Celia Slattery

Cast of Characters (Celia Slattery/Mark Shilansky)

I wrote this song around the time I released my first CD, Movin' On. I was really awed by all the support I got from people, especially the other musicians who played on the album. The song became a kind of “Where's Waldo?” of citing these different classic rock lyrics. Mark came up with the great hook that tied it all together.

Love Will Come Around (David Rotheray)

A few years ago I was introduced to David Rotheray's (The Beautiful South, Homespun) music through a family friend, and immediately fell in love with it. Last summer I had the chance to sit down with David at a pub near his house in Hull, England, and received his “blessing” to cover a couple of his tunes for this album. The theme of the song is universal, but expressed in his distinctive, slightly offbeat Yorkshireman way. Mark gave the song its Motown-influenced groove.

Mark: On this track, as well as Cast, we feature a mentor of mine (and former pianist of Celia’s) Alain Mallet, keyboardist and producer with artists The Story and Paul Simon. He added some tasty accordion and wurly to Cast, and some burning organ and a Stevie Wonder-esque melodica solo to this one.

Bamboo Bar (Celia Slattery)

In 1991 I spent a fabulous year in Bangkok, where I had a regular gig singing at the Bamboo Bar at the Oriental Hotel. The hotel is a historic landmark that has been around for over 100 years and has been a haven for celebrities from Joseph Conrad to Mick Jagger. I found the contrasts fascinating - the elegance of the hotel vs. the seamier side of Bangkok nightlife - all set against the backdrop of a vibrant, tolerant Buddhist faith. I went back to visit a couple of years ago, and was inspired to write this song. Mark's lush arrangement, complete with the samples of bamboo drums, captured the feeling of the place perfectly.

Mark: ...and the crowd talking during my jazz piano solo is just like it is in real life!!! Steve Kirby’s evocative nylon string guitar fills are the perfect vehicle to transport us from the menagerie in the bar (via a long reverse pan-out shot) to the Thai countryside (or that’s how the video happens in MY mind...)

Farewell, Farewell (Richard Thompson)

I was a hippy teenager back in the seventies when the Fairport Convention, the group that invented Celtic folk/rock, released their seminal album, Liege and Lief. When it was decided that the band's former drummer, Dave Mattacks, would play on this album, we though it would be appropriate to cover one of the songs from the album.

Mark: We changed the meter from 4/4 to 6/8, so it still had kind of a Celtic feel, but with a little twist. DM brought the original snare drum he used on the Fairport record, and came up with a sweet doubling of the opening melody on the crotales.

Anniversary Rag (David Rotheray)

This is another tune by David Rotheray. It's a love song for a happily settled couple — hard to find good material songs for folks like us!

Mark: What a nice writer Rotheray is; like a lot of my favorite English artists (Squeeze, Dave Stewart, The Beatles), he takes “American” forms and puts a fresh spin on them (here a “rag” and earlier, the Motown-inflected Love Will Come Around.). We tried to take it in a jazzier direction than the Homespun original, while keeping the music-hall feel.

Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

I first heard Rufus Wainwright's version of this from the Shrek soundtrack while driving through Arizona and it seemed to fill the desert landscape. I love the contrast of the swelling chorus with the slightly cynical lyrics, and I love singing it with Mark.

Seaglass (Celia Slattery)

Another love song about a happily settled couple, this one original. I wanted to write something that was upbeat but didn't propagate the usual myths about romantic love. David Rotheray contributed the Guitar solo.

Mark: This grabbed me immediately as a kind of Phil Spector-ish, girl group tune. I like the way the kitschy background vocals and glockenspiel juxtapose the more personal, introspective lyrics.

Chinese Café/Unchained Melody (Joni Mitchell)

It's almost a cliché, but Joni Mitchell has been a huge influence on my music and my life. Here she muses on change and growing older, and quotes a couple of my favorite early rock and roll songs.

Mark: As big an influence on me as Joni has been Joni’s bassist, producer, and former husband, Larry Klein. He played all kinds of amazing bass fills and harmonics on the original recording, which I think inspired our man Greg Holt to go off on some tasty fills of his own. We also changed it up by adopting the grooves and production of the tunes Joni was quoting in the lyrics.

Distant Thunder (Celia Slattery/Mark Shilansky)

This song expresses the anger and helplessness I feel about the huge sacrifices made by our troops in the name of our foreign policy, which too often fly beneath the radar for the rest of us. The verses are taken from actual news stories. Bertram Lehman's perctussion track underscores the message perfectly.

A Happy Ending (Celia Slattery)

I started this song after Mark introduced me to the music of Rufus Wainwright, so you might hear a little of his influence there. I finished it shortly after 9/11. Although life isn't at all what I imagined it to be when I was a child or an adolescent, I still believe in happy endings.