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Produced by Chip Taylor
Acoustic guitar / Vocal tracks produced by Tony Mercadante & Chip Taylor Recorded at Train Wreck Studios in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Mixed at Huck Bennert’s Home Studio in Saco, Maine. Recording engineers Tony Mercadante & Huck Bennert Extra engineering by Goran Grini (in his home studio in Norway) Mixing engineer Huck Bennert John Platania’s guitars recorded by Milt Costakis at 3 Bays Recording Studio John endorses LaBella Strings & Duesenberg Guitars All songs written by Chip Taylor published by Back Road Music, (BMI) Administered by Sony Music. |
Musicians:
Chip Taylor acoustic guitar, electric piano, vocals John Platania dobro, nylon and electrics guitars Tony Mercadante electric bass Goran Grini strings on “Other Days Like This” and “OK Guy” Background vocals on “Long, Long Way From Here" Joan Voight, Mary & Chuck Knoblock & Tony Mercadante |
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In November 2019, Goran Grini & I were in the final stage of mixing my album In Sympathy Of A Heartbreak. The plan was to release the record in February, in advance of tours I had scheduled in March/April in Norway and Holland.
At this time, I finished writing a song, based on a true story from my childhood days, called Dad & The Monkey. Several other songs quickly followed. This was nothing new. Most of my previous albums were of songs written in clusters. By the end of November I had ten new songs that generally held some sort of magic for me. I first thought it probably made the most sense to record them when I returned from my tour in Holland in late April. But that made me nervous. What if something happened and they were left unrecorded? With that in mind, I wanted to record them before I went on tour. There was one problem. My engineer, friend, bass player and confidante, Tony Mercadante, was scheduled to leave for Florida on December 14th and be away for the entire winter season. I desperately wanted him to engineer and be my right arm for this project. We were on a mission! We decided to start on December 2nd and try to finish the 11 songs by December 13th. With Tony at the controls, I started recording guitar/voice versions of the songs at my humble, small studio in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Tony, a one-of-a kind bassist in the soul tradition, added bass. I sang a bit of harmony on several tracks. Introducing – pianist, Chip Taylor Over the years, every so often I would try to play a few chords on the piano, but that’s as far as it went. Several years ago, I had purchased a Yamaha PSR e303 electric piano, but it had been all but left unplayed. |
For the Dad & The Monkey album, I dusted it off and practiced for several weeks. I loved practicing and loved the warm, simple sound of that piano in the ”grand piano” mode.
The basic guitar/voice/ bass and piano tracks were finished on time on the afternoon of December 12th just in time for Tony to leave for Florida. Shortly after, Huck Bennert, my amazing engineer friend from Maine, set up my NY apartment for recording and, over a period of 3 days, I played lead electric piano on most of the tracks. In early January Huck sent the tracks to the amazing guitarist, and another great friend, John Platania. I asked John to play whatever he felt on whatever songs he chose. Within a few days he had played on several – and I never changed or edited one note. I absolutely loved everything John played! In March, the covid virus changed everything. The tours were canceled and we were quickly in lockdown mode. During that time my great friend and brilliant arranger, Goran Grini, played beautiful mellotron strings on two tracks. In the final stages, Huck mixed the tracks in his basement studio in Maine. I absolutely loved making this album. And I love the warm, humble way it sounds. It was an album that, in most circumstances, would have never been recorded. Dedicated to: The crazy – “all for their kids”– spirit of my loving dad, Elmer and my oh so giving and loving mom, Barbara. |
