Lisa Mednick Powell and her husband Kip Powell, who reside in Twentynine Palms, California, have been recording and mixing tracks at Blue Velvet NOLA periodically over the past seven months. Besides Lisa on vocals and keys, the band consisted of Kip on bass, Tommy Malone of the Subdudes (guitar and harmonies), and Paul Santapadre (drums) and Alison Young (harmonies) of the Song Dogs. Lisa , who has played with The Chills, Alejandro Escovedo, Juliana Hatfield, Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurty, and Radney Foster, lived in New Orleans in the 80’s. She was just in town doing two reunion shows with the Song Dogs. Lisa was kind enough to write about her experience recording here at Blue Velvet NOLA.
June is hot in New Orleans. It’s hot where we live too. Just bone dry. So for some humidity, music, and a real drummer–we headed to the crescent city to record a few songs at Blue Velvet Studios. I had dreamed of this for a long time. The literal dream happened in 2010. Kip and I were living in El Rito, New Mexico. I hadn’t thought about New Orleans for a while, but then one night I dreamed about playing music with my old friends from “back in the day.” My day was the second half of the eighties. The time of the Song Dogs, Continental Drifters (who transformed into the Subdudes while we watched!), and long nights at the Maple Leaf and Muddy Waters. Anyway, in this dream we were all singing and playing together again. Fast forward to this spring. With the help of some friends and my day job as an English prof, I was able to realize the dream. Only…not everyone was there. But that’s another story.
In a way, Dave Clements was there because Kip borrowed his bass and played perfectly soulful parts on all three songs. Paul Santopadre from the Song Dogs gave the songs their proper groove; he and Kip locked in like they had been playing together for a long time. And Tommy Malone contributed a lot more than just his exquisite guitar playing and sublime singing. His production ideas and skills helped the songs become more than just words and music. He also helped me with vocal ideas.
Also, back in 1986 (maybe?) we had recorded one of the songs in the apartment I shared with Red Priest of the Song Dogs. Re-recording it with Tommy felt right—and we updated the lyrics, with Tommy contributing many of the changes. Tom Stern, who played with me in Ship of Fools (Austin), is just who you want engineering your session. He worked calmly and steadily while the rest of us acted like lunatics. We had a great time. Now, the songs are being mixed by Tom and Tommy and I am thrilled with the results. Kip and I hope to go back and record a few more songs sometime in the new year.
