Sold Date: April 25, 2014
Start Date: April 21, 2014
Final Price: £79.99 (GBP)
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Brand new and even now stupidly rare exclusive 4 track Emily Barker covers 12".....a wonderful collection of heartbreaking and eclectic covers from thus folk genius.....essential.....clay contrasting dynamics & a broad cavalcade of emotions 'dear river' is a fascinating exploration of self, place & people. emily barker & the red clay halo songs beneath the river everyone sang record store day 2014 - 10" ep Record Store Day is almost upon us and one of Folk Radio UK’s favourites has announced the release of the vinyl only Songs From The River EP. It’s very limited. For fans of Emily it is of course an essential purchase, but for fans of the black stuff, there is extra interest, in that it was recorded direct to vinyl. This means that each side was recorded live in a single take, including the gap of silence between tracks, with no facility for overdubs, corrections or anything. The fours songs are cover versions of some of the foundation blocks of or stepping stone to Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo’s Dear River. Each has a unique personal connection and inspirational quality. Whether it’s Emily learning to sing by wearing out a copy of Aretha’s Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, from which Dan Penn’s Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, or the long car journeys across Australia that led to Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love and especially Tougher Than The Rest, becoming indelibly engrained. Then there’s Patti Smith’s Easterand the Tom Waits’ song Day After Tomorrow that come via the singing of Linda Thompson. 10" vinyl in full colour sleeve with 3mm spine. the record you are now holding is the result of one of the most nerve-racking but rewarding recording experiences we have had in our years of playing together. we had always planned to record these four songs as an ep, and a series of chance meetings led to us receiving an invitation to record them direct to vinyl. the recording process was unlike anything we’d ever done before. yes, we have recorded live previously - our album despite the snow was recorded in four days in a freezing cold barn in norfolk, and many of our concerts have been recorded as well - but with these previous recordings, there was always the opportunity to edit parts, adding effects, mixing, mastering, and generally the potential to iron out any mistakes. with the direct-to-vinyl recording process, there is no room for error. each side is recorded in a single take, mixed and mastered as you perform. you even have to time your own five-second gap, or thereabouts, between the songs whilst the technician on the cutting lathe does what is called a “scroll” (a faster revolution of the pitch motor in order to move the cutting stylus along faster, thereby creating more “land” between the grooves – in case you were wondering...). talk about pressure! i don’t think any of us dared to breathe during our takes. anyway, we’re really pleased to say that, despite a few “quirky” moments, we managed to get through side a and then on to side b with no major mistakes. and in fact, even more than that, we’re quite proud of our performance overall and love the warmth and quality of the sound achieved through this wonderfully antiquated recording method. so why songs beneath the river? the four songs on the ep were chosen from the list we had put together of music that informed and inspired the writing and arranging on our album dear river... i first heard ‘do right woman, do right man’ performed by aretha franklin on her album never loved a man the way i love you. i was about thirteen years old and discovering aretha changed my life because she made me want to learn how to sing. i used to shut myself in my room after school, put on this record and sing along until my voice was hoarse. then, over time, i learned how to sing along without losing my voice and this song became my album favourite. later on in life, i discovered a love of country music and subsequently the flying burrito brothers’ cover of the song, which is on their record the gilded palace of sin. i fell hard for this version too, and gram quickly became a source of song-writing inspiration for me. so this magnificent song reflects, at least in our minds, both of these influences. perhaps you can hear traces of the country-meets-soul style in the title track of dear river? during the time i was writing the songs for dear river, one album that was regularly on my player was patti smith’s easter. besides simply loving the album, this was because i wanted to introduce more of a “rock” element to our recordings and i guess i was hoping osmosis, or magic of some kind, would take effect and suddenly my songs would pop out with a patti smith-esque feel to them. i don’t know if this theory was at all successful, but i certainly enjoyed trying it out. what a painfully beautiful song this is... my dad bought the tunnel of love record back in 1987 when it was released and it immediately became the family’s most played album on long car journeys. if you live in australia, car journeys are often pretty epic, so it wasn’t long before my siblings and i knew every word to every song on this record. and what a record it is! strangely, i forgot about it for years until, by fated coincidence, i recently went on a car journey with my brother, joel. we were travelling down the very same road we used to travel down as kids (in the back of the 1968 peugeot 504 estate on our way to the southern ocean for a camping trip) and joel put tunnel of love on the car stereo. suddenly i was struck, again, by the power of this record. as an adult, i found the lyrics spoke to me in a way i didn’t comprehend as a child. springsteen is a fabulous storyteller, with ‘tougher than the rest’ being a perfect example. he has inspired the way i try to tell my own stories. i actually heard the linda thompson version of day after tomorrow before i heard tom waits’ original. both are stunning, but it was linda’s version from which we took inspiration to create our own. the lyrics on dear river are all centeredaround understanding the meaning of ‘home.’ on the album, as well as telling my personal story of home, i also found myself telling the stories of others, one of which is my grandfather’s war story in a song called ‘letters’, telling of his time in exile during wwii. one inevitability of war is displacement. many people leave their homes and move to other countries in an attempt to leave behind the trauma of their experiences, as was the case with my dutch grandparents; many flee in order to survive; many remain but their city or town perhaps changes beyond recognition. war effects our definition of home. ‘day after tomorrow’ is an anti-war song. the line “…what i miss you won’t believe, shovelling snow and raking leaves…”, kills me every time. so simple, yet so poignant in describing just how much this soldier is missing his home. masterful song writing by another who has informed and inspired my approach to writing songs. we hope you enjoy our versions as much as we enjoyed recording them. emily barker, feb 2014 So why Songs Beneath The River? The four songs on the EP were chosen from the list we had put together of music that informed and inspired the writing and arranging on our album Dear River… Tracklist for ‘Songs Beneath The River’: SIDE A 1. Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (Dan Penn) 2. Easter (Patti Smith) SIDE B 1. Tougher Than The Rest (Springsteen) 2. Day After Tomorrow(Waits) do right woman, do right man easter tougher than the rest day after tomorrow