Hello All-
I was reading the paper today and they had a lengthy article about
Daniel Lanois's studio closing up for good here. The building is on the
market now for $1.5 mil if anyone is interested. Its a groovy dark place on
the edge of the french quarter. Ani diFranco put an offer in for the place,
but was turned down for too low a bid. Lots of cool records were made there
like: subdudes Lucky, EmmyLou Harris Wrecking Ball, Sheryl Crows follow to
to Tuesday Night.., Peter Gabriel Us, Squirrel Nut Zippers Hot + a couple of
others, REM recorded there, + many many more. There was over a hundred
projects come thru there over the ten years it was here. The manager Karen
Brady recounted one of the most memorable moments for her was Neil Young
slow dancing with his wife to and EmmyLou song during that session. I have a
couple of memories from that space and time. One Jazz Fest I was invited
there for a party and Carole King was there. Dan set up his band at the
bottom of the huge staircase and treated us to some songs. Carole sang
Chains with him. Aaron stopped in and sang God On Our Side all with Brian
Blade on drums most of the evening. Bill Dillon was on guitars and guitorgan
(check him out on TI and NRH). It was an incredible evening. I sat in one of
the big rooms during the evening and played Chinese Cafe on the Grand Piano.
Some girl came up to me and asked me if I had written the tune and I told no
that Joni Mitchell had written it. "Oh!", she said, "who's that?" I don't
think she really wanted to know, it was probably more of a "are you famous?"
type of thing. My friend Joe recorded his album The Scoundrels Waltz there
and there's a couple of things I better NOT post about that experience. I
know Joni was there at some point and I think there was some discussion of
her doing something there and/or Lanois producing a record for her. I know
Dan was responsible ofr turning her on to Brian. It is so sad to see the old
place go by the wayside.
Later,
Michael
NP-Hourglass-Michael Franks
