Michael-Ann Azoulai Releases New Album - Heavy Load
Michael-Ann Azoulai Releases New Album - Heavy Load
The
fall of 2013 was very busy for Los Angeles based
singer-songwriter and musician Michael-Ann Azoulai, with gigs that saw
her opening for Country music legend Mark Chestnut and also opening for
iconic balladeer Don McLean (“American Pie,” and “Vincent”). By this
time in her life, Michael-Ann Azoulai should be used to busy, as her
life has been an adventure, so it seems, almost from birth. She was born
in White Plains, New York, as a young child, moved with her family to
Ridgefield, Connecticut and then she completed the later grades of
elementary school in Kansas City, prior to moving to Israel for a year,
as an adult, getting married, moving to Nashville, getting divorced,
finding time to have two children along the way and eventually settling
with her children in Los Angeles. Azoulai released her album Heavy Load
and on January 22 (2013) she officially launched the album with
a concert at El Cid on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
About her new album she says, “It has been a process and
I won’t go into detail. There have been several attempts to make a record and
for various reasons they failed (she
laughs). It has been several years in the making. “Heavy Load,” (the song)
is my Pièce de résistance if you will. I have had great response to that song
and I wrote it as homage to my musical roots in the Ozarks. I wanted something
that carried that feeling and I was also going through a difficult time. This
record is more of the classical Michael Ann stuff. It is more classical Country
/ Bluegrass music that you hear on the record.”
Azoulai believes that the songs on her album
Heavy Load appeal to fans of more
traditional Country and Bluegrass music. “I really love that genre of music. I
like some modern Country. I love Dwight Yoakam, I like a lot of what Miranda
Lambert does and Patty Loveless, absolutely. It is so funny, my friend said you
remind me so much of Patty Loveless and I had never heard any of her stuff
before and then I loved her Mountain Soul
CD (released in 2001) and in fact I
think I drove my kids crazy, as I played that for months in a row every day.
Was I informed of Patty’s music back then when I was writing? No. I was
very into the classical (Country) and very influenced by Dolly, by Emmylou
Harris and by Linda Ronstadt, those three specifically. I loved The Judds back
in the day. I think I have most of what
Emmylou put out there. The first time I heard Emmylou I really gravitated and
latched onto the truth in her voice, the depth and the soul that she has when
she sings. It just shocked me and it is so beautiful. I wanted to do something
that was congruent to that.”
“Hard To Breathe,” is reminiscent of very traditional Country music songs and
draws its heartbreak from a personal relationship of Michael-Ann Azoulai that
came to an end, “…Weren’t we supposed to
be together / Why can’t true love last forever?...forever / You’ve been away so
long / I ache so when you’re gone.”
She talks about the musicians who play on the song,
“Dave Pearlman (pedal steel) was recommended by Randy Mitchell (who
in addition to playing electric guitars also produced the album). Randy has
played with Donna Summer and Billy Bob (Thornton) and I just respected his
opinion. It is so fabulous, because on this record, with players that were
brought in, it just gave me chills up and down my spine. I was, ya’ this is what
I am looking for. This is what I’ve wanted.
Over the years, it has been a blessing in disguise, because I have never
quite reached what I wanted in previous recordings for some of these songs.
Finally, with the players on this record I feel I reached that. It is such a
great feeling. Mark Christian plays the guitar a lot on that song and then the
lead on the solo is played by Randy.”
Michael-Ann Azoulai plays acoustic guitar on “Hard To
Breathe,” Randy Mitchell also plays the bazouki, Phil Parlapiano is the
keyboardist and organist, Taras Prodaniuk is the bassist, Erik Eldenius is the
drummer and Susan Sheller provides backing vocals.
“Mamma’s Sleepin,” sounds like it came straight out of
Pigeon Forge in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, or as is the case with
Michael Ann Azoulai it was more accurately influenced by the music that she
heard in the Ozark Mountains when she was first developing a serious interest in
music.
“I wanted to write something that was sort of back
porch, downhome with a jamboree feel. I also wanted it to be a song that was an
anthem if you will for people that had gone through abuse, child abuse and to
just put it out there that it was not okay to be treated disrespectfully and to
stand up for yourself. It is in defiance as far as what I experienced growing up
with my dad. The beauty of art is you can say what you want to say. I had the
opportunity to portray something that was painful and to standup for myself in
singing this song and in delivering it through my music. It was also,
emotionally a great release. It was
cathartic for me to be able to write that song. So many people loved it (the
song) and I think I shocked a lot of people when I told them the real story
behind it, but my theory in life is, if I can bless someone else and give them
an opportunity to grow or to touch something divine in their lives, if it helps
them in a positive way then I am delighted. I feel like my music has some worth.
I am grateful and that’s the key,” she says.
In college, on the weekends, I started to go to (the
home of) my friend’s family, in the Ozarks. It was during the summer and that
had a big influence on me. I felt this family was very salt of the earth and I
appreciated how genuine the people were and the music that I learned from them.
They were songs that I certainly had never been exposed to or heard of. It was a
little bit Country, Bluegrass and Folk. I look at it more along the lines of the
Carter Family. On Saturday night they (her friend’s family) would literally put
on a show with a generator for power and all of the family members would come,
play and sing several tunes. Some of them were old Country song, some of them
were spiritual and others came from different backgrounds, but they were
definitely Country or Bluegrass or Gospel.
When I first learned how to play the guitar it was an
old guitar and when you play guitar it is best if the action is closest to the
fretboard. You work a lot harder with the fingers on your left hand if the
strings are farther away from the fretboard. I had this guitar given to me down
there to learn how to play. The first song that I learned how to play was called
“Teddy Bear,” which was an old song. Anyway, the strings were off the fretboard
considerably and it was a painful experience to learn on strings that were a
heavy gage. It was a thicker string. I would practice and my fingers would
bleed. I just thought to myself how does anybody ever learn how to play the
guitar, if this is how it happens (she
laughs lightly). Everybody learns that way, but certainly it was my first
exposure learning how to play guitar. I just wanted so desperately to learn how
to play the guitar and to accompany myself when I sing that I pushed through it
and I eventually learned. Once I had got home I eventually learned that there
were other people with guitars and the strings were a bit closer to the
fretboard,” she says.
“I Would,” is unmistakably the most beautiful song from
Michael-Ann Azoulai’s new album Heavy
Load. “It is written for my children, Itai and Ariana. I wanted to write
something…sorry I am getting all emotional…I wanted to write a song that would
be meaningful to my children. They have gone through a divorce and gone through
the breakup of a boyfriend. They have gone through so much that I wish I could
have protected them from. I wanted to write a lullaby or something as a gift
from my heart for them and what I wanted to say to them. That is what “I Would,”
is all about,” she says.
In 2011, Michael-Ann Azoulai had a scare when the school
that her children attended was locked down, because there was a gunman in the
area.
“It was a (scary experience) and it made me think; what
am I doing in Los Angeles? Should I be raising my children out here? Things like
this have also happened in Colorado and in various parts of the country.
I thank the Lord that my kids are grounded. I was worried and thought; if
this is an appropriate place to raise my children. I try to instill in my kids
what is really important in life. It is not about the external, it is really
about relationships and the internal. It is a hard city to come to grips with
that. I am really grateful that I
grew up on the east coast and in the Midwest; because it really gives me a sense
of what is important in life. I hold that today as being crucial,” Azoulai says.
For the song “I Would,” Michael-Ann Azoulai made some
great choices when it came to the musicians. “Dennis Caplinger (mandolin and
fiddle) is so brilliant, brilliant. I was so lucky to have him. I cried when I
heard him playing on that. I was weeping in the studio, just so you know. To
have a player like Dennis, he is an amazing, amazing Bluegrass musician. He is
beautiful on fiddle and mandolin. I heard cello on “I Would,” (before it was
recorded) and Evan Smalley has a great sense of musicality. I’ve known Evan for
years from (living in) Missouri and Kansas. I wanted to bring him, as part of
that song. Every time I hear the cello come in during the chorus I start crying.
Amilia K. Spicer came in and she did the backing vocals,” she says.
When it is pointed out to Michael-Ann Azoulai that music
fans might more readily identify her style of music as being centered in
American cities like Nashville and Austin, she responds, “Let me answer that
question by saying, when I was growing up I had an appreciation for the music
that my friend was doing and hence I gleaned from her the types of songs that we
were playing in the Ozarks. I had a friend back then who introduced me to (the
music of) Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. I loved them, but
really a lot of what I was listening to back then was more Folk Rock.
(I was listening to) Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and I just had a varied
taste. When I moved to Los Angeles I was not doing Americana / Country. I was
writing a lot more Folk Rock and I started more in that genre. My ex-boyfriend
put a band together and I started singing. I noticed that there were a lot of
Folk Rock singers at the time and I thought, I want to do something unique and
different and true. It occurred to me that when I practiced I would go back a
lot of the time to songs that I learned in the Ozarks and they rang true to me.
I felt a genuine sense of peacefulness and it just made sense to me.
I thought this is really a part of the truth of who I am and affirming
that. I love singing that genre and it has so many good memories for me. It is a
part of my history as well. I think I got a little appreciation of that by
moving to Los Angeles and having a unique background. After spending so much
time in the Ozarks, learning that style of music and being around people that I
call the salt of the earth. They are genuine, people who have values, but who
don’t have any pretenses. I really valued that in coming out here. I thought
this is what I really want to do. The Ozarks gave me this beauty that I have in
my life. I wanted to transfer that and
to write music that is congruent with that. Hopefully, I can transfer that
spirit to people out here or wherever I may go. Just having that experience I
want it to be embodied in what I am writing and what I am playing. To me it has
purpose and meaning. I want my
music, not to just be something that is nice to listen to, but for it to have
some sort of spiritual significance.”
You can visit Michael-Ann Azoulai on
her website or
her official Facebook page.
This interview, published January 2014 by Joe Montague is protected by copyright © and may not be reproduced in print or on the internet or through any other means without the written permission of Riveting Riffs Magazine, All Rights Reserved