"SIMPLE TRUTH"
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The short story:  Maui Singer/songwriter Gail Swanson's new CD features 3 songs produced by Doobie Brother Pat Simmons with special guests Willie Nelson, Mike McDonald, Hutch Hutchinson, John McFee and more.  Also a duet produced by Mike McDonald (featuring his amazing vocals, AND surprising ukulele talents)  Some full band, some acoustic, one Italian tune, 2 cover tunes, 8 originals, very diverse.  It was fun to make, hope you like it!

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The whole story:  First of all, here's a warning.  This is a long story and I think I have touch of A-D-D. (attention deficit disorder, absolute distraction daily, etc)   So I switch subjects a lot, and my timeline might be wrong, and there will be times where it sounds like completely shift gears (Heyyyy look at that Chicken!) but try to follow me here ok.. if your interested, this is how the new CD came together...

How it all began, the first 3 songs...with a brilliantly cool producer
This CD began when I wrote a song called "The One that Got Away" with my good friend Cris Sommer Simmons.   Pat (Doobie-Simmons) was out of town and "Maw Simmons" and I defaced (de-something-ed) his superman statue in his studio, and laughed our asses off during this writing session.  But somehow a good song did come out if it and it was one of those tunes that just kind of "wrote itself." When we played the song  for "Paw" he really  liked it and offered to produce it. (THANKS PAT!)  When a doobie brother offers to produce a song you wrote, its a HELL YESSSSS kinda thang.  Pat picked 2 other songs and offered to produce all three. (Matter to You and Do Do Song) By the way, did I mention that Pat is one of the nicest guys on the planet? He is. :)   He lined up amazing players.  He called in Hutch Hutchinson to play Bass.  Hutch is not only Bonnie Raitt's bass player, but he has also played on hundreds of your favorite CD's, he's incredible AND he is hilarious in the studio, really fun to play with, a good friend.  Pat called a few more very cool and gifted guys:  Maui drummer, Paul Marchetti, and engineer Dave Russell (Grammy Award winning engineer for work with Steely Dan) and the project began. And to top if all off, we called our friend Mike McDonald and asked if he'd play some keyboards - Mike is such a great guy and when he said yes, I knew this whole thing was turning into something pretty special.  So lucky to have such cool and generous friends!  THANKS GOD!

I really was in no financial position to put a CD together, but Pat and Cris helped me SO much and I couldn't have ever done this project without them.  I should have been paying Pat to produce the songs, but they were helping me pay for it all instead.  Pat and Cris are really generous, always helping people - they are two of my very best friends - love them!

We did the drums and vocals for "Matter to You" in Tommy Hall's studio, and both Tommy and Dave were the engineers for that session.  The rest of the studio work for this CD was done at Dave Russell's "Paia Town Recording Studio"  Dave's cool, and he's a great engineer.  And he always makes nice little sandwiches that are cut diagonally.  He's a really talented and nice guy!  (and I do love those sandwiches)... Heyyy look at that chicken!

These first 3 songs were really fun to record.  Pat, Hutch and I did harmonies, Pat played electric lead guitar on "Matter to You" and then he had a great idea to add some Dobro to that song.  Dobro is a type of slide guitar that you hear in country and blues and it really adds a cool flavor to the gumbo. (Pat makes killer Gumbo by the way)   Pat was on the road with the Doobies and asked John McFee if he'd play Dobro on the song.  John said YES and recorded a really tasty Dobro part on that song.  When I heard it, I flipped out and loved it. (thanks John,  IOU!) 

End of the World, a duet with Mike McDonald (What?!)
During a lunch with Mike and Amy McDonald at Colleens in Haiku, (love their Beet Salad) we were trying to think of a song that would be a nice ukulele/voice type of thing (like Iz did with "Over the Rainbow") We talked about different songs but none of them were really sticking..... thought of  "In your Eyes" which Mike figured out on Uke, very cool... but that wasn't going to be the one... but that reminds me, I gotta learn that song... heyyyy look at that chickennnnn!

Rewind, there was a day in the studio when all the guys started singing "End of the World"... you know that old song that Skeeter Davis sang way back when?  Sweet song.  But they were also singing it like IND of the world... it was funny... boys clownin' around....A few weeks later, Mike records the song, just his friekin' phenomenal voice and ukulele.  It was unbelievable.  I thought, "wow, he should release this... or put it in a movie, or something, this is unreal"... he gave me a recording of it and I played it over and over, just the kind of track that makes you shake your head in dis-belief its so good.

Fast forward, I'm driving up Hana Hwy and Mike calls.  He says "I think we should do "End of the World" as a duet."  I almost crashed my truck.  I pulled over and said "WHAT? Are you KIDDING?"  Another HELL YESSSSSS moment!  Its like Mike really doesn't know how cool he is, and what a big deal this kind of thing is to an indie musician like me.  He really is so humble that he doesn't know his voice is one of the biggest voices of all time.  Doesn't know.  If you tell him, he just laughs and looks embarrassed.  I love that.

SOOoooooo "END OF THE WORLD"  becomes a duet with Mike and I and he tells me I can put it on my CD.  Of course this is how Mike offers... "I was thinkin' we should do it as a duet... but you don't have to... I would understand if you don't want to, but it might be nice, I think its a sweet song... but no pressure... do you want to do it?" HELL YESSSSS!  So Mike worked with his engineers in Nashville and I worked on Maui with Dave, and the collaborative effort resulted in a really sweet duet. (Engineers:  Dave Ruseell, Gary Cirimelli, Grady Walker and Bernie Chiarivalli.) THANKS MIKE!  He added a subtle keyboard to add to the vibe, he produced my vocals and the whole track and he really came up with a cool version of this song, I am sooooo grateful. By the way, if you don't know Mike and Amy McDonald, they are such a fun couple, REALLY funny, REALLY talented (You should hear Amy sing, she's amazing!!!, check out her new CD "Miracle River") Love these guys!!! 

The One that Got Away, a duet with Willie Nelson :)

Fast forward to the kitchen of Annie Nelson, the best cook I know!  She was feeding me (As usual!  I think it was her famous risotto that night.. yummmmmm,  by the way I'm the single friend who never cooks and is always hungry) and I brought a copy of the new songs and left them with her that night.  I forgot something in the house so when I went back inside, Annie and Willie were listening to the songs. "The One that Got Away" was playing and Willie had a tear in his eye...a tear in his eye!  (the ultimate complement as a songwriter, to see that someone is really moved by your tune) I was so touched, it was such a sweet moment to me... I'll never forget it.  Have I mentioned that Annie and Willlie are 2 of my favorite people on the planet?  I love love love them.  Just a compliment from Willie on songwriting would have been huge enough, but what happened next was huge.  I got a message from Willie (I still have it on my phone!) and he says "I think we should do that song as a duet, and I think you should make a whole CD and I'll help you get it out there, and you can put that other song we did on there (half a heart) and maybe you can make a few bucks and have some fun".... Again HELL YESSSSSSSSSSSS moment  Am I dreamin' here?  Can life get any better???  So, the project continues to grow and get sweeter... Willie records the vocals, and Cris and I are so stoked about our little song!

ANNIE NELSON  now tells us that she's putting together a DUETS CD of Willie and the Girls he has sang with!  And YEP thanks to ANNIE, it looks like "The One that Got away" will be on that CD.  HOW COOL IS THAT!

Annie (Bella) Nelson - you ROCK!

The Do Do Song Video

Ok, here's another heyyy look at that chicken tangent.... There was a contest for the Ellen DeGeneres show... "the bathroom video contest" ...  at the prompting by my good friend Jeannie Pereira, I decided to enter my "do do song" in the contest.  A bunch of good friends came over and we all piled into my bathroom and did a video.  It was so funny!  Steve Hogan filmed it, and Kash, Annie, Jeannie, Cris, Josh, Pat, Buz, Charlene, Bill and Gail Z, and me all sang.  You can still find that video on youtube.com if you type in "Maui do do song"... we missed the contest deadline so I'm waiting for the 2nd annual contest.  In the meantime, the more hits, the better so please go check it out!

 Un Richiammo a Madre Terra (A Prayer for Mother Earth)

Everyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE Italy.  I love the country, the people, the food (oh GOD the food!) the language, everything about it. So, one day my friend Chelsea Hill and I got together to write a song in Italian.  Chelsea owns a language school here on Maui and she's my Italian teacher.  I came up with the music, and we talked about concepts, and thoughts, and Chelsea put them into beautiful Italian lyrics.  It all came together in just a few hours, it was very cool.  When I recorded it, I asked Jonathan Yudkin to play strings (he's in Nashville, and is an incredible studio musician) He played all of the strings and even added a surprise mandolin part that I love. (says he bought the mandolin in Venice!)  The picture in my CD cover is of a tiny village in Cinque Terra called Manarola.  My favorite my place in the world.  If I could live half the year in Maui and half the year in Manarola, life would be perfetto!  There is a great little place there called La Cantina Dello Zio Bramante, owned by my friend Gabrielle and his family.  Musicians gather and play there almost every night in the summer (that's when I was there anyway, maybe its year round) and its such a cool vibe!  You gotta go there and tell Gabe I say CIAO! 

Mid Air
This song I recorded on my own, just me and my guitar.  Its a song about communication and how hard it can be. Sometimes when we talk, our words come out of our mouths and seem to change in mid air - reaching ears with a completely different meaning and vibe... can be frustrating, makes me crazy.    The guitar groove was inspired when I watched an Ani Difranco concert (she's amazing, righteousbabe.com.) And the lyrics were inspired by a few frustrating relationships I have had.

Here to There
My friend Tom Conway (one of the most talented guitar players I have ever known) cool-ed it up with his bluesy riffs.  This song is about trying to move on... whatever the situation... breaking up with someone, moving away, changing jobs, knowing where you want to end up and just wishing it didn't have to be so hard top get there... and wondering what we're supposed to learn along the way.   "How do I get from here to there? Does it have to be so damn hard in the middle?"  "How do I get there... Where do I turn? How do I learn what I've got to learn?" Also I got to play a little blues flute in this one. Paul Marchetti plays percussion on this one and I really wanted it to feel/sound like we were just all jammin' on the beach in front of a campfire.

Eggshells
I wrote this song a while back when I was going to play a song at an awareness even for the prevention of Domestic Violence.  I really love the organization "Women Helping Women" and I'd like for someone to use this song in a good way to help this cause.  I don't get the whole violence thing - there's never a reason to be emotionally or physically abused by another person. No exceptions. This includes war of any kind.  I remember hearing Dennis Kucinich saying something about "if you have war in your own back yard (domestic yard) how can we project peace into the world, universe?"  True so true.
A simple truth. So why doesn't everybody get it?

Half a Heart (duet with Willie)
I originally released this on my last CD, "Living in a Movie" and it features my awesome Maui Bass player and (best buddy) Jerry Byers, also Willie's world class harmonica player Micky Rafael, and talented Nashville pianist Pete Wasner.  The song is about being in love with whatever or whoever is the other half of your heart...  I wrote this about Music, but everyone relates it to someone or something personal.  I recorded it at Tommy Halls studio (melody line) with and it was mixed by Tom Hall and also and Mike Gillies. (Metallica engineer)

The Graphics
My buddy Scott Johnson does all of my graphics and he is awesome. (Check him out at Dogtowne Design...dogtowne.com) Also Ron and  Sharon Dahlquist (RonDahlquist.com) took the photos out at the Haiku Mill.   THANK YOU!  Getting my photo taken (and having to pick one) is my least favorite part of making a CD -  all of these people made it fun!  And my friend Jan Welda did an beautiful drawing that is printed on the CD itself. Thanks Jan!

The End (for now)
So there you have it, the whole story!  Complete with credits, thank you's, tangents and distractions and LOVE LOVE LOVE!  I am SO GRATEFUL!

THANK YOU to everyone who helped put this together!!

To order, CLICK HERE

I hope you like my new CD!  Peace, Gail