Room
With A View could easily have been a solo album for Deirdre Fairfax
and it would have been great as such. Tom Hall commented, "That
is a million dollar voice" the first time he heard Deirdre sing.
She has credits on an album with a group that was known
as Rhythm Cafe, and a long list of musical credits and accomplishments.
We were playing as a duo at the time and the project became a duet
album at Deirdre's insistence and generosity.
The CD was recorded at
Garey Shelton's Studio in Seattle. He is a fantastic engineer with a
great sense of humor. He dubbed his own titles to each of the songs
as we recorded them. Make Peace With Yourself was Make Pizza Yourself.
I don't remember the other titles but they were hilarious. I didn't
completely appreciate the sacrifices and generosity of all of the people
involved in this project at the time, but I sure do now. Larry Mason
brought his zest for life and passion for music to the studio day after
day. He took the project to heart and was an inspiration in his approach
to producing. He made the phone calls, lined up the musicians and showed
up with positive energy to prod us along and cared for the outcome as
if the songs were his own.
The
musicians who took part were amazing. Dave Raynor Lead Guitar on It's Time, Scott
MacGougan Acoustic Lead Guitar on Heaven In Your Eyes, Sampled String Pads on Love Of My Life, Electric Piano on Make Peace With Yourself, Acoustic Lead on Let It Go.
Jon Goforth Flute on Make Peace With Yourself, Alto Flute on Heart Shaped Moon and Sax on Heartfelt Desire, Garey Shelton on Fretless Bass,
Chris Leighton on Drums, Percussion, Steel Tank Drum and Tablas, John Matthews on Congas and Percussion,
Larry Mason on Percussion, Jamie Sieberon Cello on Love of My Life, Tom Burgerson on Congas on Speak Your Mind and Cool Wind From Jamaica, Deirdre
Fairfax Lead Vocal on You Need Me, Love of My Life, It's Time, Speak Your Mind, Let It Go and harmonies on the rest of the songs. Each musician brought the magic only they
could offer in their unique, very talented and inspired way. Thank you
all.
Tom
Hall took time out of his very busy schedule to mix and master the CD.
His golden ears were a big part of bringing out the best in the tracks
that Larry and Garey did such a good job of recording. It took 9 months
to complete and was driven by the boundless enthusiasm of Larry Mason
and a dream of making beautiful music.
So many people were involved with the project. Sarah Murat
shot all the photos that don't appear here at this time, as I don't
have the original files. Andie Murat did the graphics and came up with the
title and spent many long hours typing and retyping the lyrics and cover
text. Deirdre's husband, Gary, spent many hours solo parenting their
children while this CD was recorded and offered emotional and financial
support selflessly.
I
took the final mixes to a producer who charged me $45 to listen to the
tracks and told me to break the project into two parts and make separate
solo CD's. It was a little late in the game to hear such advice. I spent
two weeks recording mixes of the songs in different order until I
knew I had it exactly the way it was supposed to go. I can still call
out the order of the songs after all these years because of the flow
of the music. I think Room With A View is a wonderful and timeless collection
of songs. It has done a great deal of good in that most of the copies
I had were donated to charitable causes for cancer victims, veteran's help associations,
women's shelters and such. Currently Deirdre plays in a group with Larry Mason called Broken Banjo. The CD was never really promoted.
It remains a powerful artistic accomplishment with emotional depth and
a blend of very different styles and a shared love of and respect for
music.
Hey, maybe we should split it into two CD's and release it as solo projects. Nah. Time to move on.
JGM