get outside and kind of like, just kind of yell and scream and get your, ya, ya's out in the middle of the woods. and that's kind of what i was thinking about, like a bird and (unclear) that, and everything's kind of quiet enough for you to have all the things that you're thinking about mirrored back to you in a way that really makes you think, you know. and so i was just tackling my grumpiness and sort of trying to say, hey, you know, this is everybody's going through different stuff in their lives and i'm just trying to reach out kind of beyond that and say you're not alone, you know, we all have these moments and we feel these things and the way you get over it is just to kind of sing your song, you know, and be yourself and, and tell the world your troubles, you know, and sing the blues basically, you know. so that's kind of what it, what it was about. it's very biographical, autobiographical song.

will houk: that's great. and that was done with, uh i'm with her, right?

amy ray: yeah! yeah, yeah

will houk: the um, yeah, what was it like working with them?

amy ray: so we did, we did a digital version of that as a single as well, but it was with, i had like a friend of mine michelle malone and this band war and treaty do some harmonies on it and it came out during the pandemic. but i really wanted to rework the whole thing. i wanted to do a version that was more grassroots. and i, and i love "i'm with her" and sarah jarosz was gonna play mandolin on some of the record anyway. so i asked the band if they would, if i could send them tracks and they did all their tracks, their individual houses and, you know, basically when i got it back they took everything out of it that we had done except for my vocals and it was, sounded amazing and then we just started putting little things back in and so it ended up being very much about them and we transferred it to tape so it would feel like the rest of the record, you know, and mixed it to tape and, yeah, they are, they are amazing. i mean, all three of those women are something else, you know.

will houk : yeah. for sure. that's cool. i haven't heard the, uh, the michelle malone and the war and treaty. i, i want to see that. i, i love both those artists. i had michelle on the show a couple of years ago.

amy ray: oh, cool. it's, it's, i think i put it, i think it's on spotify. i'll have to look to remember if i, because i was gonna do a waterfall of it, you know, and have all, because we did like five different versions of it trying to figure out what the best place for the song was. you know, when we were, like, working through our home studios. so i'll see if i have put it up and try to get it up there.