“OK, I hope that you got the picture because I’ve got some singing to do.”
It’s day two of the Great Kalamazoo Gals Sessions and the press have begun to take notice. If I learned one thing about the human condition during my five year journey with this project, it’s that an ordinary life, well lived, is an extraordinary thing to behold. This week, it looks like the Connecticut media have concluded the same about recording sessions: a set of ordinary guitars, well played, and put to use on ordinary songs, well sung, is an extraordinary thing to behold. The playing and singing that Lauren Sheehan has bestowed upon this project so transcend “well done” that superlatives are inadequate. Indeed, the only phrase that adequately describes what she has done so far is, well, “good enough.”
Interview and photo session done, Lauren returns to the recording room to lay down the vocals for her achingly beautiful medley of “When Johnny Comes Home” and “Johnny, I Hardly knew You.” As the journalist and photographer begrudgingly exit to serve their deadline, the Connecticut State Troubadour, Chuck E. Costa, quietly slips in. Taking a seat at the back of the control room, Costa joins me as we listen to and watch Sheehan transform what can be a shrill complaint into an aching lament. When Costa turns to me and whispers, “My eyes are actually welling up,” all I can manage to say in return is, “Yeah.”
There’s a strange synergy happening with these old guitars, equally old songs, a brilliant musician, and co-producer Eric Tate’s magical selection and placement of microphones.
Good enough, indeed.
Photo by Melanie Stengel
