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So you wake up and
there's one word on your mind - Nashville!
OK, you don't own a stetson or a pick-up truck and the nearest
you've got to wrestling cattle was at that dodgy club down the
King's Road that time.
But hey, impulse rules - so, Delta flight 257 to Atlanta - hop
on the local shuttle to Nashville, with the regional finalists
of the all-American under 18 cheer leading competition! (Felt
like the dad in American Beauty).
Then, large as life, by the baggage carousel at Nashville
Airport, Mr Mark Dreyer of Mark Dreyer Productions fame
www.nashvilleconnection.com - player, purveyor, creator,
facilitator extraordinaire of Nashville twang and sundry
sounds - with his pick-up truck.
Immediate tour of Nashville by night - one street of music
company offices and one street of bands in every bar - that
about did it (oh yeah, plus the titty bar - "titties are
always in style" - thanks Mark. Then a put down (seriously) at
"Truckers Motels to The Gentry" - bed, chair, cooker (no pots
and pans mind), fridge and khazi, all for $150 per week (yes,
week). OK, you have to disengage the fridge to get some sleep
and there was the small matter of the phone in your room (and
most others) ringing incessantly for no reason, but the
parking spaces were generous (the trucks, you know).
And that was the very room where, one drowsy Nashville dawn,
track 2 (Garcon) poured from the Hamptons pen - the one about
that one in a million shot where you're at that swanky eaterie
about to pluck the already-ripened fruit when "she who must be
obeyed" pitches up! - kind of "Pina Colada" song gone
seriously pear-shaped.
Anyway, on to the sessions. House by the lake, yard, dog, sun
shining, Mark's trademark cinnamon in the coffee (buggered the
percolator, but what the hell) and Charlie, your genuine "Okie
from Musgogie" (or something like that) on standby (the same
Charlie who wrote "Up on the Hurt, Over the Will" - don't ask
- good line though, so it was nicked and bunged on a Hamptons song!).
Charlie, of course was accompanied oft as not by his main
squeeze - who went by the name of Robin Hood - a curiously
silent figure, perhaps on account of the resemblance between
her dental array and that of the Hessian in "Sleepy Hollow".
On with the sessions - fantastic players - Dow, Mike, Bruce,
"Turbo", Brian, Gary, Sean, Terry (who had a roadie for his
harmonicas - top drawer…) and the man himself, Mr Mark Dreyer.
Into the night with Mr Dreyer - vocals here, guitars there,
swift trip backstage at the Grand Ole Opry - recognised none
of the twenty or so acts, with the possible exception of
George Hamilton IV (sad). Friday session taken over by Sean on
account of Mr Dreyer trying out for the latest incarnation of
the Billy Ray Cyrus (Achy Breaky Heart) band. He got the gig,
but then the whole thing seemed to evaporate - now how often
does that happen?
Anyway, got the whole
thing basically done in a week - acoustic guitar on "Six Years
On" done after three hours sleep on the morning of the plane
back to London (got that laid back feeling though, Mr
Dreyer!). Back to blighty and our good friends Dominique and
Alex at Wolf Studios, Brixton. More vocals (including
young Stephanie Murray) and guitars - naturally
including the "genuine" Hamptons, Neil, Sally and Mark.
So - a slightly off piste work for the Hamptons: a country(ish)
album recorded by a lake in Tennessee and mixed by a Frenchman
in Brixton! Stranger things, as they say, have happened (we
guess).
Hot dang - think I feel another one coming!… |
