Shelby Earl’s well-received 2011 debut Burn the Boats took a year to come together, painstakingly perfected with John Roderick’s (The Long Winters) production assistance. Compare that to the process for newest release, Swift Arrows, recorded in eight days. Swift arrow, indeed. Produced by highly-regarded local singer-songwriter Damien Jurado, Shelby Earl’s latest album is a major departure from her debut in almost every way.
While Earl had greatly admired Jurado’s work, particularly his most recent album Maraqopa, their first meeting was facilitated by Twitter. Shelby nervously prepared to sell him on why she wanted him to produce her album. “I thought I was going to give a whole spiel about him producing.” Instead, Damien Jurado had a plan and he jumped right in to describe his vision for her next record.
“I was like, ‘Well, you probably want to hear the songs,’ and he was like, ‘No.’ Because this is the way HE makes records. Richard Swift produces Damien’s stuff, and what they do is, Swift doesn’t hear any of it until they get to the studio and Damien basically does a show for him. So this is what he says to me, ‘I’m going to sit in front of you and you’re going to perform that shit for me,’ Earl recalled.
Shelby was not yet confident in her guitar playing, but Damien pushed her. “He said ‘I want two dudes, or ladies, both with acoustic guitars, sitting beside you, one playing in the same register as you, the other in a different voice,’ almost like a shadow of what I was playing. ‘You guys better be really well-practiced,’ he said.”
Damien Jurado was listening to a lot of old vinyl and he wanted to bring in that same warm, full sound. He wanted a big room, because he wanted the live vibe — Shelby’s voice in a big space. They chose Columbia City Theater, the site of her upcoming album release party, July 13th at 8 p.m. (Tickets $10 advance/$12 door; 21+.)
So Shelby Earl set out and found her people: Reagan Crowe, a long-time friend, and talented local guitarist Eric Howk, formerly of The Lashes, who she’d never met, but with whom many people had told her she need to collaborate. They added a full band with Rachel Flotard (background vocals), Faustine Hudson (drums/percussion), Jacob James (piano), Earl’s frequent collaborator Anna-Lisa Notter (background vocals/ percussion), Mike Notter (trumpet), Benjamin Obee (bass/background vocals), Dylan Rieck (cello), Barry Uhl (organ/optigan/keys), and Valerie Uhl (flute). Jurado also contributed backing vocals, percussion, and piano — listen for his cameo on “Sea of Glass.”
“It all lined up and NOTHING I do in music is ever that easy,” Earl marveled. This was Jurado’s vision. “ ‘I want a big sound, I want a live sound, I want it honest, I want it to sound like old records.’ The only song that was already written that way was “The Artist.” Damien hadn’t even heard that song yet, though, when he heard “Sea of Glass.” Jurado emerged from the control room and said, ‘It’s awesome. The melody is awesome, the lyrical content is awesome. I just feel like rhythmically it needs something…dum du dum pshah dum du dum pshah.’ We tried one pass at it like that and we played it another time, and he came out and was like, ‘Done. Nailed it.’ And that’s the one that’s on the record. And almost everything we did was first or second take.”
It was a bold departure from Burn The Boats and Earl says that while it terrified her, she grew a lot from the experience. “It took a lot of faith in Damien, and the biggest revelation is learning that I’m even capable of doing that. It kicked my butt. It majorly grew me. Scary as hell and I hear all the flaws. Damien was like, ‘That’s the most honest you’re going to get so let’s keep that.’ But the good news is, if you come to my show, that’s what I sound like. It’s live and that’s what it is.”
She feels more confident now. “When I do have nervous or awkward or uncertain moments, I’m like, “Well, this is who I am, so I could sweat that right now or I could just own it. And that’s all about maturity and understanding that you’re not gonna be the other person. Ever. So you might as well own this version and know that you do have something to contribute, figuring out that it’s worth something to people. Learning that has been valuable.” As she sings on the third track on the album, “Grown Up Things,” “Look out look out look out, the shit’s getting real.”
Earl knows that fans of the first album may be surprised by the change in direction on the new release — far from the spare singer-songwriter beauty of her first album, Swift Arrows is big, bold, and, well, grown-up. The first two songs, “Swift Arrows” and “Sea of Glass”, bring a ’60s girl group sound that will have you rethinking the Ronettes. “I wrote “Swift Arrows” last. It’s about going through all of that and at the end of it, realizing I’m a warrior now. None of that took me down. I’m all in.”
It’s clear that Shelby Earl is going big places. Rolling Stone recently suggested her song “Everyone Belongs to Someone” (Burn the Boats) for the soundtrack of Zach Braff’s Kickstarter-funded Garden State sequel, while the Weekly just named Shelby Earl one of the 50 women who rock Seattle. Find out for yourself what the buzz is all about at the Swift Arrows release party next month at Columbia City Theater.
