Charlemagne Blue by Medicine Fish
Being a predominantly live band and being very steeped in improvisation and spur of the moment thinking, it was quite a change of pace for us to record a full record. We tried to take that excitement and vibe of our concerts and put that water through a completely different channel. We didn't just mic up a jam session and call it a studio album (which rarely captures the true moment without the crowd to bounce the energy back to you while you play), nor did we go 180 degrees and polish out every note (which as you may guess makes for a very sterile and lifeless end product). We tried to define that paradox lying somewhere in between... we thought in advance of and layered different ideas and knew the general direction the songs should go toward, but also let those ideas blossom, change, disappear and reappear all on there own in the studio. We did a lot of things in one take, and a lot of things in more than one take. Some ideas were there when we first wrote the song, some were improvised on the spot. We demonstrated our versatility on different instruments and opened up compositionally on the arrangements in a way we're unable to do live with only 3 people, but we also didn't go over the top and forget that we really are just a 3 piece guitar bass drums rock band at heart. We didn't get caught up thinking who we want to be compared to, what kind of genre we may be or what our perceived image is, we let the songs become there own thing and now they are here for you to decide for yourself whether we'll be a header or a footnote in the grand scheme of it all.
Tracklist
| 1. | Ain't That The Story | 3:10 |
| 2. | In The Shade | 3:03 |
| 3. | Lookin' On | 2:18 |
| 4. | Barn Rag | 3:12 |
| 5. | House Of Fire | 3:32 |
| 6. | 100 Things | 5:12 |
| 7. | Life Is Beautiful | 3:20 |
| 8. | California Redemption | 3:59 |
| 9. | Fool's Wine | 3:38 |
| 10. | All It's Worth | 4:44 |
| 11. | Reflections | 4:00 |
| 12. | Ocean Calling | 3:26 |
| 13. | Passing Glance | 4:51 |
| 14. | The Outro | 4:09 |
Credits
Produced by Medicine Fish & Robert Henry Cox II
Ryan Griffin: Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Julian Maultsby: Bass, Percussion, Acoustic Guitar on 1,2,3,5,7,11,13,14, Keyboard on 11, Harmony & Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals on 2&3
John Velsor: Guitars, Keyboards, Bass on 5,7&11, Mandolin, Lead & Backing Vocals, Electronics
Hand Claps & "Ghost Keys" by Robby, Ryan, Julian & John
Recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by Tom Fattoruso at On Track Studios in Ronkonkoma, NY January-July 2014
artwork and album design by Matte Chero
photography by Robert Henry Cox II
tracks 1,3,10,11 by Maultsby/Velsor, 2&9 by Huster/Velsor, 4-8, 12&13 by Velsor, 14 by Griffin/Maultsby/Velsor.
all lyrics by John except track 3 by John & Julian, all songs arranged by Ryan, Julian & John
management by Joe Pontillo & Robert Henry Cox II
Published by Hustle n' Bawl Music Inc. (1,3,10,11,14) & Velsongs Inc. (2,4-9,12,13), BMI.
License
All rights reserved.
Originally begun in October 2011, Medicine Fish is a New York group that cooks their music only using raw sound ingredients. whether they're tearing into a wild funk jam, making you clap and stomp with a folk n roll tune or pushing full speed ahead with a vintage-esque psychedelic fury, it is produced under their creed that "music is human and so are we!"