hissyfit: New Recordings: To the Bone: The First Sessions

Monday, 4 November 2013

New Recordings: To the Bone: The First Sessions

I started in on some new recordings over the weekend.
Marcus and I did the usual: tea, biscuits, veg' curry, bottle of great red (a stupendous Amarone - La Collina dei Ciliegi 2008) and a rifle through Mr Cliffe's latest vinyl (Joni's remastered 'Blue' and Miles Davis's 'We Want Miles'), before hankering down to work.
Talk about setting the bar high...
I think that this photo (right) was taken Saturday morning after that Friday night, hence that "what the..." look on my face. The chord I am playing is known to us musicians as 'C'. And let me tell you; it was a stretch holding those heavy cables down.
My head looks superimposed onto my body, which is certainly in line with the way I was feeling.

This will be a solo 'Jones' venture; bereft of concept this time folks. Considering the lack of budget I think that we can safely say that this album will be a lo-fi diversion. 7 basic songs in the barrel thus far. They'll need buffing by the scientist; it was sounding good though as I departed Sunday evening; leaving Marcus battling with a blue harmonica and a hiccuping Fender Twin Reverb.

We have two working titles so far: 'Let Go' and/or 'To the Bone', although we'll probably ending up calling it 'Cosmo' or 'Sharon'...
Songs in the 'nearly' can are:

Books to Bed
Fireworks
Man Behind the Moon
Pardon Me
Phil the Hat and TJ
Somewhere North of Here
Life To The Bone

We are already making the videos in our heads and discussing the weight of vinyl that we should use on our first pressing.
There are no fools like old fools.
Long may we wane...

13 comments:

Meetwood Flac4 November 2013 at 16:06
Bloody marvellous news :) - I really hope that you keep the production nice and simple. To The Bone would then fit nicely. An Americana vibe would suit. Age gracefully Mr Jones. There's plenty of good albums by the oldies for inspiration. I await the results with interest. :)
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Anonymous4 November 2013 at 16:38
What about some techno?
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Hissyfit4 November 2013 at 16:38
'Nice and Simple'. Another title or a character assessment of me and Marcus? Which is which Nick? There will always be peddle steel (God bless Melvin Duffy), crop loss (see Mr Cliffe's pate, not mine) and out of tune singing so... I guess that the 'Americana' vibe is a given...
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Meetwood Flac4 November 2013 at 22:00
That's what friends are for. :)
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Hissyfit5 November 2013 at 09:53
:)
Just received that PM DVDs Nick. Thank you solo much. There goes the weekend. Listened to the 'Map..' album to and from the studio. The 1st track reminds me of 'Weatherwise' and the guitar figure from 'Montemagiorre' off 'Keepers'. Is Pat stalking us?
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Anonymous5 November 2013 at 18:13
This news has really brightened up an until now miserable day! As always looking forward to hearing the results
Phil
Tel Aviv
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Hissyfit6 November 2013 at 10:41
Sorry you're having a bad day. I'm currently listening to Lou Reed and he's saying that today is 'Perfect'...
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Tim Patrick7 November 2013 at 07:04
Thrilled to hear you're back to the studio with MC, and so far along with new material... I must agree with Nick, that 'To The Bone' would be a standout album title.

Hey, I've got a goofy question for you: I know you're probably much too self-centered to consider the possibility of ever doing a "cover" of another songwriter's tune... But let's just say that you're in a situation where Joe Pesci had you're noggin in a vice, politely threatening to squash your head like f***ing grapefruit if you wouldn't chirp ...
But seriously, is there any tune out there that you've ever thought about giving a shot on a record? I can hear you putting a nice heartfelt spin on something like "Ruby's Arms"... with grace.

PS: Reporting from our little cottage on Sunset Blvd in Ormond Beach, Florida. Just arrived yesterday, hopefully for the entire winter. Humble as it may be, it feels like paradise. It's 2am, and I can hear the waves crashing on the shore. I'm off for my nightly walk to investigate, and gaze at the amazing star-fields over the ocean...
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Hissyfit7 November 2013 at 16:30
Interesting TT. I have thought about that covers album before...
Moon River
Time (Waits)
Witchita Lineman
Because of Toledo or Tinsel Town in the Rain (Slowed down mogodon version)
The list goes on...
Glad that your winter is turning to summer; I hope that all is well that end...
Trev
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‘Jones’ is Trevor Jones; principle songwriter with the critically acclaimed duo Miracle Mile, where he works alongside collaborator, arranger and musical partner Marcus Cliffe. Together they have produced nine albums, the latest of which was 2012’s ‘In Cassidy’s Care’, rated ‘Album of the Month’ by HiFi News, with respected journalist Johnny Black noting that Miracle Mile were “far and away the most unfairly unsung musical wizards ever to emerge from this sceptered isle. Big on memorable tunes wrapped around honest-to-goodness emotionally involving lyrics.”

Trevor Jones has also previously produced four solo albums: ‘Hopeland’ (2009), ‘Keepers’, (2010), ‘To the Bone’ (2014) and ‘Happy Blue’ (2016). Co-produced again with Marcus Cliffe, ‘Carver’s Law is another triumph of intimacy.
Previous critical acclaim for Trevor Jones:

“Gorgeous, as ever. Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; gently beautiful and genuinely moving. You may cry.” The Sunday Times

“Masterpieces of subtlety and observation clothed in sumptuous, lush melodies.” R2

“Jones is in a class of one. Near-perfect explorations of the human heart. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me.” Americana UK

“Achingly tender.” Folk Radio UK

“Intellectually as well as emotionally engaging.” MOJO

"Meticulously orchestrated, careful and complex, this is canny songwriting leavened by bona fide humanity." Q

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.” Maverick

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard.” Uncut

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised. Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving” The Times

Miracle Mile: A User's Guide by Johnny Black

Despite being based in a home studio in a rural backwater on the outskirts of West London, Miracle Mile chose to name themselves after a fictional gold rush main street half a world away where, according to adventure yarn spinner Jack London, ragged 49ers would blow their hard-won nuggets on booze and broads.
They apply a similarly unorthodox approach to their career in general. The band’s core duo of singer/guitarist Trevor Jones and multi-instrumentalist/arranger Marcus Cliffe have been relentless in their pursuit of the perfect song. Not the fastest, the gnarliest or the loudest, not even the most instantly commercial, but the song whose melody, lyrics, arrangement, performance and spirit might stand the test of time, giving pleasure to listeners not just for years but centuries.
They’d be the first to admit they haven’t yet found that perfect song and maybe never will, but I’d argue that their albums — the documentary evidence of that search — deserve a place alongside the best work of time-tested tunesmiths as elevated as Randy Newman, Elvis Costello or Tom Waits.

Marcus Cliffe wasn’t yet on board when the first album, Bicycle Thieves, arrived in 1997 but already it was evident that frontman Jones didn’t fit in with the prevailing mode. There was no rage, bitterness or self-loathing in his songs and nothing at all turned up to eleven. Instead, he offered meticulously orchestrated slices of ordinary human life, transforming the mundane into the marvellous with carefully crafted lyrics sincerely delivered. Even here, though, the hypnotic sample-based "Recycletwo" revealed a willingness to experiment that marked Jones out as more than just a pop craftsman in the vein of Crowded House or Aztec Camera.

What had started essentially as a recording project had become a five-piece live band by the time the follow-up, Candids, was released in 1998. Loaded with nagging guitar hooks and dynamic vocal interplay, it included one particularly affecting piece, "Small Ad," which featured just one line of lyric, the heart-rending couplet, "Baby’s shoes, never used." With those four words, Jones conjured up a yawning abyss of grief that other writers might struggle to evoke in an entire album.

Jones quickly realised that live performance was not his forte and retired to the womb of the studio for 1999’s third album, Slow Fade, which also saw the birth of the partnership that would lift Miracle Mile higher still above the norm. Marcus Cliffe, in demand as a player for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Mark Knopfler and others, was drafted in on upright bass.
Immediately the music took a more intimate turn, with Jones exploring the little things that illuminate the big things. Almost every song offers up at least one unforgettable line, like "I'd rather be ashes than dust" in "Everybody Loved You," or the concept of filling the void left by his loss of faith "with despair and metalware" in "Starwatching."
Slow Fade was further enhanced by the delicately filigreed swirls and swoops of England’s finest steel guitar maestro, B.J. Cole, whose style sat so well with Jones and Cliffe that he has become virtually a full-time member of the band.

And then, out of nowhere, catastrophe struck. Trevor Jones’ beloved sister died in tragic circumstances. It’s typical of the man that, rather than wallowing in his grief as he had every right to do, he dealt with his loss in the quiet, honest dignity of "Sister Song," the achingly lovely tribute that concludes the fourth album, Alaska. It can’t have been coincidence that the album, despite its meltingly beautiful musical landscape, was named for one of the coldest places on earth.

By the time of Stories We Could Tell in 2004, Miracle Mile were drawing critical plaudits in every significant British magazine and newspaper, along with comparisons to such pop pluperfectionists as Prefab Sprout and the Blue Nile. Critics were noting that Miracle Mile was fast becoming a repository of timelessly romantic music fueled by the same shamelessly emotional human concerns that inspired the great standards. More than this, it was being noticed that while most bands go into decline after two or three albums, Miracle Mile were getting better, perhaps because they’d avoided the trap of trying to be contemporary, and had no need to be more outrageous than the competition, largely because they didn’t see music as a competitor sport.

The sixth album, Glow, showed up in 2005 and found Jones and Cliffe further expanding their musical palette mixing Celtic folksiness with slow, semi-industrial percussion on the inspirational "An Average Sadness," blending Badalamenti guitars with Bacharach horns on "What Kate Did Next," and opening "Strange Sympathy" with a beautifully synthesised string orchestration before letting the song melt seamlessly into a laid-back country-rock rumination on the gap between aspiration and acquisition. Glow was also their most lavishly packaged disc, gorgeously presented at no small cost to themselves.

Album No. 7, Limbo, offered fifteen songs overflowing with sensitively wrought melodies and heart-fluttering lyricism. If it’s not a contradiction in terms, Limbo was even more quietly passionate than usual, deliciously understated and, at times, devastatingly tear-jerking.

‘Cassidy’s Care’ followed in 2012 and received similar critical acclaim.
Miracle Mile may just be too concerned with timeless quality for their own short-term commercial good. They’ll never sink a fang into the jugular when they can plant a whisper of a kiss on that sensitive spot at the nape of the neck and set off a tiny ripple that will, in the fullness of time, explode in the heart. I, for one, wouldn’t want it any other way.
Johnny Black

“Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; Marcus Cliffe anchors it in the sweetest pop. Gorgeous as ever. You may cry.”
Sunday Times

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard."
UNCUT

“Gorgeous melodies, hooks galore, intelligent lyrics that demand and repay careful listening, beautifully produced instrumentation, and an overall effect that combines poignancy and joy in equal measure. Music and words come together in a state as close to perfection as makes no difference, and leaves you with a delicious ache that makes you hug yourself with the sheer overwhelming joy of hearing such wonderful music. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me."
Americana UK

“A little oasis illuminated by musical creativity, glimpsed like a lovely mirage. Intelligent tunefulness that doesn’t kowtow to passing trends has always been as rare as fish fingernails, but it’s here.” Mojo

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised” The Times

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.”
Maverick

“A tender sadness. Songs that have universal resonance.”
Netrhythms

"Trevor Jones has produced a gorgeous pop album that few will hear — unless there’s justice in the world.’ The Wall Street Journal

“Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving”
The Sunday Times