After years of recording with such diverse talents as Quincy Jones, Mark Mothersbaugh, Danny Kortchmar, John Prine and Joe Cocker, as well as writing and recording theme songs for TV, film and commercials, Sarah Taylor decided it was time to record an album of her own.
Long time friends and collaborators, Sarah Taylor and Bill Mumy decided to go into the studio and get to work on a collection of songs mostly penned by Mumy that would become, “The Cure To Everything”.
They agreed to cut the basic tracks live to keep a spontaneous and honest energy in the music. Sarah and Bill assembled a crack team of musicians in the studio for what became a week of tracking. The core rhythm section was blues/rock guitarist Doug Hamblin (Albert King, Johnny Rivers, Koko Taylor, Dr. John), bassist David Sutton (Lucinda Williams, Liz Phair, Ben Harper), with Fritz Lewak (Melissa Etheridge, Jackson Browne), and Chris Ross (Sam Moore, The Jenerators) on drums and percussion. Guiding the process was producer and guitarist Bill Mumy, who played on every track.
Sarah’s husband, Paul Horabin engineered and mixed the album. His patience and talent delivered a sonic treat. The album sounds great.
Recorded at Paul and Sarah’s “Ready Mix” studio, the musicians had the luxury of letting the creative process unfold without the pressure of a clock ticking. In an interview, Sarah discussed the recording process, “Because we recorded in our studio, and had no interference from a label, this allowed us to throw out a ball of string, so to speak, and meander down that road and see where it took us. I figured we could record a couple of songs a day. This minimally structured “no plan” plan allowed everyone to contribute ideas and work on arrangements, sounds and, basically, make changes as they happened.”
The prolific Mumy wrote several new songs during the sessions that were often recorded the same day they were written. Numerous times they thought they were done recording basic tracks, and then a new song would find its way into the mix. Ultimately, it was whittled down to the thirteen songs on the album.
Apart from the core group, there are an eclectic variety of other musicians who contribute greatly to the album. “Weird Al” Yankovic played accordion on two tracks. Gerry Beckley from the band “America”, co-wrote one song, “Man Of Pride”, and played acoustic guitar on that as well as supplying the vintage Wurlitzer electric piano on Sarah’s version of Lennon and McCartney’s “I’ve Got A Feeling”. Here it is a vocal duet with Mumy that began as an impromptu jam in-between takes one late night session. A wide range of additional tonal colors are provided by Dave Pearlman on pedal steel, dobro and electric guitar. A swampy trombone solo on “The Great Domain” was provided by Steve Baxter and the classically trained Sarah played violin on two tracks.
On “We’re One”, they took a different route. The track is a single vintage pump organ and one vocal. Producer Anibal Kerpel (Juanes, Café Tacuba, Molotov) invited Sarah, Bill and Paul to record his vintage pump organ at his studio, “Circo”.
Sarah took her time doing the final vocals for the album. She and Paul experimented with various different mics and preamps. Several singers came in and recorded background vocals on a number of songs, but in the end, Sarah arranged and sang all of the backgrounds herself.
Ultimately, after experimenting with different vocal approaches, Sarah went back and re-recorded lead vocals in single takes. Sarah laughs and says, “Doug Hamblin’s infamous phrase echoed throughout the project, ‘You can’t erase it if you don’t record it!’ That became everyone’s mantra.”
There are surprising twists and turns through traditional Americana, country blues, front-porch gospel, folk and rock, all the while corralling these disparate musical styles into a rich, colorful and cohesive tapestry.
While Sarah Taylor may have taken a long time to release her first solo album, it is well worth the wait. It is after all, “The Cure To Everything”!
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