Album Notes

RAW FLOWERS was recorded live over the course of 2 ten hours days at Piety Street Recording in New Orleans, Louisiana. The vibe we wanted to create was the wonderful feeling of anticipation before night creeps in; the magic hour, dusk, thw warm inviting, fire-lit time. I spent a lot of that "fire-lit time" in Baton Rouge, LA sitting on my porch watching the traffic go by, enjoying the smells of that fragrant city, relaxing with neighbors over a glass or two of Jim Beam and Coke and talking about who knows what while the sun went down.

I also wanted to incorporate the feelings I had spending time with friends on the Cane River in Natchitoches, Louisiana. I have so many fond memories of the Cane River and wanted to envision those images as we sang and played. Piety Street Recording was the perfect studio for capturing the Baton Rouge and Cane River at dusk vibe.

Described as: "A cross between an elegant Cajun fishing campy mixed with a turn of the century Storyville bordello or maybe your favorite grandmother's living room...In the downtown New Orleans neighborhood known as the Bywater. This area is also called "the ninth ward". It is home to many odd specimens of humanity: hipsters, fearless late night bike riders, geezers who drank too much to make it out with the 80s white flight crowd, families of all varieties, and a smattering of celebrities. The Mississippi River borders Bywater and the boat horns can be heard all through the day and night. The studio is on the corner of Piety and Dauphine Streets on the original route of the Desire streetcar line, now the bus named Desire".

Flame Shark packed up and headed from Chicago to Baton Rouge and then on to New Orleans. Our drummer for RAW FLOWERS was my old friend Doug Gay, Baton Rouge resident and native of Lake Charles, Louisiana. When I told him of the project and the vibe, he said, "I don't want to sound biased, but the kind of drummer your describing only exists in South Louisiana." He's since played all the drums on our in-progress album FARM LIFE and is currently (fall 2009-2010) on tour with Grammy nominated blues guitarist and songwriter Tab Benoit.

Our new home in Chicago played an influential role as well as we embraced the energy and soul of this fat paced, sometimes turbulent feeling city. We've long been fans of R&B and soul, but it wasn't until RAW FLOWERS we were able to interpret it our own way and sound honest. And we can't turn our backs on our beloved Wisconsin. We became a band there and we've looked and traveled through the simple, clean beauty of Wisconsin for peace and inspiration.