Album - CLEAR - GUMCD47
Released: April 29th 2004
Producer: Ash
Peters
Engineer: Jorg Hassenblad
A new album of original and covered songs, continuing in the singer-songwriter tradition of musing melodically on the stuff of life. The line up of musical guests is much as for the 'Love Come Down' album - with the addition of Suzanne Adam on harmony vocal and violin. The album includes three cover versions: Jackson Browne's 'Alive in the World', Tom Waits' 'Take it with me' and Karla Bonoff's 'Lose Again'. Unfussy 'band in a room' arrangements, pared back to the life-essentials of engaging lyrics and memorable melodies.
Steve Butler (voice,
guitar, piano)
Ewen Vernal (bass)
Eddy John (drums)
Stewart Veitch
(guitar)
Charlie Irvine (guitar)
Annie McCaig (bvox)
Suzanne Adam
(bvox)
Dot Reid (bvox)
Random trivia
The album was recorded by my old imaginary friends Ash and Jorg (bless, 'em) here at Ocean Wave Studios (you really can wave at the Firth of Forth from the vocal booth, em, bedroom).
I wanted to limit the 'palette' of instrumentation even more, so piano is the only keyboard, and I used only single-tracked guitars.
'Lose Again' is a Karla Bonoff song I liked back in the '70's from her eponymonymousmous album of 1977. See what Karla is up to at www.karlabonoff.com
Eddy introduced me to the magnificent 'Take it With Me' which is on Tom Waits' 1999 album 'Mule Variations'.
'Troubles' is a Lies Damned Lies song that never got recorded.
The cover photo was taken by a friend, Ali McBride, whilst on a road trip in Bolivia. The inlay photos and booklet portraits are by Brian Fischbacher.
Titles: (listen to MP3 samples)
01 Clear MP3
(Steve Butler / Sticky Music)
02 You Decide
MP3
(Steve Butler / Sticky Music)
03 Lose Again
(Karla Bonoff / Warner Bros Music Ltd)
04 You Don't Know Me
(Steve
Butler / Sticky Music)
05 Barriers MP3
(Steve Butler / Sticky Music)
06 Take It With Me
(Tom Waits/Kathleen
Brennan / Jalma Music)
07 Troubles Of My Own MP3 whole song (Butler/Irvine/Reid / Sticky Music)
08 Nothing 'Bout This
MP3
(Steve Butler / Sticky Music)
09 Alive In The World
(Jackson Browne / Swallow Turn Music)
To buy the album now, post-free, from the
Sticky Music site, go here:
http://www.stickymusic.co.uk/acatalog/index.html