The Retro Modernist

“Hi Elizabeth,

I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning! Thanks for offering your place to meet, not to mention the bacon, eggs and potatoes! Assuming that our SatNav and London traffic cooperates, we’ll see you at 9am. I’ll go to bed plenty early tonight, in hopes of being fresh-faced for our meeting.

Since you’re already so wonderfully interested in where I’ve come from and what it’s all aiming toward, as promised here are a few thoughts, to mingle in with my frantic middle-of-raucous-happy-hour interview at the Luminaire.

Though the background, commune and Canadian bits are going to be wonderful ingredients, I’ve been thinking a lot about the actual record and how a child w/a rigid upbringing might rebel artistically toward a less structured way of creating. I like to think that my less-structured childhood contributed to my taking comfort now in the more formulaic (oh, I wish there were a more positive word) styles of writing – ie, country songs, jazz standards, but though ‘Stop By Anytime’ is a standard structure, it’s chock full of descriptive writing.

That writing is there not only to provide a practical description, but to enhance the feeling of the song – not to mention the whole album being steeped in the vibrance of the South, its mountains, music and unruffled pace.