March 22, 8:13 PM • Charlotte Music Examiner • Monty Chandler
Original Article Here
Songs Of Water Official Website
Songs Of Water Facebook Fan Page
This Friday night, March 26th, marks the release of the sophomore CD of the North Carolina group Songs Of Water. They’ve chosen Charlotte’s Visulite Theatre to be the kick-off point for the release titled “The Sea Has Spoken“.
Songs Of Water are a 7-8 person group performing in an eclectic instrumental world music genre. The members include Stephen Roach (vocals, hammered dulcimer, mandolin, percussion, guitar); Jason Windsor (classical, acoustic, baritone and electric guitar, mandolin, percussion); Marta Richardson (violin, 5 string electric violin, shruti box, percussions); Greg Willette (bass, acoustic guitar); Michael Pritchard (drums, percussions, guitar); Luke Skaggs (mandolin, sitar, violin, percussions); Sarah Stephens (cello, vocals); Molly Skaggs (vocals, banjo, accordion). As this diverse list of artists and instruments implies, the world music sound generated is complex and encompasses acoustic stimulation second to none – in addition to being kick-ass fun!
I had the opportunity to speak with Stephen Roach a few days ago about the history of the group and the how the new release unfolded. Seems that it all began in 2002 with an idea that Stephen had about a project to record an album of some instrumental world music tunes he had written. Stephen and classical guitarist Jason Windsor had met and became roommates around that time and began working the project together. What resulted was the co-written album “Songs Of Water“. Sarah Stephens joined the project as well – she and Stephen are old friends through various musical settings including a Jazz improv group Sarah led called the Benjamin Circle which had played around Charlotte for a long time. Additionally, Stephens’s brother-in-law, Michael Pritchard, was recruited through some sort of family pressure to join the project playing the drums. The album was finally released in the latter part of 2004 and was met with much enthusiasm, so they started playing out and as time went on the “project” grew into a “band” – Songs Of Water was born.
When asked about the apparently strong Charlotte connection, Stephen explained that in addition to Sarah’s Charlotte roots, he had first met Luke Skaggs in Nashville but shortly afterwards Luke and his sister Molly moved to Charlotte. That initial positive meeting led to Stephen and Luke continuing to perform together which fortunately evolved into Luke and Molly joining Songs Of Water. Timely evolution led to the ultimate formation of what is now – Songs Of Water.
The CD being released this weekend is titled – “The Sea Has Spoken“. A couple of songs are downloadable for free through Thursday on the bands ReverbNation page and several can be heard on the bands MySpace page. Having listened to the entire CD we are in for one heck of a show Friday night.
Most of the tracks on the new CD were laid down at the Skaggs Family Studio in Nashville. This allowed the group access to not only industry leading recording technology, but also a fine collection of Ricky Skaggs’ vintage instrumentation. A song titled “The Family Tree” has an interesting as well as humorous history and connection. The song features Stephen playing Mandolin and was the first song recorded when they arrived at the Skaggs Family Studio. Imagine sitting down at Ricky Skaggs’ Studio and the first song being recorded features you on Mandolin – a little pressure! The good news is that Ricky Skaggs sat in on the tune doing the fiddle break, which eased the pressure somewhat. The historical connection in family terms and thus the title of the track is that Ricky Skaggs and legendary bluegrass picker Tony Rice did an album together in the 80′s. Ricky is Luke’s father and Tony is Stephen’s first cousin. 20 years later Luke and Stephen serendipitously connect and later record an album together at Ricky’s studio. Definitely a Family Tree connection. It’s a small world we live in.
“The Sea Has Spoken” has been co-produced by Songs Of Water and Joel Khouri of Bright City Studio’s. After laying the tracks in Nashville, the recordings were brought back to Bright City for over dubs, editing and other enhancements as part of the creative process. One of these processes involved Stephen gaining access to the percussion department of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. He and Michael brought a mobile recording set-up to the University and using all of the percussion instrumentation available proceeded to make recordings of various sonic environments, like stairwells, for use throughout the CD – meshing with the pristine recording made in Nashville. The objective of course was to bring a garage feel to the technically superior Nashville recordings as part of creating the sound the group wanted to convey in the album.
In discussing the song-writing credits for the album one thing was stressed by Stephen – “while the core writing credit goes to the artist who brought the song to the table, all of the songs final outcome were the result of a creative collaboration by the entire band in the shaping and arranging, which influenced and defined the final product delivered.” This reflects positively on the maturity of the group as a cohesive unit as well their growth over the six years between the first album’s 2004 release and Friday’s release of “The Sea Has Spoken“.
While the first album was dominated by the influence of the Hammered Dulcimer and supported by the stringed instruments this sophomore work is reflective of the afore-mentioned group collaboration and captures the fluidity and energy of a live performance. “The Sea Has Spoken” reflects a more developed group of artists with greater access to superior equipment and a broader spectrum of creative minds working together.
In thinking about the creative process Stephen shared what went into the making of the CD. Did things go as planned, on schedule and within budget so to speak? This question got a raucous laugh out of Stephen. “Nothing goes as planned with this band” was the reply as he chuckled. Stephen went on to explain that due to multiple trips to Nashville for recording and then bringing the recording to Bright City Studios in Charlotte for editing, along with some time at Wake Forest as well as a friend’s studio in Sophia, NC, the entire process eventually took over a year to complete.
The original plan was to start in Aug ’08 on the project as a fully self produced, self recorded effort. Stephen described the delays as “Providential” because it gave them time to refine the songs and be better prepared when the opportunity to record in Nashville presented itself. The entire effort took a little over a year to complete – eventually the group had to say “we’re done” – it’s baked. The great news is the album has been getting great reviews from the folks Stephen has sent it to – an opinion I can second as I am truly looking forward to hearing the band perform it live at the Visulite in Charlotte Friday night.
As the Friday release draws near Stephen shared some thoughts on what he hopes music fans are able to take away from their show. Their unique style and instrumentation provides an uplifting mood with the ability to change the atmosphere. The band hopes to present a new musical idea which entertains and allows one to put aside any troubles for a couple of hours. Come prepared to enjoy a unique musical experience which will have you dancing, smiling and feeling good about the moment.
More to come from the interview with Stephen along with the Friday show review and photographs. Check back Saturday for the rest of the story as I’ll share some of the funnier moments and stories experienced while the guys were in the process of recording the album as well as some of the touring and marketing the band is undertaking in promoting “The Sea Has Spoken”.
Keepin’ it live…
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