lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: finlandia

2020-05-25: indigo girls, frankfrench.com:

i remember one evening in september, i was walking around virginia-highlands with a friend, eating an ice cream cone & looking in shop windows. standing outside the purple parrot, i watched a couple of young women sing & play their acoustic guitars. the sign in the window said "tonight: indigo girls."

a couple of nights later, i was with another friend & we walked into rick's place on st. charles, and i recognized the guitars...it was the indigo girls, again. this time i introduced myself to amy & we talked briefly, until emily came up & said it was time for them to start their set.

that following sunday, i was at a small afternoon party at melanie hammet's apartment, and amy ray walked in. this time we talked for most of the afternoon. we talked about the indigo girls, drivin'n'cryin, dragon path music, "everything looks better in the dark", "the new world", far east futon company, the atlanta music scene & women's place in that scene. then amy asked about me producing an indigo girls record. and that moment sparked the beginning to a very wonderful period in my life. it's like god gave me a new purpose in life, right when i needed it.

i began hanging out with amy & emily, attending their shows, meeting their friends, collecting tapes of rehearsals & shows, getting a concentrated education in the indigo girls. i even quit drivin'n'cryin to focus on the indigo girls.

after spending several months talking, jamming & recording, we narrowed the large collection of songs down to the six that are on this ep. i still have the tapes of the other songs which were not included on this ep, sitting in my tape vault.

as far as my doing any actual playing or singing, i stayed out of the way until amy & emily were solidly on tape. i wanted the focus to be on their two voices & their two guitars. later i added dede on bass guitar & joan white on percussion. after that, i added my parts. so, yes, there were a few overdubs, although they were sparse.

"finlandia" was recorded live, no overdubs. that was accappella: amy, emily, michelle & caroline around a couple of mikes, with a pzm in an open window, capturing the soft sound of a gentle georgia rain.

it was during these sessions that i introduced kristin hall to amy & emily. i met kristin through shawn wilson, the artist for whom i had done the "neon fish" soundtrack. kristin knew i was recording the indigo girls & she really wanted to meet them. so we came up with a plan: i had kristin come over an hour before an indigo girls session, and i showed her how to hit "rewind" on the tape machine. it had an automatic "search" & brake feature, so there was no way she could screw that up. i gave her a chair to sit in, near the machine. i kept the remote near me, just in case of potential accidents. when amy & emily arrived, i introduced them to "my assistant" and they all became friends. kristin was rewarded with a "co-producer" credit. she helped me laugh during that really painful period in my life following my divorce.