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Amy
Ray's
first
solo release
"Stag"
We hit snow on the road to Laramie.
We all heard about that mess,
but that town ain't nothing different
than the rest.
-Laramie
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Almost a year ago, I showed up, amp and guitar in hand,
at the doorstep of Durham, N.C. punk band, The Butchies.
The Butchies' rehearsal space was the first stop on my odyssey
to complete my first solo record - Stag. Our practices were
held in a freezing cold brick basement, setting up between
space heaters and metal support posts. After two days of
rehearsing, we took the three songs we learned into a Chapel
Hill recording studio run out of Chris Stamey's (formerly
of the dBs) house. In between getting drum sounds and figuring
out which bathroom to put the amps in, we got the news of
an impending blizzard. We got as much done as we could and
then fought our way home in what turned out to be 18 inches
of snow and three days of closed interstates. It was a portentous
beginning to a year spent carrying tapes around the south
and recording songs with a few of my favorite punk bands
in between Indigo Girls' tours.
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My
independent career began in the early 80's but in 1988,
after being an indie band for seven years, the Indigo
Girls were signed to Epic Records. Two years, seeking
balance, I started my own independent label, Daemon Records,
to provide a non-corporate infrastructure for musicians
to produce and release their own music. After nearly a
decade of recording others, I noticed a growing pile of
my own songs that were set aside because they didn't necessarily
fit in with the Indigo Girls. Rather than forcing them
into the wrong mold, I decided I would write and record
a solo record. The songs on this album are mostly inspired
by the bands that play on it. They are artists that have
been on Daemon or have been my friends - in either case,
I am their fan. I chose the songs to record with each
band according to their own style and the mark they have
made on me. The first band on my wish list, The Butchies,
was formed with two of the original members of the riot
grrl superhero band, Team Dresch. I went from hoping to
record three songs with them to finishing five based solely
on their abilities of interpretation. Their performance
on the songs "Laramie" and "Lucystoners"
become a standard by which the whole record was made.
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corralled the original members of Atlanta's own Rockateens
to record the song "Black Heart Today" in Athens,
GA at David Barbe's studio. David, formerly of Mercyland
and the bass player for Bob Mould's Sugar impressed me with
his golden ear for guitar tones and ended up mixing my whole
record. I left the southern punk scene for a few days to
cut a song with Josephine Wiggs (The Breeders), Kate Schellenbach
(Luscious Jackson) and Joan Jett in New York. I met Kate
and Jo when the Indigo Girls organized the Suffragette Sessions
tour, which took 12 women out of their own bands (ranging
from punk to soul) to create a traveling road show that
toured for two weeks in rock clubs on the east coast. This
musical alliance proved fruitful when the basic tracks of
"Hey Castrator" were put to tape live in Brooklyn,
NY, by Adam Lasus (Juliana Hatfield, Yo La Tengo at Fireproof
Studio. Joan Jett tumbled in after an all night rehearsal
for The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Broadway to sing the
rather Broadwayish coda to the song and of course provide
her unmatchable rhythm guitar backbone.
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Video
Stag CD Release Party
March 30, 2001
Echo Lounge, Atlanta, GA
Click here
to download a poster
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The
most tedious yet rewarding moments of this record were spent
in a small room in Atlanta, Orphan Studio, weeding through
tracks and finishing vocals and guitars, learning how to
trust my instincts. It was night and day compared to the
communal experience of an Indigo record. Danielle Howle
came in during my weeding days to bring some relief with
her uncommonly rich voice. She turned around the songs "Measure
of Me" and "On Your Honor."
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Video
Amy Ray and
1945 in the studio
Video
Meet Kaia
from The Butchies
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The
newest cut on the record, "Late Bloom," was written
and recorded at the final hour because I just couldn't do
without the band 1945 (formerly Three Finger Cowboy) that
taught me about the 3 minute pop song. I hauled ass to Birmingham,
AL, loaded out into another basement practice space, recorded
and mixed in a 15-hour marathon session and then drove through
the night to Nashville to master the album.
The
songs on Stag deal frankly with my confrontations with the
oppressive elements of the music industry, my frustrations
with imposed standards of gender all around us, and the
shortcomings I see in myself. The bands did their own thing
without too much guidance from me. Sometimes I fell back
on an obsessive need to overthink a mix or I mistakenly
rerecorded songs, but the music that I kept coming back
to was the music that came out unlabored and spontaneous
and organically rebellious. The heart of the record is in
that rebellion and in a certain spirit of recovery I have
found in the south, and in that southern punk ethic - subversiveness
with a smile.
Click
here
to read the diary and see the pictures from the making of
'Stag.'
Click here
for lyrics.
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Amy
Ray - Didn't It Feel Kinder
- Birds
of a Feather
- She's
Got To Be
- Bus
Bus
- Cold
Shoulder
- Who
Sold The Gun
- Out
On The Farm
- SLC
Radio
- Blame
Is A Killer
- Stand
and Deliver
- Rabbit
Foot
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Amy
Ray - Didn't It Feel Kinder LP
Special Limited Edition Vinyl with CD INCLUDED!
180 gram LP
Special cover and inner sleeve art!
Back Cover
Making the LP -
Photo 1
Making the LP -
Photo 2
- Birds
of a Feather
- She's
Got To Be
- Bus
Bus
- Cold
Shoulder
- Who
Sold The Gun
- Out
On The Farm
- SLC
Radio
- Blame
Is A Killer
- Stand
and Deliver
- Rabbit
Foot
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Amy
Ray and the Volunteers - Live
in Knoxville
- Put
It Out For Good (MP3)
- Sober
Girl
- Driver
Education
- Rural
Faggot
- Black
Heart (MP3)
- Late
Bloom
- Let
It Ring
- Mountains
of Glory
- Blender
- Laramie
- Lucystoners
(Bonus track)
- Hey
Castrator (Bonus track)
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Amy
Ray - Prom
Lyrics here
- Put
It Out For Good (MP3)
- Driver
Education (MP3)
- Rural
Faggot
- Give
In
- Covered
For You
- Blender
- Sober
Girl
- Pennies
On The Track
- Rodeo
- Let
It Ring
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7"
Only $5.00
SOLD OUT
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Amy
Ray - Careless Youth/Mountains of Glory (live with The Butchies)
7"
$5
Back cover
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Amy
Ray - Stag
Lyrics here
- Johnny
Rottentail
- Laramie
- Lucystoners
(MP3)
- Hey
Castrator
- Late
Bloom (MP3)
- Measure
of Me
- Black
Heart Today
- Mountains
of Glory
- Lazyboy
- On
Your Honor
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from Amy
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