This weekend, I’m playing an exciting show at Bowery Ballroom in NYC that features a lot of the cast of characters that made Always Been with me, as well as some important musical friends. We’re calling the band The People of Substance band, and the members are substantial indeed.
Adam Granduciel produced the record, and Dave Hartley and Anthony LaMarca were part of the first sessions we did. Robbie Bennett played piano all over the record and Kathleen Edwards sang on a bunch of songs. That crew will be joined by Josh Kaufman, who has produced a combined seven previous records for me and The Hold Steady, and Joe Russo, who played drums on a ton of my solo records. Nelson Devereaux will be joining as well, he has toured with me a ton, including most recently as a duo opening for Bob Mould.
I’m honored and thrilled to have all these moving parts come together to celebrate Always Been, which is approaching two months in this world. All of which makes me very reflective on the making of the record…
Of all the songs on Always Been, I’m not sure any song came further than “Crumbs”. I demoed it as a mid tempo rock thing, maybe like a Tom Petty song? It sort of seems like it has some implied folk rock jangle in there. Adam and I started to record a version of it that was something like the demo, but might have also leaned towards a Velvet Underground treatment. And while it was decent, something was not quite right with it in my mind.
In February 2024 I went on tour with Scott Lavene in the UK and played some of these songs solo for the first time in front of audiences. I know I did Bethany, People of Substance, Shamrock, Clayton, etc. I also played “Crumbs”, but in the solo treatment I tried to pull some more drama out of it.
As this approach developed over a few shows I had an idea: re-record this with a piano and make it somewhat an homage to the great LA songwriters that Adam and I had been referencing: Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, Randy Newman, etc. Adam seemed on board and made arrangements for us to go to Boulevard Recording in Hollywood. This allowed us to use a real piano and put together a small band around Adam and I: Alex Fischel, Jon Natchez and Jesse Quebemann-Turley. The band sounded fantastic immediately and we quickly cut two songs off the floor- “Crumbs” and “I Walk With a Cane”.
The demo definitely has the bones of the song but I’m happy with the choices we made to make it more dynamic. For what it’s worth, I still love playing it solo too.
Thanks to all who have sent along kind words about Always Been. Appreciate you listening.
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