Monday, January 28, 2013

Our Own Kind of Love

     Richmond Fontaine finished the last leg of "The High Country" tours in early November 2011. Our last show of the tour was in Galway, Ireland.
     After the tour ended, I had the good luck to fly to Florence, Italy for a few days to hang out with Stiv Cantarelli. Stiv is a longtime friend, bandmate, touring companion and mastermind behind such bands as Gold Rust, Satellite Inn, Jimmy Cooper Club and Stiv Cantarelli and the Silent Strangers.
     Coincidentally, Bob Dylan and his Band were playing in Florence while I was there. On 11-11-11, natch.
     Florence is probably my favorite city that I have had the pleasure to visit. I've been fortunate enough to spend a good amount of time in Florence during the last 6 years. I love walking the streets, taking in the sights and sounds, and the Renaissance architecture, the old cathedrals and the museums are breathtaking.
    Plus I get to hang out with Stiv and his wife Anna, eating good food, drinking good wine, and talking about music and life. 

    On this visit, while walking alone down toward the Duomo in the city center, I came upon the idea of writing an acoustic 'lost love' ballad. I thought it would be great to come up with a male and female duet, centered around heartache and regret. You know, the stuff of classic country songs! Maybe the fact that I had been away from home for a few months came into play when I came up with the idea.
     Well, before I knew it I had come up with a verse or two and a melody. I kept working it over in my head as I walked. I had never really composed a song without an instrument. So this was a new experience, exciting and liberating.
     I had just come off a tour where I had gotten to hang out with the amazing Amy Boone. Amy was singing and playing keyboards with the band. I had talked with Amy about the possibility of singing on my next record, which I was due to begin in December. I had her voice in mind as I wrote the song.
     That night I wrote out another verse. Then is was time to have some fun and check out the Dylan show.

     On the first leg of my flight back to Oregon, sitting in the plane, I came up with the bridge for the song. As it turned out, my flight into Amsterdam was delayed, and I missed my connection. It ended up being one of those classic messed up, long as hell travel days back home. I think it took something like 24 hours to make it back to Portland. But I pretty much finished the song in my head during all that. It helped keep me somewhat sane. The only other thing I remember about that day was watching some classic Paul Newman movies on the plane. So, the day was not a total loss!
     The day after I got back home, I sat down with my guitar and firmed up the words and music in about 5 minutes. It's a pretty straightforward song.

     As it turned out, Amy was not able to make it to Portland to work on my record. But I ended up working with the very talented Michael Jodell. Michael had sung on my first record as well. She has a great voice and wonderful style.
     For the recording, Michael and I sat face to face in Mike Coykendall's living room. We cut the track live, with me playing the acoustic guitar. I think we did about 5 or 6 takes, and we had a keeper.
      Paul Brainard came in next and added some tasty pedal steel guitar.
     Next I added some mandolin, using my classic old mandolin from the 1930's that Jeff Robbins found for me. For those keeping track, that same mandolin was used on Lost Son and Winnemucca (Paul Brainard played it on both those records), as well as another recording where Petra Haden played it. It was actually the first time where I got to play it on record. I was very happy to finally play it on record myself!

     I will always envision the beautiful streets of Florence when I think of  'Our Own Kind of Love'.


WE HAVE OUR OWN SMILE
WE HAVE OUR OWN TEARS
WE HAVE A WAY
WE HAVE OUR OWN KIND OF LOVE

THROUGH ALL THE GOOD TIMES
THROUGH ALL THE BAD TIMES
THROUGH ALL THE YEARS
WE HAVE OUR OWN KIND OF LOVE

AND I WISH THAT I COULD BE THERE
TO HOLD YOU TONIGHT
BUT WE BOTH KNOW THAT I'M
NOT THAT KIND OF GUY

AND NOW I'M LEAVING
GOING DOWN THE ROAD AGAIN
KISS OUR BABY GOODNIGHT
WE HAVE OUR OWN KIND OF LOVE


c 2012 boguemusic bmi



http://daveharding.bandcamp.com/album/you-came-through