Very, very happy to learn of Keith's involvement in this project. Article features some lovely quotes from The Riff:

[online.wsj.com]

Thank you Rev. Robert W., very nice article.

The music's up on NPR ... Niiice ... !!!

I hope they'll have this out on iTunes, sounds mighty tasty.

Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind...

Yeah! NpR has it and Dirty Rock magazine as well has some extracts long time ago as Wall Stt Journal.

Carlitos
Tenerife

[www.npr.org]

Some of these are more like copies than covers of their gorgeous originals (check out Tears On My Pillow or My True Story on YouTube, for instance) - but I love Aaron Neville's voice and I love doo-wop, and I'll buy and enjoy this album. I hope it gets a few more people to discover the genre.

you see ppl that look like aaron at the gym all the time...but not very many of them have as lovely a falsetto as aaron.

[www.jambands.com]

Aaron Neville Tells My True Story

Well, I hope Aaron Neville’s happy.

First, his rendition of “Tell It Like It Is” has been responsible for more steamy moments since 1967 than full moons and power outages combined. And then there’s the fact that The Neville Brothers – Aaron and brothers Art, Charles, and Cyril – have been making hips shake to their sweet, funky soul sound since 1977. Now the man is about to turn the whole darn world into one great big, doe-eyed ball of smiling doo-wop love with his new album My True Story.

Check out the credits: co-produced by Don Was and Keith Richards. A core band of Richards and Greg Leisz on guitars; Benmont Tench on keys; Tony Scherr on bass; and George Recelli on drums. And a dozen classics from the doo-wop era that Aaron Neville has been waiting a long, long time to sing.

A fun listen? You bet it is. Almost as fun as it was for these guys to make it …

I’ve seen some of the early interviews on My True Story and I get a kick out of folks who ask you, “Why a doo-wop album?”

Yeah … (laughs)

BR: It’s no surprise to me – I guess my question would be what took so long? (laughter)

I think it had to wait until the stars were aligned right and it was the right time. Everything I’ve done has had some essence of doo-wop – or that era – in it. It’s what captured my heart back in the day, you know? Between that and the gospel … and even some of the gospel I did had doo-wop mixed in it, you know?

Sure. I wanted to ask you about the beginnings of the project – and your production team. Who came first: Don Was or Keith Richards? (laughter)

Don did. Well, first of all, it was my wife Sarah, who got me in touch with Red Light Management and Marc Allan. I explained to him what I wanted to do and Marc got in touch with Don. I knew Don from when he recorded “Crazy Love” [Aaron’s version of the Van Morrison classic] and Trisha Yearwood’s “I Fall To Pieces”. [A Grammy-winning collaboration with Aaron.]

When I mentioned doo-wop to Don the light bulb lit up in his head and the first person he thought of was Keith. You see, when Don was producing Voodoo Lounge for the Stones, his hotel room was right underneath Keith’s – and Keith had “My True Story” by the Jive Five on a loop, playing over and over and over. (laughter)

Wow – imagine having a room under, over, or alongside of Keith Richards.

(laughs) Yeah, Keith’s one of the most down-to-earth guys I know – he’s very cool. And Don is, too. I’m glad he’s the president of Blue Note now. Don’s a musician first … he understands all of it.

I was tickled when I heard Don had taken the helm at Blue Note – it speaks well of the future for them … and this album is a great example. So who put the band together?

Don and Keith.

And did you have any special requests for players?

No, I didn’t. I left it in their hands, you know.

Good hands, man. (laughter) So you had a lifetime of these songs in your head and your heart – how did you ever narrow it down to the tracks that are on the album?

(laughs) You know, that was the hardest thing: me and Don talked that we could put 12 songs on a CD, but when we got in the studio … (laughs) It was like Keith said, “We were all like a bunch of kids.” (laughter) Me, I was like a kid in a candy store – they gave me carte blanche of what I could have and I said, “Well, I want one of these; one of these; one of these …” (laughter)

What you said is right: those songs have been in my head and in my heart for so many years, you know – to take just some of them is the hardest thing. We recorded 23 in those five days – and you can hear everyone smiling on the recording … everybody was into it, you know?

So … there’s more or less already a “Volume II” in the can …

Oh, I already told Don we got to have a “Part Two” and a “Part Three”!

All right! (laughter) So how did you even get down to 23 songs?

Like I said, it was hard … we just didn’t have time to do more. I mean, we could’ve done more, but we wanted to concentrate on the ones we had. The ones that are in the can might need to have little things polished up here and there, but they’re all great.

With you and that band, how could you miss?

Everybody was so into it, you know? Like I said, you can hear them smiling on the record.

I was going to ask you: I think it’s at the end of “Work With Me Annie” –

Yeah … (laughs)

You know what I’m going to say, don’t you? When everybody just busts up laughing at the very end …

Yeah! (laughter) And I told them, “Just leave that right on there.” (laughter)

It was great – the music ends; everybody takes a breath; and … pow! (laughter)

Yeah and we said, “Wow – let’s do it again!” (laughter)

Cool! Did you guys have a chance to rehearse at all before you went into the studio?

No – we just went in and talked about the songs. Don would pull it up on the internet and he might write out a little chart for them or whatever … him and Keith would put the music together … and then we’d just go into the studio and do it. I mean, some of the songs I might have to guide them through the basic grooves – like on “Ting A Ling” and “Be My Baby” – but it all happened right there in the studio.

I was going to ask you about the arrangements – you had a band full of great ears, obviously …

Yeah – sometimes I’d get on the piano and sing a little bit of how I wanted it and they’d just pick it up from there. They’d just do it, you know?

Do you remember which track you cut first?

I think it might have been “Work With Me Annie.”

Oh, cool – so that laughter we hear is early on in the sessions, when you guys were discovering what you had there.

Yeah … I mean, if you listened to the original songs, I took it from there and put my own grooves on it – like that New Orleans-style groove on “Ting A Ling”.

That’s the thing, man – to have been hearing those songs for all these years …

Oh, yeah …

And all the different arrangements that other folks have done … how did you get clear to a place of your own?

Well, the thing about it is, I found my own place many years ago when I first heard these songs. They’ve been in my heart all these years – they’d wake me up at 3 o’clock in the morning and I’d have to sing three or four of them before I could go back to sleep. (laughter)

So you had to record this album – to get those songs out of you.

That’s right. The stars were lined up and it was the right time.

The way My True Story is laid out, “Money Honey” is the opening cut. When I put the album on for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect for Keith’s guitar playing –

(laughs) Yeah!

I mean, Greg Leisz is an amazing man on anything with strings –

He sure is.

But when Keith goes in to that first solo, it’s classic Keith.

Yep! (laughs) One of the solos he did – I think it was on “Ruby Baby” – Keith was in there just tuning up his guitar and getting ready. He was just playing along with the band and didn’t know that the engineer was recording him.

Keith said he was ready to do the solo and the engineer told him, “Man, you don’t have to go back in there – that’s it!” (laughter)

What did Keith say?

He just laughed. (laughter)

Cool – I’ll have to put an ear to that and listen for the “tuning up” solo.

Yeah!

23 songs in 5 days – wow. There wasn’t a lot of time for overdubbing or back tracking … and the album has a wonderful live vibe to it.

Yeah, everybody was in sync.

And to have that much talent in the room and no egos …

There were no egos at all, no. Like Keith said, everybody was like a bunch of kids in the studio – that’s just how it was. Keith and Greg on guitars; Tony on that big upright bass – he smiled the whole session; Ben on the piano; George on the drums – you’d look back there and see him smiling … everybody was smiling.

That’s so great to hear. One little moment that comes and goes – but it’s so sweet – is Lenny Pickett’s flute solo on …

“Be My Baby”? (laughs)

Right on. Whose idea was it to do that tune?

My idea, along with Keith. That was a Ronnie Spector song that had been in my head for years; I never knew all the words but that (sings): “Be my – be my baby” – that part you know? I said, “Let’s go ahead and put that one on there.”

People will say, “That’s not doo-wop.” “No? Well what would you call it?” you know? (laughs) Doo-wop was an era – that’s how I look at it. It wasn’t just, “Shoo-bee doo-bee doo-wop doo-wop,” you know?

People get so hung up sometimes on needing to put a label on things – it’s really just how it makes you feel, I think.

Yeah, that’s right.

What was your biggest smile during the session?

I guess when I was acting out the parts. I’d say, “Look – I’m going back to the projects and I’m 10 years old and this is how I’d walk … (laughs) and they’d pick right up on it and put the groove right on the tape.

You’d walk for them?

Yeah I’d do my hip walk for ‘em. (laughs)

You know some folks can’t do that anymore when they’re 71.

You know, in the Bible, people lived 800 and 900 years. (laughter) So we’re still babies – all of us. You just got to keep in shape.

If you have a car, you’re going to wash it and shine it and make sure that the oil’s changed and all that, you know? You’ve got to do that with your body and your mind. Try to think pure thoughts and, you know, go by the Golden Rule.

*And man, you are not in the best business to try to do that. * (laughter) I don’t know as you noticed, but –

Oh, I know, I know. (laughs) But I wouldn’t take it no other way – I wouldn’t be in any other business, you know? When things happen, I just roll with the punches and smile. I’m happy that I’m here doing what I’m doing. And I’ll be 27 this month.

Wait …

Well, I’ll be 72, but I turn it backwards, you know? (laughter) And then I’ll be 37 next year.

Shoot, that could go on for awhile …

Yeah! (laughter) How old are you?

I’ll be 55 next month. That comes out the same even if you turn it backwards. (laughter)

That’s cool, man – when’s your birthday?

February 21st.

You’re right on the cusp where it turns to Pisces, then.

You got it. That explains a lot. (laughter) You’ve been in this business a long time, Aaron. That’s one of the great things about the new album – after all these years, it’s easy to hear that you’re having fun.

Oh, I’ve been blessed you know. I thank God for looking out for me at times when I had no idea he was looking out for me – and think back and say “Oh, wow – I remember that time …” (laughs) But you’ve got to look out for yourself, too, you know. You take one step and He’ll take two – but you got to make sure you take that first step.

So – of course – you do something like this and everyone says, “That’s great … what are you gonna do next?”

(laughs) Well, I got a million of ‘em, man. (laughter)

Well, keep ‘em coming. Aaron, thank you for the time today – but most of all, thank you for the music over the years.

Thank you – you have a great year.






Iconic Soul/R&B vocalist and multiple Grammy Award-winning artist Aaron Neville is featured in a special concert performing songs from his upcoming Doo-Wop inspired album My True Story. Recorded at the Brooklyn Bowl in November 2012, this special features an incredible array of musicians along with special guests including Paul Simon, Joan Osborne, Eugene Pitt of the Jive Five, and Dickie Harmon from the Del-Vikings.

Airing March 2013 on most PBS stations (check your local listings at pbs.org/tvschedules)

Quote
superrevvy
[www.npr.org]

thanks for posting the link, superrev.

and for the full-text interview and other info, Green Lady!

-swiss



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-01-19 13:56 by swiss.

I guess "Be My Baby" is a favourite of Keith's from WAY back - and that's a beautiful version with Aaron Neville:

"Mr. Richards, who recalled owning a single by Mr. Neville way back in 1962"

He couldn't get Chess records and he found an obscure single by a then-obscure singer from Louisiana...?

Quote
dcba
"Mr. Richards, who recalled owning a single by Mr. Neville way back in 1962"

He couldn't get Chess records and he found an obscure single by a then-obscure singer from Louisiana...?

It's not impossible, but what was available on US import in 1962 and what wasn't was a complete lottery - there would have been some shops that bought things in, and probably some stuff that visitors to the States brought home with them, but if you wanted something specific you'd have to do what Mick did and start writing to the label in the States. Otherwise you took pot luck with whatever happened to be in stock and made the best of it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-01-19 14:49 by Green Lady.

New review with a bit more Keith here.

Quote
swiss

Quote
swiss

Quote
superrevvy
[www.npr.org]

thanks for posting the link, superrev.

and for the full-text interview and other info, Green Lady!

-------> incidentally, the Keith solo Aaron is referring to is at this link -- minute 1:14-1:18. If that was a “tuning up” solo, I'm impressed!

“ 'Ruby Baby' – Keith was in there just tuning up his guitar and getting ready. He was just playing
along with the band and didn’t know that the engineer was recording him. Keith said he was ready to
do the solo and the engineer told him, 'Man, you don’t have to go back in there – that’s it!' "



-swiss

Ha ha, cool!

Here's the teaser for upcoming pbs concert broadcast

I'm listening to the album

voices are put in front and instruments are low in the mix
so Keith's guitars is quiet

what a work
very well played and recorded !
and Bob Ludwig did the mastering
what else can we need ?

Listening to it, I may not be the biggest Doo Wop fan...Money Honey is great though.

Needs 2 parts more Keith.

Do you guys know the story about how Ivan Neville fell asleep backstage the night he was going to sit in with Stones? The janitor had to wake him, the show was over by then.

Do you guys know the story about how Ivan Neville fell asleep backstage the night he was going to sit in with Stones? The janitor had to wake him, the show was over by then.

YEAH YEAH ...read that one... watch ya intake when ya in the Stones camp ....



ROCKMAN

Glyn Johns did the mix

CD sounds great. This music should span generations.

Great great music on this album.

More about the recordings sessions with Keith and Don Was here :







Gipsy Woman from the album







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-08 02:51 by kowalski.

The music sounds great and beautiful.

shame that Keefs guitar is not so high in the mix. understandably ofcourse, because its Aarons voice that is important, but still.

thanks for the interviews and the music.

jeroen

I found this record too generic sounding. Might as well listen to the originals. Of course if it was all arty and cocked up, like a T-Bone Burnett production, I wouldn't like that either.