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Dan Russell on 'Life Will Set You Free'
DAN: "The album was originally intended to be part of a 20 track opus with Jason Allen, but in the end we decided to split the album into 2 single albums, because our individual tracks didn't quite sit right together, although Bev May and Steve Orchard, who heard the first pressing of the album, entitled Stantonbury Tales, absolutely loved it.
Jason took his 12 tracks, added 2 new ones, and has released his album as On Wisdom Hill, re-mixing most of his tracks. To my 8 tracks I intermingled the 6 remaining aborted tracks from the original Road To California project - One and One Is Love, Guardian Angels, Kid From L.A., Indian Summer, San Francisco and Wind Of Change.
These 6 tracks, some recorded with just lead vocal and acoustic guitar, and some with added harmonies were intermingled with the 8 tracks fabulously produced by Jason. In fact, most of the instumentation was played by Jason, with me adding acoustic guitar, my lead vocals, and we both sang the harmonies.
The two songs relating to my late father, On Bourbon Street and Daddy's Store, were musically co-written with Jason, as was The Idiot's Gone, lyrics too, and Archaeologist's Dream and Woodstock Lullaby. The songs were written in jamming sessions, where Jase would start strumming some chords and I would, basically start singing lyrics over them. Idiot was completely made up on the spot!
It was nice to revisit those lyrics, some many years in the vault. It was particularly satisfying, and emotional moving, to finally finish the songs related to my father, and but for Jason's moral support as well, I would not have tackled those lyrics on my own.
I am really pleased with the album. Wrong Train Running, a Doobies pastiche, told the tale of a visit I made to Bev's, and took a wrong turn! I wrote Life Will Set You Free as a comfort for Bev and Duke during the difficult time they have endured over the last 8 months."
Jason Allen on 'Life Will Set You Free'
JASON: "Myself and Dan have the uncanny knack of being able to sit in a room, just two guitars and a tape recorder, and improvise songs on the spot. We've being doing it on and off since 2001 and for every ten songs we write this way, five usually have potential and merit further investigation. It's no secret that many of these 'busked' songs have found their way onto my recent solo albums.
We'd talked about making an album together since Road To California, so on July 13th 2005 we climbed Stantonbury Hill on a glorious sunny day and, whilst basking at the summit, discussed plans for a new album project to be called 'Stantonbury Tales'.
What I didn't foresee was the rush of inspiration I'd get whilst finishing my second album of 2005 - The Land Of The Living. It took much longer than I'd anticipated to realise all my ideas, and so the start of our collaboration was put back a few months.
I finally commenced the recording at the end of November 2005, sketching out studio versions of our taped jams, 20 of which we'd shortlisted for the album. Dan got wiped out by a bad dose of the 'flu, and so it was January 2006 when we finally started to add his performances to the mix. We spent 3 days (12th - 14th Jan) adding layers of takes to the tracks.
It was a mammoth effort, often very fun, sometimes frustrating and always inspired. I left Dan's place with a laptop full of takes and spent weeks sifting through them for the best sections. By the time I'd completed the shortlisting process I was shot to pieces! It was the third album in a year and 20 tracks to boot! My ears were whistling like a train and my eyes could barely keep staring at the screen. Five hours of daylight per day is simply not enough!
At the start of February I called a halt to proceedings and pressed 8 copies of the 'interim' mixes of Stantonbury Tales with a thrown-together CD cover. We gave these copies to trusted mates for appraisal and feedback and gained a mixed reaction. People liked the songs, but some found it a bit too lengthy and others felt that mine and Dan's songs shuffled together didn't entirely work.
I took a break during March and April, and when I returned to the songs I couldn't face working on them anymore. I was beaten by it! I spoke to Dan and we agreed to split the project in half, resulting in fine this album by Dan and my 4th solo CD On Wisdom Hill.
I took a musical scalpel to my batch of 'Stantonbury' songs, stripping them down to near-acoustic proportions and leaving them with room to breathe. Many of Dan's performances were lost in the process, but his vocal talents still appear on 3 songs and his presence is felt throughout. It's an album that I wouldn't have made if it wasn't for Dan and for that I thank him greatly.
I'd like to think that Stantonbury Tales will appear in it's full uncut glory at some point in the future, exactly as it was then, because I think it'll be a while before I summon up the reserves to go back to work on it! A hill too far? Maybe!"
