“There are a lot of different sounds to my songs. If you were to go on I-Tunes and listen to my the songs from City Girl and Every Little Thing, you will be quite surprised in the difference between the sound on those songs and the collection that is on Leaving Kansas,”  says Long.

Holly Long has penned some great tunes for Leaving Kansas and producer Anthony J.W. Benson did an outstanding job, however, the many colors and moods of the album would not be communicated as vividly were it not for an outstanding supporting cast. The talented musicians and background vocalists present the music in a way that is real and allows the listener to take a walk around inside the soundscape, breathing in the raw emotion, the sweat and the angst.

“There is an array of background singers and they are all stellar. Every one of them is amazing, and they are wonderful women too. I had four backup singers, Pamela (McNeill) and Mary Jane (Alm) were the first two, and Alison (Scott) and Jennifer (Grimm) were the second two. They are all singers and songwriters in their own right too. Jennifer Grimm really blew my mind. I am a good singer, but she is in that upper echelon of one percent of the people who can sing. She can do anything,” says Long in dishing out the praise.

Everything went great on the first day of recording, as instrumental tracks and scratch vocals were laid down, but, “The next day I lost my voice. It was gone, like laryngitis gone. For the remainder of the time I was in Minneapolis (at the studio), I could not sing. The scratch vocals had to become the real vocals. Luckily, I had done enough takes that we had one that was either good enough (or only required) a tweak here or there. Those were the songs, “Homeward Bound,” “Moans,” and “Pain And Glory.” There were places where Jennifer had to take over for me, because I couldn’t record. There are places where you hear quite a few background vocals on some of the songs, and that was never intended. It was always our intention to have background vocals, but not to that extent. She really saved me. Alison was wonderful as well, but she had a lot of stuff going on, so Jennifer came in and just wailed. Listening to Jennifer’s vocals on those songs is a treat for me, and at times, it feels like a duet. Her voice is unbelievable. We were all like, who is this girl, and why is she not a huge star.”

Not to ignore the contributions of the other musicians, but more as a response to my specific questions, Long talks about the efforts of harmonica player George Faber and Peter Schimke, who played piano, Hammond B3, Wurlitzer and the Fender Rhodes, for Leaving Kansas.  “On “Sunday Redemption,” George has this anti solo, where he takes it way down. I am a big fan of that moment. On “Sunday Redemption,” I like the fact that he just sat on the solo and brings a reverence to the moment. It really is mesmerizing to hear him do so, when you know that he could have blown all over the place, but he chose not to. There are moments where I go ya’ that is a great musician.”

In reference to Schimke, Long says, “He is brilliant and has magnificent chops. He will stop in the middle of a recording and say that he has to go back and do it again, when nobody else can hear a mistake. He is so great, and yet he is such a perfectionist.”

Where will Leaving Kansas likely find a home? Long says, “I think the people who are Holly Long fans, and get it, are people who spend more time inside themselves. They get it and they can hear what I am doing. It is so exciting for me, and so satisfying for me, to meet people who truly connect. It makes all the hardships that come with this kind of a career, worthwhile. To meet someone who doesn’t know me at all (apart from my music), but who get a deep, core part of me, because they hear it in my songs, that really excites me. Most people who get my music tend to be my age or a little older, people who have been through things in their lives.”

Interview by Joe Montague

May 2008

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