A concept album.....
Artist: Emilie-Claire Barlow
Album: The Beat Goes On
Release date: October 12, 2010
Fun facts:
- My initial concept was to make an album of songs from the 70s
- Sweet Thing, I Don't Know Where I Stand, and You've Lost That Loving Feeling were repertoire ideas that didn't make the cut on this album.
the band
Voice: Emilie-Claire Barlow
Guitar: Reg Schwager (all tracks except 11)
Piano: Mark Kieswetter
Bass: Ross MacIntyre
Drums, congas, shaker: Davide DiRenzo
Tenor saxophone, flute: Kelly Jefferson (soloist on Tracks 2, 4, 7)
Tenor & baritone sax, flute, piccolo: John Johnson
Flute: Bill McBirnie
Flugelhorn, trumpet: Kevin Turcotte (soloist on Track 3)
Trumpet, flugelhorn: Jason Logue
Trombone: William Carn
additional guests
Tom Szczesniak plays accordion on Tracks 8/13
Creighton Doane plays tambourine on Track 6 and claves on Track 9
Justin Abedin plays electric guitar on track 11
Judy Barlow, Creighton Doane, Daniel Leblanc, ECB are singing the group vocals on Tracks 9 & 10:
production
Produced by Emilie-Claire Barlow & Daniel Leblanc
Arrangements by Emilie-Claire Barlow
Recorded by Daniel Leblanc at Doane Leblanc Inc, Toronto
Mixed by Daniel Leblanc at Doane Leblanc Inc, Toronto
Mastered by João Carvalho at João Carvalho Mastering, Toronto
Graphic design: Caroline Brown, Whitebear Design
Photography: Ian Brown
Hair & Makeup: Ivy Lam
Clothing: Fashion Crimes, Toronto
personal notes
After several albums of standards, I wanted to switch it up a bit and look to a different musical era. I also felt a desire for my next album to have a concept. Something to give myself some clear direction and to tie the songs together.
I started thinking about moving away from the American Songbook of the 30s and 40s and also to try to find songs that perhaps hadn't been done over and over. My first idea was to make an album of tunes from the 70s.
I was doing a lot of listening - I needed songs that inspired me lyrically and melodically and could withstand a complete reimagining.
The inspiration just wasn't hitting with the 70s repertoire. Then I randomly came up with a cool bass line in 7 that wasn't attached to anything yet. I happened to hear Sunshine Superman on the radio and thought that the bass line could possibly work with it - and it did! I immediately switched lanes into the 60s and started to delve into that most colourful decade of music. I was SO inspired. It was a very joyful creative process. I worked all of the arrangements concurrently over some months, the piano piled high with score paper. The only exception is These Boots. I wrote that arrangement straight through, the night before the recording session.
The idea with the arrangements was to take songs from various genres, (country, psychedelic 60s, singer-songwriter, Motown, bossa nova) deconstruct them and rebuild them in a way that might surprise/please the listener and have them work cohesively throughout the album. Of course there is also the consistency of the sound of that killer band.
We recorded the bed tracks over two or three days. I had our recording schedule sorted out down to the minute. We had another day of horn and percussion overdubs. Then several days of vocals. I can talk more about the recording process if anyone's interested. But it was pretty efficient and organized - and really fun!
errors and omissions
- Bassist Ross MacIntyre's name is missing in the credits on tracks 8, 11, 13!! Proof-reading is a strange thing. You're looking for typos and actual errors within words, or inconsistencies in capitalization, punctuation. But when an entire phrase/credit is missing - it doesn't always jump out. I will forever feel bad about this mistake, which was 100% my fault. It did get fixed on the second pressing - but there are 10k copies out there with the omission.
- Whenever I sing "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"at a concert, I preface it by saying that I'm nervous about performing my version because Bob Dylan fans are die-hards. I'm usually being cute - but also kind of serious. I was interested in how my rendition of this classic would be received among his most loyal of fans. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about, musically, that is. It's actually one of my most streamed tracks - with almost 15 million streams on Spotify alone. The point of contention came from the fact that I titled my version "Alright" instead of "All Right". I'm don't know how this happened, but I'm sure it's my fault.
Strangely, when I double checked BMI /ASCAP after someone brought it to my attention, I discovered that the song is actually legally registered as simply "Don't Think Twice". Ha! But I did apply and pay for a mechanical license with the titling as on the album, so it slipped through several administrative cracks.
Apologies to Mr. Dylan and the eagle eyed fans for this mistake!
track list
(CLICK ON BOLD TITLES TO BUY ARRANGEMENT)
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield)
He Thinks I Still Care (Dickey Lee, Steve Duffy)
The Beat Goes On/Soul Bossa Nova (Sonny Bono/Quincy Jones)
Until It's Time for You to Go (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
Little Boat (O Barquinho) (Ronaldo Boscoli, Roberto Menescal)
Comme Je Crie, Comme Je Chante (F. Cousineau, G. Langevin)
Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday (Ron Miller, Bryan Wells)
T'es Pas Un Autre (Buffy Sainte-Marie, C. P. Gauthier)