Fusion 45

I love to meet spirited people. I love to hear good music. When both those things happen at the same time, I’ve scored the “jackpot prize,” as my kids would say.

Back in June, I wrote about my good friend from Ypsilanti, Michigan, Rebecca Anderson. She’s one remarkably talented singer and songwriter. She’s also a really nice person who takes a nice picture, as you see above.

I learned today that she has a couple of new songs on her MySpace Music Page. I highly recommend you give her a listen (and then tell all your friends). There are a few things that strike me about her music:

1. She writes beautiful melodies that stretch beyond the standard intervals you hear in most pop music. Her melodies often surprise me: they’re angular without being overwrought, her vocal style accomplished without being over the top. When she sings a minor 6th, it serves a purpose rather than serving her ego. She creates enough tension that I sometimes feel like I’m looking over the edge of a cliff, worried that I might fall but knowing she’s not going to let go of me.
2. Both of her new songs, Change Me and Gravity, are piano/vocal pieces that feature some deep, poignant harmonies. On Change Me, in particular, I hear her classical training melding with a late 60’s pop sensibility. Beneath her complex melodies, I hear lush harmonies that remind me of Prelude’s cover of After The Gold Rush and some of those pop songs by Wilson Phillips. (I hope she’s not insulted by that: Wilson Phillips, saccharine though might have been, definitely knew how to sing together).

When you’re done being knocked out by Rebecca’s self-proclaimed mix of Christian/Japanese/Classical/Soul music, come back and look at this video for Inside A Boy by Rebecca’s friend, Shara Worden (a.k.a., My Brightest Diamond).

It starts mellow but kicks into a cool polyrhythmic groove around 1:00 and a great guitar riff shortly thereafter.

My Brightest Diamond - Inside a Boy

Though quite different, Shara’s and Rebecca’s music share the same fluid spiritual and textural elements. They both conjur images of well-grounded women, kneeling before a quiet pond, reaching deep below the surface to find something in the water beyond their reflection. Sometimes it’s peace, sometimes it’s pain but it will always surprise you.

I’m not much for posting video but this is too sweet. It’s those living room jam sessions that gave birth to rock and roll.

I was thinking about how envious I am of people who do great graphic work for their own websites, along with writing about music, too. People like my blood sibling IB over at sIBlingshot on the bleachers. (You’ll notice I’ve changed the color of the site for this post to GREEN, as in the color of envy.)

I’m no illustrator or graphic artist. Can’t draw a straight line, which might be to my advantage. Anything I’ve ever done with regard to the visual arts has been an idea covertly stolen. Except for photography where, once every .00067% of the time, I snap a good one.

[Can't sing, either, though I knocked out a pretty mean operatic version of Mary Had A Little Lamb as part of my 10-year old's violin practice. He's a good player who needs to be a better listener.]

Then it occurred to me: Fusion 45 is largely anonymous so what do I have to lose by posting my own stuff from time to time? So that one up there? It’s from a photo tour I did of Portland with that same 10-year old. I call it Red Light Glam Rock.

And, as a soundtrack, here’s the King of Glam:

David Bowie - Heroes

A hale and hearty “hello” and “thanks for the linkage” to our new Friends of F45: Radio.Jazz.Club and Captain Crawl

The list is a long one: The Seldom Scene, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, the Kennedys, Doc Watson, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Shawn Colvin, Robin and Linda Williams, Bela Fleck and on and on. These are just a few of the artists who have laid down tracks at Bias Recording.

The Bias, as it was known in the 1960’s, was launched by three high school friends — Bill McElroy, Charlie Muir and Bob Dawson — who moved their odd mix of recording equipment from one irritated parent’s basement to another during their first few years as recording studio owners. Later that decade, Bias was temporarily disbanded as McElroy was inducted into the Army, Dawson went to college and Muir was bought out for the astounding sum of $67 and an amplifier.

Relaunched in Falls Church, VA in 1972, Bias Recording, as it was rechristened, quickly one of the most important studios in the DC area. McElroy — who worked with the Seldom Scene and Quicksilver Messenger Service, among others — left the business in 1994. Dawson, however, continues to be the guiding vision of the studio and has produced a mile-long list of great records from John Gorka, Mary Chapin-Carpenter and his childhood friend, Nils Lofgren.

Mary Chapin-Carpenter - Stones In The Road
Mary Chapin-Carpenter - He Thinks He’ll Keep Her

Photo: Bob Dawson, from the Bias Studios website

Amigo Studios was opened on Compston Avenue in North Hollywood in the mid 1960’s by legendary producer Snuff Garrett. He used the facility while working as the staff producer and head of A&R at Liberty Records (during which time he hired Phil Spector as a producer.)

Garrett was the man behind a number of Bobby Vee’s hits (including Devil or Angel and Rubber Ball) as well as sides for the Ventures, Sonny and Cher, Gene McDaniels and Sonny Curtis. Garrett also signed J.J. Cale to Liberty Records in ‘65 and produced a band that included Cale called the Leathercoated Minds. Now an out of print cult classic, A Trip Down The Sunset Strip, was a largely experimental set of covers. But, out of that session came the seed of a future Cale classic, After Midnight.

In the 1970’s, Garrett went on to work with Ray Conniff while Amigo was sold to Warner Brothers and became the sometime recording home of a number of WB acts, including the Doobie Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot and James Taylor. Randy Newman had his own booth off the main studio, affectionately called Randy’s Room, where he hung during mixing sessions for a number of albums, including Sail Away.

In 1980, the rebuilt studio was sold to Al Kooper and renamed The Slammer. Garrett continued to be active in the music business, spending a good share of the 80’s working on movie soundtracks that including most of Burt Reynolds movies (like Cannonball Run and Sharky’s Machine). He’s now retired and living in Arizona.

The Leathercoated Minds - Psychotic Reaction
Bobby Vee - Rubber Ball
Randy Newman - Sail Away
Bobby Vee - Devil Or Angel

Photo: Garrett (center) with Clarke Rigsby (left) and Rigsby’s writing partner, Kevin Stoller (courtesy of Tempest Recording)