 | My second home…
Exactly – Nashville of course!
There have been countless numbers of trips to Nashville during the last few years, both to write songs and to record my albums. I highly enjoy being there and also appreciate the people who live there. Some of them I’ve become really close friends with and I always feel so welcome. Therefore I no longer check in at a hotel when I get there, instead I enjoy the hospitality of my dear friend Liz Rose and her family. I really appreciate staying in this homey environment, it makes it so much easier being away from my own family for a long time. The headquarters for country music in Nashville is called “Music Row”. Located there are record companies, music publishers, recording studios and all my role models, such as The Judds, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton are of course all connected there. It was also around my role models this album began taking shape. One day it was simply inevitable – I wanted to show my roots. I decided to record an album completely filled with my favorite songs, but in my way.
I was only 14 years old and already a singer in the country band Tomboola Band from Malmö. One of the first songs we played was “Mama He’s Crazy” which quickly became a favorite of mine and still is. Also my dad has always wanted me to record it so now he’ll be happy! “Why Not Me” is also a song I sang in these early years and like “Mama…” the original was performed by the American mother and daughter duo The Judds.
Musical meetings, of any kind, are some of the most enjoyable things I know of. Among other things I’ve done many duets during the years, the most exciting is the meeting with an artist who is and sound as a contrast to me. There are three duets on this album, with three wonderful girls, what about:
Nina Persson, Lisa Miskovsky and Kim Carnes, who might be best known to us Swedes with her song “Bette Davis Eyes”. It was my producer “over there”, Scott Bagget, who suggested Kim. The old Rolling Stones song “Tumbling Dice”, which I have mostly listened to in Linda Ronstadt’s version, would become our duet. It was of course very exciting to sing together with Kim and she’s also a wonderful and a very nice person. She also taught me something new when it comes to “warm up” your voice! I had just arrived by air from Sweden and Kim was already in the studio. I felt the time difference in both body and voice and on the day we recorded she brought a gift to me – a small bottle of Drambui! “This will fix it. One part of liquor and one part of hot water – Drambui Lui”, Kim said obviously. Well, I immediately felt a lot better, but this “medicine” hasn’t become a habit!
Nina Persson flew to Nashville from New York on her birthday, September 6th, to sing with me! I am a big fan of hers! I’d not really dared to hope she would like to participate on my album, but now she stood there and I was so impressed with her and very happy for her enthusiasm over the project. I got the idea to sing a duet with Nina after a Dolly Parton concert at the Globe Arena, Stockholm, in March 2007. After the concert, I was invited to a “Dolly tribute” party at the Debaser club at Medborgarplatsen. Many artists were there to tribute the star on his or her way and among them also Nina. I was surprised when I heard her cool, rock’n’roll flavored voice sing a Dolly Parton song. She was great! I immediately felt – a request must be made. And she said yes! “Why’d You Come In Here Looking Like That” is the name of our duet, a Dolly Parton song of course! The bass player Mike Brignardello told during the recording that he in fact also played on the original recording with Dolly and that felt of course extra special. When I had recorded “To Know Him Is To Love Him”, one of my absolute favorites by the trio Parton/Ronstadt/Harris, I immediately felt something was missing. I needed a “second voice” to my melody and lower harmony. The voice that I immediately thought of was Lisa Miskovsky’s. Just like Nina, she has a very pleasant, cool and characteristic way of singing. Unfortunately she couldn’t come to Nashville, she was eight months pregnant and wasn’t allowed to fly. She was kind enough to invite me to her home town Umeå and we recorded there instead. Our meeting was short and intense, 4 hours in a studio. But – short is always wonderful!
Bonnie Raitt is the artist I like and listen to the most, therefore it was also very difficult to choose a favorite song to record. Some of her songs I would simply not dare to record as they mean so much to me in her version. “Papa Come Quick” was included on my unplugged tour in the spring 2007 and it felt as it was a good and worthy interpretation also to be included here. Eventually another Bonnier Raitt song was cut. The producer Scott encouraged me to also cut “Angel From Montgomery”, one of the most beautiful songs I know by her.
Since I got a free hand to choose whatever material I wanted, a blues song was sneaked in on the album. It was very difficult which song to choose so when there were only two songs left on the list I had to call Sweden and my guitarist friend Robban. He had to make the final choice – five minutes before I had to go into the studio he chose “I Need Your Love So Bad”! This song I’ve listened to mostly in Bonnie Taylor’s version during the years.
One Eagles song was a must on this album. I’ve recorded “Desperado” before but this time I wanted to choose something more unexpected. The choice was eventually “Life In The Fast Lane”. By a coincidence the guys of the Canadian band Road Hammers showed up in the studio at this particular recording and offered me really great, rock’n’roll background vocals.
I have a very big confidence in my producer Scott. He’s also wonderfully crazy he becomes brilliant! I call him “Mr G” = “the Genius”!
|
| |
