Monday, August 22, 2011

Angel Mine

(Smotherman/Royer) Micheal Smotherman is a true master songwriter, with a haunting voice. An Oklahoma boy, he played for many years in Roger Miller’s band. Glen Campbell once recorded seven of Micheal’s songs on one album. One of my favorites of his is ‘Do I Ever Cross Your Mind’, written with Billy Burnette, recorded by Ray Charles (the title track of his 1984 album) and featured again on Ray’s last album in a duet with Bonnie Raitt.

Micheal and I agreed that I would try to produce him sometime in the late 90s but it took several tries to even get close to capturing his magic. After a number of misfires in large studios I took him over to Todd Cerney’s home studio and the three of us started working on the elusive task of getting to the bottom of Micheal Smotherman. Several of the tracks were recorded or finished at Todd’s. Other tracks were recorded in a small house that stood behind my home in Nashville. Seems like the more humble the setting, the better he sounded.

Angel Mine is a song Micheal and I wrote for the project. The original track for it was laid on a mandocello, a bizarre instrument I bought at a flea market near the river locks in a bad section of London. The minute I played it I was captured by the sound. After the mando part went down, Todd and Micheal laid on several overdubs. The track is from the Album ‘Conjure Man’, a project Micheal and I are very proud of.

Angel Mine

7 comments:

  1. This is a beautiful song, Robb. I agree with you - Michael has a haunting voice, indeed. Very emotive, evocative. Y'know, if I close my eyes while listening to this, when he hits those high notes I can hear Jimmy singing this.

    Thanks for sharing this with us, Mr. Royer. You have every reason to be proud of this. I'm going to have a look on-line for the 'Conjure Man' CD.

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  2. What a perfect love song - especially with the steady accompaniment of the mandocello all the way from beginning to end, and I hate to hear it end. A totally enchanting scenario. "Angel Mine" belongs in a movie.

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  3. John and WB... thank you, I obviously agree. Micheal has so much hidden stuff that is brilliant. Unfortunately I only can show you the songs I co-wrote, published or produced. Maybe someday Micheal can find a way to do this sort of thing and get these gems out.

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  4. The whole 'Conjure Man' album is great in my opinion, and it's worth pointing out that a certain Mr Griffin supplied backing vocals throughout the sessions (according to the sleeve notes, that is). Certainly worth searching out :-)

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  5. Thanks Malc. I forgot if we made any reference in the liner notes to The Stink Creek Symphonette, which was a largely a collection of portraits of characters from Mike's childlhood. Not just any childhood experience songs, mind you, there'd be many other such songs not included in the SCS, but specific weirdo mini-bios including 'Gerald the Peril','Odell and Morrell' and 'Family Life', songs which end the album - SCS staples. Not all extant Stink Creek songs are included in Conjure Man, but this album truly, is the oft hinted-at-seldom-heard introduction of at least a critical mass of the Stink Creek Symphonette songs.

    Jimmy was in a great head space when he did this album cause he admired Smotherman and did some of his best harmony work here.
    - Show quoted text -

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  6. You have a gift Robb. I have a question for you. When you decide to write a song with a co-writer, whoever that may be at the time, how do you go about it? Do you and that individual sit down and say "lets write a song"? Do you go to a particular person that you feel has a style that will gel with an idea you have? Do you sit around jamming and someone starts playing a riff and things start flowing out? Perhaps that riff triggers something thats been rattling around in your head forever? I'm just curious how you get so many great songs to come together like you do.

    Please keep them coming!

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  7. Dusty:

    That's a lot of questions and the answer to all of them is yes. If I sit down with playas like Todd or Larry K. we almost always start with a jam. If I'm working with a chart oriented country writer (especially one I don't know very well) I usually try to have a title. With Jimmy, we almost always start with a riff of his, although over the years that has varied a million different ways (my riff, his title, jam, etc) There is no ironclad method. You just have to be attuned to the vibe. Paul Simon called Kodachrome goin' home for a while. That sounded too ordinary so he messed around until he had something with the exact same internal rhyme, hence... Kodachrome. Yesterday was scrambled eggs to Lennon until they got stoned and polished it off. If it ever happens exactly the same way twice, the second one probably isn't a very good song. Hope this helps.

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