Lost and Found: With the Wind

With the Wind

So, if you want to hear all the details about this song, you should check out my previous post. No song really exemplifies the idea of material that had been lost and found than this recording.  For the first two years of its existence, I played this song a lot, and then not so much.  I recorded the song to a click track, and I'm not sure I gave the song much thought until Colin Brown laid the drums down. It had always been a folk song, and now it was a rock song. Dave Humphries bass really filled out the rockin' nature of the recording.

Except I had decided that this was going to be an acoustic album, and so I didn't want any electric guitars.  Meredith Noel solved the problem by adding her viola track, which may be the favorite thing I've ever recorded with her. The viola was able to cut through the mix and hold the listener's attention for the duration of the song. Joel Serdenis added some mandolin, but it was getting lost in the mix. Later Steve Cooley added another mandolin, but we were still not hearing what we wanted to. Then Steve brought out a mandola, which I didn't even know was a thing, but two tracks of that and the song was pretty much done. It's hard to make acoustic instruments rock out, but I think we did it.

When we were sequencing the album, we debated whether or not to open with this song. I think the first half of the album is sonically light, and then things get dark once this song begins.  Give the album a listen, and you'll notice that "With the Wind" kicks of a plunge into a darker mood.