the matthew show revisited: week sixteen
A funny thing happened in a Brooklyn bar one night in 2003. My musical godfather, one Little Jack Melody, came to town and of course I, as a freshly minted New Yorker, leapt at the chance to see one of my favorite artists in my new stomping grounds. As it happened, there was an opening act that I would become obsessed with as well. Las Rubias del Norte was a collection of musicians made up of classical and Latin influences that lit up any room they were in. I was blown away by the gorgeous harmonies of Alyssa Lamb and Emily Hurst, and resolved to figure out a way to employ that sound on a matthew show record at some point.
In 2005, when I was making my second album, february, I had the inkling that I wanted to cover a Little Jack tune. My brain somehow made the connection, and I dreamed up this little vocal line that bore the voices of the Rubias. One simple email, and they were at my apartment, in the broom closet that passed for my studio, effortlessly reading my hastily scrawled sheet music (the only time I've ever written out music, incidentally) and setting exactly the right tone. It was an easy leap to call in the magnificent Reggie Rueffer again, himself a LJM alum, for the main riff, and voila. When Reggie came in, I showed him the track as it was at that time, and hearing the backing vocals, he blinked and said, "you're doing that how?" Made me smile.
Before release, I contacted Carl Finch, the Brave Combo ringleader and the tune's co-writer, and it felt good to send him the licensing fee directly rather than going through an agency. I would do that once more when we recorded the Memphis version, but that's another story.