For Wendy Wall, the new CD The Road To Paradise (national release: March 31, 2009) represents a return to roots, to longtime trusted friends - musical and personal friendships originally formed in Greenwich Village and The Bitter End. The new CD is packed with players who started performing together as part of that thriving downtown scene, the authentic downtown family. Wendy writes of her journey to the new record:
“After a time of quiet, what I finally did start to do was write. Then bring the songs to Baker, to the studio, to the band. I met with Stewart Lerman. He and his studio exuded warmth. We started to record and over the course of two years made a record I named The Road to Paradise after a song I’d written. It took that long to make because resources were slim, but the time was good. Baker Lee, Kevin Jenkins, Steve Holley, Marc Shulman, Larry Campbell, longtime, trusted friends who supported the songs in so many ways.
We re-launched the website, just after starting the record, and people started writing me right away with words of support and that they were waiting for new music. They couldn’t have known how much that meant to me.
Music has always made life possible for me. If someone needs to hear the story I’m humming half as much as I needed to hum it, randomness factors out. And it all makes sense”.
The Road to Paradise - 13 new songs written and performed by Wendy Wall.
Featuring:
Baker Lee, guitar, and co-arranger (Melanie, Sonny Terry)
Steve Holley, drums and percussion (Paul McCartney and Wings, Dar Williams, Joe Cocker)
Kevin Jenkins, bass (Cyndi Lauper, John Gorka)
Marc Shulman, guitar (Suzanne Vega, Edie Brikell, Jonatha Brooke, Patty Larkin)
Larry Campbell, banjo, mandolin (Bob Dylan, Roseanne Cash, Paul Simon, Joan Osborne)
Tommy B Thompson, background vocals, guitar, co-arranger.
The ethereal and dreamlike quality of the opening and closing tracks on The Road To Paradise provide perfect bookends to a lyrical and musical story that represents a time of further transition in the artists’ life.
“…we are what we were seeking” The Road to Paradise
