Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 29, 1991 TAG: 9103290051
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And why not?
The Canadian singer had just finished recording the basic tracks to a new album in Nashville in near record-setting time - 12 tracks in just three days - and she was headed home with her 14-year-old son, William.
"It just went great," Murray said in a telephone interview from Nashville shortly before jumping on a jet back to Canada. "We had a great rhythm section. They were really a fantastic bunch of guys - although it went so fast I didn't get a chance to know them very well," she admitted.
Normally, it takes at least twice that amount of time to lay down basic tracks, she said.
Of course, that doesn't mean you'll see a new Anne Murray album in the stores next week. There is still plenty of studio work to be done.
Like her final vocals, for example. In cutting the basic tracks, Murray only sings along with the band so that it can get a feel for how the songs should sound. Any polishing comes later.
It's something that studio musicians appreciate, she said. "A lot of people don't even show up for this part of it. I've never done that. I like to be involved from the ground on up."
Besides, the end result is worth it.
"The better I sing it, the better they play it and the better it will sound on the record," she said.
Rarely has she ever used those first vocals on a record. They are primarily for the band's benefit.
"Usually, you're just getting familiar with the songs at that point. You're learning them for the first time. I like to live with the songs for a while and get to know them better before going in," she said.
She also likes to pick them.
"I mean, I have to sing them. I have to live with them for the rest of my life. So it seems like I should have the final say."
Her producer, Jerry Crutchfield, also has some input, she said. "He knows a good song when he hears one and so do I. Our trouble is in finding that great song."
For example, Murray said she felt like "The Final Say," a song off her last album, "You Will," was that great song. It had great lyrics, a great message, but radio wouldn't touch it.
"It's hard to say why," she said.
Maybe it's the state of country radio right now. To her ears, all the new music sounds the same. "These new singers, they all sound like Merle Haggard. They're like Merle Haggard clones."
She said that leaves many former middle of the road artists like herself with no place to pitch their records. Country doesn't Usually, you're just getting familiar with the songs at that point. You're learning them for the first time. I like to live with the songs for a while and get to know them better before going in. Anne Murray want them and the pop stations are dominated now mostly by dance music.
Murray doubts that "You Needed Me," a song that earned her a Grammy in 1978 for Best Pop Female Performance, among other honors, would garner any attention nowadays.
Luckily, she said she has been able to fall back on her deep country voice and survive on the country charts.
In fact, "You Will," was a deliberate return to her earlier, more acoustic sound and she said her next album will be more of the same.
The high gloss and heavily synthesized arrangements that marked much of her work in the 1980s are gone for good, she said.
Meanwhile, the 45-year-old Murray plans to keep up her leisurely touring pace of about 70 or 80 concerts a year - which includes a performance at the Salem Civic Center Thursday night at 8.
She chose the slower schedule in order to have more time for William and her daughter, Dawn.
But what about when they go?
"They're great excuses for the time being, but when they're grown up, I'll find another one," she said.
She loves the slower lifestyle. It gives her time to swim and play tennis and enjoy her success and her children more, she said.
William, for example, is seriously into Frank Zappa right now. Murray was even able to recite several lines from Zappa's "Suicide Chump."
Don't expect, however, to see the song pop up on any future albums. Instead, she said she would rather record a gospel record and then maybe a collection of popular standards from the 1930s, '40s and '50s.
Beyond that, she just wants to keep singing. "I want to keep going until people say, `I just don't want to hear you anymore.' Then maybe I'll stop," she said.
by CNB