Room
With A View could easily have been a solo album for Deirdre Lord
and it would have been great as such. Tom Hall commented, "That
is a million dollar voice" the first time he heard Deirdre sing.
She has credits on an album with Bob Marcure in a group that was known
as Rhythm Cafe, and a long list of musical credits and accomplishments.
We were playing as a duo at the time and the project became a duet
album at Deirdre's insistence and generosity. The CD was recorded at
Garey Shelton's Studio in Seattle. He is a fantastic engineer with a
great sense of humor. He dubbed his own titles to each of the songs
as we recorded them. Make Peace With Yourself was Make Pizza Yourself.
I don't remember the other titles but they were hilarious. I didn't
completely appreciate the sacrifices and generosity of all of the people
involved in this project at the time, but I sure do now. Larry Mason
brought his zest for life and passion for music to the studio day after
day. He took the project to heart and was an inspiration in his approach
to producing. He made the phone calls, lined up the musicians and showed
up with positive energy to prod us along and cared for the outcome as
if the songs were his own. The
musicians who took part were amazing. Dave Raynor-lead guitar, Scott
MacGougan-acoustic lead, Jon Goforth-flute & sax, Garey Shelton-Bass,
Chris Leighton-drums, percussion & tablas, John Matthews-percussion,
Larry Mason-percussion, Jamie Sieber-cello, Tom Burgerson-congas, Deirdre
Lord-vocals & harmonies. Each musician brought the magic only they
could offer in their unique, very talented and inspired way. Thank you
all.
Tom
Hall took time out of his very busy schedule to mix and master the CD.
His golden ears were a big part of bringing out the best in the tracks
that Larry and Garey did such a good job of recording.
Lead
vocals alternate throughout the album, there is great harmony and some
wonderful northwest musicians perform on the songs. It took 9 months
to complete and was driven by the boundless enthusiasm of Larry Mason
and a dream of making beautiful music.
So many people were involved with the project. Sarah Murat
shot all the photos that don't appear here at this time, as I don't
have the original files. Andie did the graphics and came up with the
title and spent many long hours typing and retyping the lyrics and cover
text. Deirdre's husband, Gary, spent many hours solo parenting their
children while this CD was recorded and offered emotional and financial
support selflessly.
I
took the final mixes to a producer who charged me $45 to listen to the
tracks and told me to break the project into two parts and make separate
solo CD's. It was a little late in the game to hear such advice. I spent
two weeks recording cassettes of the songs in different order till I
knew I had it exactly the way it was supposed to go. I can still call
out the order of the songs after all these years because of the flow
of the music. I think Room With A View is a wonderful and timeless collection
of songs. It has done a great deal of good in that most of the copies
I had were donated to charitable causes for cancer victims, veteran's,
women's shelters and such. Since Deirdre and her family moved to Florida
after we quit doing shows together, the CD was never really promoted.
It remains a powerful artistic accomplishment with emotional depth and
a blend of very different styles and a shared love of and respect for
music.