I'm one of those people who always reads the small print, special thanks, and production notes on CDs and in books. In case you are too, I've posted the liner notes from my EP here.
Credits & Special Thanks
Lyrics
Along with some extended content:
Photos of the recording process
More about the songs
CREDITS & SPECIAL THANKS
Produced by Sam Turton
Mix/recording engineer: Shane Philips / Music Box Studios, Guelph
Co-mixing engineer (Storm Blowin'): Attila Toth
Mastered by Andy Krehm / Silverbirch Productions, Toronto
Cover photo: James Dean / www.jamesdeanphotography.com
Design by: Jane Lewis & Sam Turton
p&© 2010 Jane Lewis (SOCAN) www.janelewis.ca
All rights reserved. Made in Canada.
THANK YOU
To Janet & Paul Lewis for all your encouragement and support, and for
coming out to so many gigs.
To Sam Turton for your encouragement and guidance, for your musical brilliance, and for always challenging me to take it to the next level.
To the musicians who contributed to this project: Adam Bowman, Paul Earle, Norman Liota, Marsha Moffitt, Tannis Slimmon, Elspeth Thomson, Jesse Turton, Katherine Wheatley, and of course, Shane Philips.
To James Dean for the photos; Aspen Heisey and James & Evan Gordon for
the accordions; Heather Macrae for the acupuncture, and for being there from the beginning.
To my musical friends, family, and community for your inspiration—you know who you are!
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LYRICS
Tend Me Like a Garden
© Jane Lewis
I wish you would tend me like I was a garden
Start me from scratch, babe, right from seed
You could plant me with your bare hands in the springtime
And bring me water whenever I had the need
Tend me, tend me like a garden
Love me, love me like the rain
I will give you all that you can harvest
'Til the first frost steals me away
Oh won't you take me into your garden
Lie with me on this fertile ground
I will feed you with my body
And bathe you in the sunshine coming down
Tend me, tend me like a garden
Love me, love me like the rain
I will give you all that you can harvest
'Til the first frost steals me away
I will love you through all of the seasons
I'll weather what the fall and summer bring
I may lie fallow in the winter
But I swear that I'll remember you in spring
Tend me, tend me like a garden
Love me, love me like the rain
I will give you all that you can harvest
'Til the first frost steals me away
I swear that I'll remember you...
Jane Lewis: vocals, piano
Tannis Slimmon: harmony vocals and improv vocal
Katherine Wheatley: harmony vocals
Shane Philips & Sam Turton: harmony vocals
Norman Liota: acoustic guitar
Jesse Turton: upright bass
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Storm Blowin'
© Jane Lewis
I want your sunshine on my water
I want your clouds to catch my wind
I want your rain to wash my clear skies
I want your thunder rollin' in
'Cause you're a storm blowin'
You're a storm blowin'
You're a storm blowin'
No matter what kind of weather I'm in
I want your dawn on my horizon
I want your footsteps on my sand
I want your water level risin'
I want your waves on my dry land
'Cause I'm a storm blowin'
I'm a storm blowin'
I'm a storm blowin'
And you're my weatherman
I want your su-su-sunshine
I want your su-su-sunshine...
I want your clouds all over my rain
'Cause you're a storm blowin'
You're a storm blowin'
You're a storm blowin'
And I'm your hurricane
Jane Lewis: vocals
Tannis Slimmon: harmony vocals
Katherine Wheatley: harmony vocals
Sam Turton: slide guitar
Jesse Turton: upright bass
Adam Bowman: drums
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Celestial Waltz
© Jane Lewis / Sam Turton
You hang the moon and I'll hang the stars
Soon this bright ballroom of sky will be ours
I'll orbit around you in spirals and turns
Together we'll waltz through the universe
Capricorn rising, the planets align
We'll spin through the heavens in three-quarter time
As gravity pulls us away from the earth
Together we'll waltz through the universe
Waltz and we'll waltz and we'll waltz
Waltz and we'll waltz and we'll waltz
And we'll waltz
And we'll waltz
And we'll waltz
Sun in your eyes, moon in my hand
Eclipsing the night as the galaxies dance
Chasing the dawn, we'll be two falling stars
Together we'll waltz through the universe
Waltz and we'll waltz and we'll waltz
Waltz and we'll waltz and we'll waltz...
Jane Lewis: vocals, piano
Sam Turton: harmony vocals
Paul Earle: violin
Elspeth Thomson: viola
Marsha Moffitt: cello
Adam Bowman: drums
Strings arranged by Sam Turton
This song is dedicated to Peggy and Roy Lampard
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Spirits in the Graveyard
© Jane Lewis
I see spirits in the graveyard
Spirits in the graveyard
Dancin' in the graveyard
Spirits in the graveyard
Dancin' in the graveyard
Layin' their burdens down
I see families in the graveyard
Families in the graveyard
Singin' in the graveyard
Families in the graveyard
Singin' in the graveyard
Layin' their burdens down
I see angels in the graveyard
Angels in the graveyard
Spinnin' 'round the graveyard
Angels in the graveyard
Spinnin' 'round the graveyard
Layin' their burdens down
I see spirits in the graveyard
Spirits in the graveyard
Dancin' in the graveyard
Spirits in the graveyard
Dancin' in the graveyard
Layin' their burdens down
Jane Lewis: vocals, accordions
Tannis Slimmon: harmony vocals
Katherine Wheatley: harmony vocals
Sam Turton: acoustic guitar, harmony vocals
Adam Bowman: cajón, afuche-cabasa
Jesse Turton: upright bass
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PHOTOS
Shane directs a take; Jesse plays bass
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Sam oversees the process
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Adam on cajón
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Adam on kit
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Sam lays down the guitar
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Norm plays on Tend Me Like a Garden
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Strings on Celestial Waltz
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Shane sets up the mics
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I play my first ever accordion solo
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Shane sets me up for the vocal tracks
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Shane...thinks...
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Katherine, Tannis & Sam sing backups
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MORE ABOUT THE SONGS
Tend Me Like a Garden
Tend Me Like a Garden was inspired by a weeding session in my vegetable garden. As I gently cleared the soil around the swiss chard plants, I thought about how much care I was taking with these plants. And what if I was a lonely person who wanted someone to focus on me with that kind of care and tenderness? (I am not, in fact, a lonely person. It was a "what if?" But that was the start of the song...)
When we played this song live, we always included an instrumental solo. For the recording, we had trouble finding the right instrument for the solo—we considered cello, fiddle, and tried arco bass, guitar...then finally recorded it with piano. When we got to mixing, we still weren't happy. Shane said, "You have two choices. Pick an instrument and get someone in to record a killer solo, or just cut the solo entirely." Genius. We cut the solo—the song finally sounded right, which is probably why none of the solo ideas worked!
Storm Blowin'
I wrote the words and melody of this song before I got into playing piano. I asked my partner Sam to help me figure out the chords. He picked up his guitar and played different chord changes while I sang. I kept saying, "No, that's not it. That's not it. No, that's not right." When we got to the end of the song, he said, "You've written a one-chord song." We laughed, but it stuck. Apparently minimalism is okay when it comes to the blues.
Celestial Waltz
I was reading a novel and got caught by a line that read, "She thinks so-and-so hung the moon." I started to think what a strange saying that is...I imagined a person actually hanging the moon, like a decoration in the sky. Then my mind went to someone else hanging the stars, and the night sky becoming a vast, magical ballroom.
Sam wanted to record this song with a string quartet. I was doubtful at first. He did some research on how to arrange for strings, and wrote the entire arrangement with synth strings in Garageband. I still wasn't convinced. But he persevered and I love the final recording—we used real, live string players, which made a huge difference!
The dedication: Along with my parents, two family friends in Niagara have been big supporters of my music since I started playing in public. Music enthusiasts Peggy and Roy Lampard (despite tending toward the classical end of the spectrum) had been known to drive a distance with my parents to hear us play. In fact, they were in the audience the first time I sang my original songs at a show, and although I'm sure it wasn't the best performance, they were enthusiastic and encouraging. I was looking forward to playing Celestial Waltz for them, since it was done with the string arrangement. Unfortunately, Roy died suddenly of a heart attack before the recording was finished, so I decided to dedicate the song to them. After the fact, I found out that the Hamilton-based viola and cello players whom we hired for the recording were friends of the Lampards. A celestial co-incidence?
Spirits in the Graveyard
This song was inspired by a small graveyard in Niagara-On-the-Lake, Ontario. I was looking after a friend's dog (thanks, Trigger!) and we walked past the graveyard every day for a week. Each time I walked past, I heard the first line of the song in my head. My intention was that it be a song of celebration, along the lines of El Día de los Muertos, where a graveyard is a place to meet with, honour, and party with one's ancestors and loved ones.
The song is in a minor blues format with a major turnaround, and features my very first accordion solo. I actually played the same part with two different accordions, one with a high register and one with a lower register, each assigned to a different speaker in the stereo mix.
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