41 f
I
t isn’t surprising to hear that the depths of this experience managed to manifest itself in a song on the album. “The title track, Wildflower Blues, is the one track that has to do with all the stuff I was going through. It starts out as a kiss-off song to a specific person, but it’s also a kiss-off song to any- one or anything that tries to oppress the spirit. Like illness, or pain. Jolie really helped me bring that song forth. She came up with the line about the bees coming down from heaven, and then it became a song about transformation, too. It’s defiant.”
The roles during songwriting did shift though. “Johnny Said To
May just needed that little bit of help to get it across the finish line.” Parton explained where she came in. “Jolie had the song almost done, but was struggling with the second part of the narrative. Little Black Bear had been around for a while, but it was never finished, and Jolie helped realise a third verse, which it needed.”
On the other hand, the covers on the album seemed in a way to choose themselves. “Jolie and Stevie [Weinstein-Foner] had been doing You Are Not Needed Now prior to this project, but it was so ripe for a third harmony, and just a great track for us to play togeth- er as a band.” Parton explained.
“Michael Hurley is an old friend of Jolie’s and mine,” she contin-
ued. ”We are both big fans of his music and of him as a person. Jocko’s Lament was one of the first Michael Hurley songs I ever heard, and I always just loved that it’s written from the perspective of a dog… Jolie and I used to sing this one together in New York, and it always felt so sweet. Stevie brought in the beautiful twinkling stars, the dreamscape.”
Parton and Holland self-produced Wildflower Blues with a hand-selected team behind them. One of the engineers on that team was musician, audio engineer, and record producer, Mike Coykendall, who first worked with the pair back in 2008 on Hol- land’s The Living And The Dead album. “He has a home studio that’s entirely analog. He’s just an analog guy, and that aesthetic really speaks to me on a bunch of levels,” Parton explained of the engineer who “really brought the psychedelic vibe into the title track. He ran my vocal through some crazy EQ and tape echo, and it was exactly right.”
For Coykendall (who hadn’t yet heard the final cut at time of speaking) there were two small but special standouts. There was “when the rhythm guitar comes in on Minstrel Boy,” and he particu- larly enjoyed Holland’s whistling on Biding My Time. (“One thing I love about whistling,” Holland told me, “is that it’s easier to do than singing. But you can give yourself a headache if you go too long.”)
“Seems like they all had a good amount of love and respect for
each other,” Coykendall told me. “I think they know what they want but also seem to be open to seeing what happens, not planning everything out. We worked pretty fast for the initial tracking.”
The duo are playing the UK and Dublin in October. “And then returning to the States for some east and west coast shows,” Parton explained. Holland is “thrilled to take this band on the road. This material is so comparatively sweet. A lot of my solo material has been emotionally challenging to present every night, but this stuff is lighter in feeling, hopefully more uplifting. The band dynamic is fun.” And don’t worry; Samantha Parton is in safe hands: “I’m push- ing myself, testing the waters. I have the most supportive band, which helps. I’m so grateful.”
jolieandsamantha.com F
Photo: Marilyn Cvitanic
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
