Homegrown from Deep Water by Allan Thomas

Homegrown:

While thinking about songs to record for the 'Deep Water' record, I started listening to some old AT cassette tapes that I had found in storage. I've been at this songwriting thang a long time now. My first composition dates back to 1967, and it's now 400 or so songs later. Admittedly the majority of these compositions are not even remotely close to being songs I'd want to record now, but while combing the archives this time I found more than what I was looking for. On each of my previous studio albums I had made it a point to record one song from the past, but on 'Deep Water' I wound up resurrecting five. 'Homegrown' is one of the tunes that surfaced from this old cassette treasure hunt.

The time frame was early 1976. My first wife Carole and I were ensconced in a cozy little 210 square-foot cottage on Point Dume, in Malibu, California. The converted horse stable was perfect for the two love-bird singer songwriters to nest in and work on our craft. In our spare time we created a raised-bed organic vegetable and herb garden. Carole also grew strawberries and all sorts of flowers as well. We were two of the most enthusiastic beginning gardeners the world had ever known, and went at it with relish! The Malibu climate was perfect for almost anything. We had a big compost bin that I turned with a pitchfork every couple of days, and even subscribed to the organic gardening bible the Rhodale press. We were astounded at how fast things grew, and at the bounty of our harvests; gushing, and taking photos of our babies like proud parents. I don't know how this happened, but yes, some pot seeds found their way into the garden near the corn. But that's another story. This story is about being so inspired by our garden that I just had to write a song about it. That's what songwriters do right? The photo here is an actual days harvest.

Around that time I had been listening to a record by Lambert Hendricks and Ross - the jazz vocal trio from the late fifties and early sixties - really cool stuff, with wide-ranging lyrics. This song was created with that vocal trio sound and brushes kind of drum groove in mind. Carole and I performed 'Homegrown' regularly as a duo for a time, and then with new songs always coming into the fold I lost track of it.


The recording:

I happened to met Stevie Wonder's associate producers and engineers Malcolm Cecil and Bob Margouleff, while recording my first album for Sire Records at Media Sound in NYC. It was 1970, and they and Stevie were recording songs for Stevie's 'Talking Book' or 'Music Of My Mind' album downstairs in the cathedral-like basement studio. Malcolm and Bob were always very kind to me and we kept in touch. Several years later in England, Malcolm invited me to a session where Stevie was producing his then wife Syreeta Wright. Malcolm had been one of London's top jazz upright bassists, and had gone on to develop T.O.N.T.O "The original New Timbral Orchestra" - The world's first (and still the largest) multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer. This instrument was used on a plethora of great recordings including all of Mr Wonders records from 'Music Of My Mind' to 'Fullfillingness First Finale'. Now it's 1976 and I discover that Malcolm and his wife Poli bought a house only a quarter-mile down the street from me on Birdview Drive.

The reason I bring up Malcolm Cecil and his unique instrument to this conversation about 'Homegrown' is that the only time 'Homegrown' was ever recorded was at Malcolm's Santa Monica studio just after the song was written. We played Malcolm the song and he took enough of a shine to it to invite Carole and I to his studio to record it with him playing spirited T.O.N.T.O bass synthesizer lines while I played acoustic guitar. Carole and I overdubbed our vocals later in the evening, with Carole singing a third part on top of her usual harmony. It was a wild-ass night that I will never forget, and it went on till dawn. Malcolm was like the quintessential mad scientist/muscian who happens to play his butt off. He decided at one point in the middle of the night, that the song needed percussion. So he calls up Rocky, - a friend of his who happens to be the Rolling Stones percussionist at the time - to come lay some conga tracks down on the tune. The dude was a mean conga player but a meaner weed smoker who was never without a lit joint poking out of his lips. Many spliffs later the new morning sun was lighting up the southern California sky and 'Homegrown' was committed to 24 track tape. Over the years I have always enjoyed pulling out a copy of that song and harkening back to a fun time, but never thought to record it till now.

The new - 35 years later - recorded version of 'Homegrown' started with finding some cool RMX brushes drum loops which had the exact feel I was looking for. These will always be replaced by a real drummer later. My acoustic guitar came next, and I wanted a fat sound so I replaced each guitar string with a gauge the next size up. My vocals came next, and I didn't change a word from the original lyrics. Afterward, listening, the idea that it would sure be nice to have some backing vocals on this tune rose to the surface. Then boom it hit me: would it be possible if Carole Cook - now called Caz West - was up for singing her old backing vocal parts. I made a note to contact her and set about getting some guitar on this song.

Next up was Kauai guitar specialist Kirk Smart. The man played impeccable mandolin, lap steel, and electric guitar on two tracks on the 'Making Up For Lost Time' CD, and just burned. I love the guy's tone, style, and attitude, and was stoked to have him back for some 'Deep Water' action. Since jazz is one of Mr Smart's forte's I knew he would be a great fit for the tune, especially with his custom DeTemple Tele which I must say, sounds good no matter what you plug it into. On 'Homegrown' we plugged Kirk into my Carr Rambler tube amp and let him have at it. We'd record some takes, listen, make comments back and forth about maybe what else we could try on the next pass, then he'd play some more, till we knew we had it in the bag there somewhere. In the end we wound up with at least a half dozen takes. With this plethora of wonderful takes to choose from, later when I edited I had plenty of COVERAGE, and sure enough found plenty of gold to mine in those 6 takes. Kirk also played bottleneck slide on 'Monkey Business' as well, and just ruled it!

It was now time to see dean of groove at his recording lair up in the foothills of Wailua. Once again I felt Michael Ruff would find the perfect parts for 'Homegrown' and after hearing the song he thought Hammond organ would be a natural. It was, and it didn't take long at all. Mike fell right into the groove Kirk and I had laid down, then proceeded to take it to the next level, bringing the whole track to new heights, keeping it sparse but punctuating the spaces with cool melodic lines in keeping with that 50's swing feel.

The tune was crying for upright bass now, and I thought Princeville surfer and bassist extraordinary Trey Thompson would be the man for the tune. Trey came over to Black Bamboo Studios and I mic'd his upright with the Neumann 87. He thought it best to play a half-time feel so that's what we went with. After recording a couple of good takes I asked him to use his bow on the last note of the song for a cool effect, and he rosined it up and nailed it in one take. Now we had the bottom covered.

Wanting to keep the instrumentation of 'Homegrown' sparse all I sought now for the tune was drums. Jazz fusion guitarist from LA, Jeff Richman, highly suggested Joel Taylor for the song. He had a home studio and was bad to the bone to boot. After acquainting myself with Mr Taylor's solid-ass playing on YouTube and on some of the Jeff Richman recordings, I thought it was well worth the gamble and made arrangements to send Joel the files. Not only did he embellish 'Homegrown' with his solid and so-deep-in-the-pocket playing, but he impressed me enough to invite him to track drums on four more songs on the 'Deep Water' record as well.

I sent rough mixes of the song - now with drums - to my confidants Mike Ruff and Bryan Kessler for their worthy opinion. Separately they both agreed that the drums sounded great but the bass - which was recorded before the bass - did not fit as well now. Up until this time during the whole long process recording of the album I never had to go back and redo something. This time I thought lets see what Jimmy Johnson can come up with, maybe playing a fretless might be the thing, and then I'd have two bass parts to choose from. Upon hearing the tune Jimmy elected to play upright - who even knew he played upright?! But he did, and proceeded to lay his loose, funky and humorous part down on his home studio rig in a very clean direct manner. I wound up adding Treys bowed bass part at the very end, and keeping the Jimmy J new upright bass. I'm sure Trey would have nailed the part had he the chance to record after the real drums, but this is the way it wound up and I'm really fired up about it. Check out JJ's hilarious lick on the word "sauerkraut" Ha!

One thing was yet missing and that was Carole's Cook Thomas's original backing vocal harmonies. After contacting Caz, as she is now called, in England, she was excited to do it and we made plans. Her husband Chris West is an all-around recording studio whiz and musician, and he too was keen to make it happen. I sent Chris the tracks vai internet, and not too long after Chris returned the tracks with Caz's new backing vocals, and here we are a third of a century later singing together! Made me smile, still does. As much as I love discovering new players for for my latest project, it's also nice to go back into the past and reunite with players, like Caz, and others, with whom I have an already established connection. There would be others involved in this record that reappeared from as long ago as forty years - more on that later.

Aloha and welcome to my Bandcamp Music Store home page. Here you can listen to full-length samples of all eight Allan Thomas albums and 8 singles. Also to be found are credits, photos, stories and lyrics for all songs. Dig in...

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