The recording studio has quite a history and at one time it was owned by Jackson Browne and one can still feel the spirits of another music era lingering.

“The acoustic paneling on the wall is tye dye fabric and old levis that have been cut-up and stitched together, concert tees from Little Feat, Jackson and David Lindley, There are messages, set lists and lyrics all sitting on the walls. There is a memo that Warren Zevon wrote to Jackson at some point, letting him know that he had taken the TV or the gifts in, or whatever it was. There is stuff like that all over the place. It is incredible,” says Sarah Taylor as she describes the ReadyMix Music recording studio. 

Taylor says that even though they are used to the studio by now, “every time that I walk through the doors and turn the lights on there is just a vibe. It is a warm cocoon. It’s nurturing and it’s inspiring. It is fun to just sit and look at the stuff over and over again and to think about it.”

There was a music epiphany of sorts or at least from a historical perspective when legendary music photographer Henry Diltz was in the ReadyMix Music recording studio one day and he noticed an old poster for the rock band Poco (originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina) and he casually mentioned that he shot that photo, then Diltz noticed an acoustic panel consisting of the back and the front of a Jackson Browne concert tee shirt with what Sarah Taylor describes as “an iconic” photo of Jackson Browne, another photo that Diltz took and then in another room there was one more of his photos of Jackson Browne seated at a piano.

 The same creativity that permeated the recording studio in another day, so obviously breathes again and it is evident on the album The Cure To Everything.

Sarah Taylor recalls the recording sessions, “There was a lot of spontaneity and that is what happens when you just get to hang out (while recording the album).”

She enjoyed the sessions, which saw her in the dual roles of observing what was happening and being a catalyst in the creative process. “You don’t know where things are going to go sometimes and you throw that ball of yarn out and you watch it. You see where it is going to go, where it ends up and how much of a tangled mess you end up with.”

Spontaneity led to songs such as “We’re One,” a song that Bill Mumy wrote after he returned home following a recording session and his subsequent phone call to Sarah Taylor. The cover of “I Could Have Danced All Night,” from My Fair Lady, resulted from Taylor goofing off in the studio, Mumy noodling on his Gretsch guitar, Paul Horabin deciding to turn on a microphone and eventually the song found a home on the record. Another song, “Man Of Pride,” ended up on the album after Taylor phoned Mumy, because she had been listening to his song on her iPod and she told him that she wanted to record it.

Mumy’s response was, “Really, you don’t want to record it.”

“I said, come on I want to record it. We called up David Sutton and Fritz Lewak, who came down and recorded “Man Of Pride.”  At the end of that song, you know how musicians da do da doodle in between takes and that became the intro to “I’ve Got A Feeling.”  David and Fritz jumped in right away and there was “I’ve Got A Feeling,” then they all stopped thirty seconds in, but I was already looking at Paul and I said, Oh my God I love that, let’s cut it,” says Taylor.

The power and the raw passion of Sarah Taylor’s vocals shine through in “I’ve Got A Feeling,” and as she explains, “I really drive the bus when it comes to vocals. I will take suggestions, but I will really go with my gut.”

Although there are always dangers with covering songs by artists as iconic as The Beatles, music fans who lived through the British invasion and those who are discovering their music for the first time today, will appreciate this tremendous interpretation of “I’ve Got A Feeling.” 

“We have a lot more songs than what you hear on that record and there are several songs that Bill and I wrote that are not on the record. People ask, do you write and I say yes I really write a lot. This particular record, because of the preproduction idea of what we wanted to do and the footprints that we were following, leaving and coming back to, I ultimately could make the call about which songs I wanted,” she says and we should hear some of Sarah Taylor’s original songs and collaborative projects on her next album. 

Please visit the Sarah Taylor website to listen to select songs from The Cure To Everything and the ReadyMix Music website.