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Beth Bombara - It All Goes Up |
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It All Goes Up is the title of Beth Bombara’s new album that
will be released this week (August 4) on Black Mesa Records, and
Riveting Riffs Magazine gives two thumbs up to a fabulous collection of
songs, that once again demonstrate Bombara’s superb musicianship and
delicious vocals.
Confessing that she is really excited about this record she says, “We
were sort of coming out of COVID and we were getting back to normal.
When I wrote “Lonely Walls,” I was reflecting on my feelings and the
past year or so.
It started out as me reflecting on the pandemic, but I really wanted it
to be more open than that.”
The lyrics are open enough to interpretation that the listener might
find themselves thinking about a relationship or perhaps a difficult
time in their lives. It may also be as easy to interpret them as that
time during the pandemic that separated so many from the ones they
loved, whether they be romantic relationships or familial.
Beth Bombara goes on to say, that it (the song), “morphed into this
longing for one person.”
The melody meanders, an easy tempo, that sets the mood for more
reflections than missives.
She says about the fourth track, “Get On,” is a mixture of being about
procrastination, someone who is afraid to move ahead and just finds it
easier to make excuses for not moving forward.
Eric Henry on steel guitar joins the band for “Get On,” and Beth Bombara
explains why, “I was thinking about the sonic textures. For one I think
the pedal steel is a beautiful instrument and it has that quality that
is wistful or longing and I really thought that would add to the meaning
of the song.
My good friend Karl Kling produced this song and when I sent the demo to
him, it just had drums, bass and guitar. We talked about textures that I
was thinking about and we threw out some ideas. I was thinking in my
head that pedal steel would be great and I didn’t even say that to Karl,
but he said, what about pedal steel? I said that is exactly what I was
thinking. He is friends with Eric, so he had Eric lay down some pedal
steel on it.”
Another song in which Beth Bombara gives herself some advice is
“Moment,” and she explains why, “This is another song to remind me that
life goes by really fast. The older we get life moves faster and faster.
It is a reminder for me to just slow down a little bit. We don’t always
have to go, go, go. Experiencing that forced slow down during lockdown
times was also a good reminder that we can take a breath and sometimes
it is really good to do that.”
Beth why this title, It All Goes Up?
“Titling an album is always hard for me, because it is just easy to pick
a title track, but when I was thinking about how to describe the album
in a title, I kept coming back to this lyric line, in the song
“Electricity.” I thought “Electricity,” (eighth song on the album),
summed up for me what I felt the album was about. Compared to past
records of mine it definitely has a more positive theme and even
sonically, so I wanted to capture that. It is about the past is what it
is, but things can only get better from here,” she explains.
If we had to describe the third song on the record, “Everything I
Wanted,” the verses are mid-tempo that builds to a quick moving
crescendo for the chorus. This is a good place to pause and talk about
the fabulous playing of Kit Harmon (bass guitar, synth and percussion),
Sam Golden (electric guitar), drummer Mark Schurk, Samuel Gregg makes an
appearance on the song “Moment,” playing pedal steel guitar and electric
guitar, Karl Kling (12 string guitar on “Get On”), John Calvin Abney
joins the band playing electric guitar and Rhodes piano for the song
“Fade.” We left Beth Bombara until last, because she deserves a sentence
all her own, as she plays electric, Classical and acoustic guitars, keys
and of course she is the singer.
As for her first instrument, Beth Bombara recalls, “The first instrument
that I started playing was the piano. I think it was one of those things
that as a parent you want your kid to be well-rounded. We had a piano at
the house. My parents asked if I would like to play the piano and I said
yes that sounds like fun. That was my jumping off point to learning
other instruments.
I liked singing, but I never (thought) I wanted to sing in front of
other people. That didn’t come for me until much later when I felt
comfortable doing that. I feel like finally now I am the most
comfortable I have ever been with singing.”
“Everything I Wanted,” is a songwriter’s song, as it gives the listener
a peek behind the curtain about the life of a songwriter. It is also a
song with an upbeat feeling, despite some of the true-life hard times
described. Listening to Beth Bombara’s vocals on the chorus reminds one
of the early days of Fleetwood Mac and the vocals of Stevie Nicks and
Christine McVie. That is not an exaggeration but tells you just how good
Bombara’s vocals truly are.
“It (the song) is me thinking about where do we get our ideas of what we
need? What is happiness? What is success? The things that we have been
told are (these things), maybe aren’t necessarily true. I have realized
in the past few years that I don’t need very much to be happy. It is
also pushing against the idea that the grass is always greener on the
other side. While that idea is alluring to think about sometimes, it is
not necessarily true all of the time.
It is really interesting when you take away some of those things that we
are used to we don’t really miss them. I have experienced that in the
past few years. Things that I thought I really needed it turned out I
didn’t really miss that,” she says.
We were curious about the songwriting process between Kit Harmon and
Beth Bombara and especially since this song, plus three others were
written together.
Beth Bombara takes it from here, “I generally will have most of the song
finished. I know I may not be happy with the chords or the arrangement
or some of the lyrics and I will take it to Kit and I will say how would
you finish this song? Do you have any ideas to help get it into a final
state? That is what happened with this song. I had lyrics written, and
they were okay, but I thought they could be better.
I felt the music on the chorus, just wasn’t hitting right. He
helped me finish the form of the song. This one stumped us for a while.
We recorded three different demos of it and I said no it’s not quite
right.
One night we were sitting in the living room and I grabbed my guitar and
said what if on the chorus you just hang on the one note? He grabbed his
bass and instantly we said, that’s it! That’s what is missing (she
laughs lightly). That is a good description of how our (songwriting)
process.”
Continuing she says, “Kit has been playing with me forever and that is
how we met in 2004. We have been making music in various capacities
since then. Now we are married (you can hear her smile), so he will
probably always be a collaborator.”
The slow-tempo “Curious and Free,” meets at the junction of Americana
and Folk Rock with strings arrangements by Sam Golden who plays fiddle,
viola and cello. “Kit recorded all of the percussion on “Curious and Free.” I knew I wanted strings on it and I wanted percussion, but I thought it might be too much. He said I have some ideas, so I am going to track percussion. He played for me what he had tracked and I said yes, that fits and it brings it to a whole other level,” she says.
From a songwriting perspective “What You Wanna Hear,” think Joni
Mitchell, think Gordon Lightfoot, the melody is easygoing, the word
pictures are vivid and the Classical guitar playing by Beth Bombara is
reminiscent of shades of Bucky Pizzarelli meets Liona Boyd.
“That song came out of the period of time when I hadn’t finished writing
any songs in a while. I said I am just not feeling it and I need to do
something to break out of this. I wouldn’t call it writer’s block. I was
just focusing on other things in life. I wanted to get back to writing,
so I challenged myself to write one song a week. What that meant was I
would have enough of a song, a verse and a chorus or two verses and a
finished chorus and a melody. I would make a video of myself and I would
send it to my patrons on Patreon. That was the way to keep moving
forward creatively with songwriting, while also getting in this space
when I wasn’t overthinking things and just sitting down and seeing what
comes out.
When I wrote “What You Wanna Hear,” it was a week when I was going to
let whatever was going to come out, come out, editing it without
thinking this is a dumb thing to write a song about. I find when I am
writing lyrics, I get in my own way. I like just being still with the
guitar and letting something come out, without a preconceived idea. I
sat down with a Classical guitar and I started playing chords and a lot
of those words just came out. While I was playing the chords, I had a
notepad out and I would write down the first things that came to mind.
The music brought out this poetry and the lyric lines. (she laughs) It
is strange.
That is my favorite way to write a song. It sounds silly, but there is
that element in songwriting where if you hit it right and all of the
stars align it just sort of comes out of you in this way that is hard to
describe.”
Please visit the website for Beth Bombara
here and you can follow her on
Instagram.
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“When
I was writing this one, I was writing it to myself (she laughs lightly).
It was a reminder for me to not worry about what is in the past and to
just keep my head forward and to keep going. That’s what matters. I tend
to get stuck in procrastination and overthinking what I should have
done, but that is all in the past. When I was writing this (song) I was
giving myself advice,” she says. 