Allie Fox – Waylands Blues – Offbeat.co.uk

Allie Fox – Waylands Blues

Five years in the making, the acoustic guitar album, Waylands Blues by Allie Fox, is now being mixed.

The album will be released on Vixen Records lateer this year.  I worked with her on her debut album Diving For Pearls which was critically acclaimed by Mojo, Q magazine and BBC Radio 2’s Bob Harris. It was a collection of songs, unlike this album which is completely instrumental collection of mainly her own original compositions.

I used to wonder why some albums took years to make and now I know! This one started when I had a G4 computer using Logic 4 and has been transferred several times onto each version of Logic I’ve upgraded to over the years. Allie, who lives in Selkirk, travels to Edinburgh once a month or so to spend 4 hours at a time on the recording, initially establishing a live take per session and some guitar overdubs. We created a click track for each tune, creating rhythms that suited the track which would eventually be removed. That was a good decision as endless comping of layers of takes have been involved.

There are quite a few guests on the album, Dobro slide guitarist Rod Clements from Lindisfarne,   Harmonica player Fraser Spiers,  Ben Ivitsky – producer of Elisa Carthy on  Viola, Ron Shaw on Cello, John Wardell on Pedal Steel , Dave Haswell on Drums and Percussion,Pat McGarvey on Banjo, Frank Usher on Acoustic Guitar, Gavin Dickey on Bass, myself on Bass and Keyboards and programming. One track in particular – The Meaning Of Life And Death, I really wanted to get on with Rod Clements,  just so I could say I played with them. OK, it was me playing one sustained note on synth strings with one finger, but hey, call me shallow ….they can’t take that away from me.

Each musician made a great contribution on two tracks each on average.  Mostly they didn’t know the tracks they were guesting on and jammed lots of takes each, from which Allie and I painstakingly edited down into performances. That was the time consuming bit. It would sometimes  take 3 to 4 sessions for us to comp parts together that really worked with the tracks.

The challenge was always making sure that Allie’s own guitar parts didn’t get swamped by the guests and each resulting comp track was reduced even further throughout the album. Getting to what sounds like a simple natural performance was a process not unlike editing a film. The vast majority of guests ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor. Another good analogy is the distilling of whisky… nobody complains of how long that takes!!

I think this is a fabulous album and considering how long it’s taken to do, it always manages to sound fresh and vital. I look forward to the release later in the year.