A Silver Tray Q/A: Sean Garcia of Spinning Jenny
The First of Two Conversations Re: The Band's Digital Album "The Great Story"
The sudden and unexpected arrival of Spinning Jenny’s The Great Story in the summer of 2022 was a welcome blast from the past. This offshoot of Three Merry Widows enjoyed only a short run in the mid-’90s, yet that time provided the band’s six players an opportunity to create at least one album’s worth of great material. Featuring nine songs, The Great Story is available for streaming and purchase on Bandcamp.
There, the group’s short bio summarizes the group’s existence: In the summer of 1994, after the breakup of seminal St. Louis folk-rock band Three Merry Widows (TVT Records), four remaining members, Sean Garcia, Brian Simpson, Charles Shipman and Matt Albert, regrouped, set aside their electric guitars, and began to explore the musical space that could be created by limiting themselves to only acoustic instruments. With the addition of Meryl Press (vocals) and Mira Tanna (violin), they formed Spinning Jenny, a musical experiment influenced by the British and American Folk Rock scenes of the 1960/70’s. A collection of 8 original songs, recorded and produced by the band, garnered label interest, but the band members soon went their separate ways, and the music was never officially released. Fast forward almost 30 years, and the original recordings, remixed and mastered, are now available for the first time on The Great Story. Acoustic guitars, bass, violin, mandolin, banjo, sitar, and other found instruments simultaneously create melodic lines that weave around the vocal melodies sung by Press, whose tonal purity belies the musical power that sits just below the surface of every word. Spinning Jenny will take you on a musical ride that you’ll want to experience again and again.
We reached out to the band’s five surviving members for a Q/A opportunity and first received the following emailed notes from Sean Garcia, who served the band in a variety of creative roles. Tomorrow, we’ll add the thoughts of violinist Mira Tanna. Hopefully, the two interviews will shed some additional light on the band’s short existence and the lovely gift they left for fans via The Great Story.
Kind of a broad one to start, but where was your collective head at after the dissolution of Three Merry Widows? Was it along the lines of not wanting to give up on your bandmates and the connectivity with them? Did you feel like you had something to prove as a group to TVT Records? What was your idea of "success" after the Widows? After the breakup of Three Merry Widows, I thought that we’d get back together and start playing music again some time had passed. Alice (Spencer) had the Geyer Street Sheiks as a musical outlet, and the rest of us eventually circled back around to playing music together, probably just jamming at first. It was, of course, very easy to play music with Brian, Charles, and Matt as we had great chemistry together, and an unspoken musical connection. So, it was never a consideration to play with another group of people, except that we wanted to have a lead vocalist since Alice was playing with the Geyer Street Sheiks. I don’t think we had anything to prove with TVT Records, we just wanted to get back to playing and writing music on our own terms, without the pressure of a record company. Our goals at that time were to start a new project, play live, and record the music in the studio.
How did these songs come together? Were some demos that the Widows were working through? Or was this material all-new to this group of six players? The music written for Spinning Jenny was all-new material. We had a lot of Widows songs post Which Dreamed It? that we could have pulled from, but we wanted a fresh start in a new music project. At that time (around 1994-1995), I started listening to a lot of ‘60s British folk revival music like Pentangle and Steeleye Span, as well as Nick Drake, Richard and Linda Thompson, and world music musicians Ali Farka Toure and D’gary. Brian was also listening to Pentangle, and we were both playing a lot of acoustic guitars together. We consciously decided to play primarily acoustic instruments, which felt fresh and a challenge to see what kind of music we could create. It wasn’t until much later, towards the end of Spinning Jenny that we made the shift to working in electric guitars.
How did you seek out and bring in Meryl and Mira? To your way of thinking, how did they feel about joining a core group of musicians that had a lot of respect in-and-around St. Louis? Meryl was an art student at Wash U, had played in some bands on campus and was a fan of Three Merry Widows. We became friends with Meryl sharing similar music tastes, so it was a natural progression to having her sing in Spinning Jenny. Meryl’s voice really fit the sound we were developing, so it was a nice pairing. Meryl really respected Alice and Alice’s voice, and I’m sure she felt pressure to sing with 4/5ths of the Widows even though it was a new band and a new sound. We knew Mira from her stint playing with Bella Wolf and asked her to play violin to help expand our sound.
One thing that I've thought about with this interview is that you could've gone out and tried to sign on the "hot" free agent vocalist in town, whoever that may've been at that moment. Sort of a "plug-and-play" idea. What was the idea in terms of bringing in two new collaborators? What was that process like? Obviously, Brian, Charles, Matt, and I had a lot of history together with the Widows, so it was a little tricky to bring in two new people to start a band. However, it was a very organic process to bring in Meryl and Mira. Meryl and I had learned some cover songs together just for fun, prior to joining Spinning Jenny. So, I knew our voices blended well together and I knew what she was capable of as a vocalist. We were friends with Bella Wolf and met Mira through Brandy Johnson and Jim Ibur. It all really fell into place without the need to search for other musicians in town.
Recording. Who, what, where, when, why...? These were largely home studio recordings? Even for a non-technical person, how did these songs go down on tape? The songs were recorded at Madcap Studios, which was the home studio Brian and I had in Dogtown. I believe we recorded in 1994-95 and tracked the songs to ADAT using an analog console. We would have recorded all the backing tracks first, which would have been bass, drums/percussion, one acoustic guitar, and scratch vocal. Depending on the song and importance of which acoustic guitar needed to guide the song, that would leave either Brian or me to man the console during tracking. The second acoustic guitar, violin, and vocals would have been overdubbed later.
To address an obvious need: Matt Albert. Talk a little bit about his role in the creation of this music and his playing, what it meant to your sound? Matt was certainly a big part of Spinning Jenny’s sound. His drum or percussion playing is extremely musical, played with feel, and often he’s playing a crucial part during a song. Not just playing a beat or keeping time, but a key part in a passage of the song, just like any instrument. Matt always played that way and that was his genius or superpower. Matt passed in June 2020 and it’s great to honor his memory with the release of this album in 2022.
What was the plan for this release initially? And what occurred along the way, from the recording to hearing them on Bandcamp in 2022? What was required of any of you to get these release-ready? Several years ago, we had the master tapes transferred digitally since ADAT tapes degrade over time. During the pandemic lockdown, Brian and I had the idea to remix Spinning Jenny and release the music so that it could be heard on streaming platforms. The original recordings were never released to the public, and we wanted to get the music out there so maybe someone would enjoy listening to it. We also felt the original mixes were fairly plain sonically and remixing the music would greatly improve their presentation.
The original recording contained five songs, and we thought about adding some additional music to the 2022 release: “Wedding Dress,” which was mixed from a live rehearsal and “Spinning Tangle,” which was a live recording Brian and I did at our house in Dogtown. Even though “Wedding Dress” and “Spinning Tangle” contain some imperfections, we decided to include them in the release because of the energy and emotion they have. One surprise in transferring the tracks digitally, was rediscovering the song “Evening.” We had forgotten about the track and for some reason never mixed it, and it wasn’t included on the original recording.
Before and during remixing the music, Brian and I made a few arrangement and restructuring changes to a few of the songs. So, it was great to have the opportunity to do this and be able to approach the songs with a fresh perspective. Other songs were left as-is and didn’t need any changes. The songs were remixed at my home studio, Jupiter Box, with the exception of “Evening,” which was mixed at Sawhorse Studios by Jason McEntire. The last step before release was having the album mastered by West End Music, which I found because they had mastered albums by Sufjan Stevens and it seemed like a good fit.
Lyrics. Who wrote them? Solo or in tandem? How much importance did you place on the lyrical aspect of the group? The lyrics to the songs were written by Brian, Meryl and me. In some cases, one of us wrote the entire lyrics to the song, and in other cases it was a collaboration. I think the lyrical content was focused to serve the mood of the song, whether the words were based on a real experience or a story-based, ethereal idea.
Were any of these tracks played at the TWM reunion shows? Thinking "no," but perhaps a track may've slotted in somewhere. Were these regarded as essentially off-limits to those shows? We never played a Spinning Jenny song at a TMW reunion show. It never crossed our minds really and never came up in conversation.
Hopefully not too quirky a question, but what do you think of these songs today? Were they like connecting with old friends? I am very proud of the music we created in Spinning Jenny. Going back was a bit nostalgic and familiar. I had listened to the original recordings from time-to-time over the years, but it wasn’t until we decided to remix the recordings that I realized how special the music is. It certainly has a connection to the Widows, but I think the sound of Spinning Jenny is unique in its own right. One of the things I love about Spinning Jenny is the interplay between instruments. The interweaving of parts is something I keep coming back to when I listen. I am also love how we incorporated violin, banjo, mandolin, sitar, and the sitar guitar into the mix. And lastly, Meryl’s voice and phrasing really elevates the music and transports me and hopefully the listener, to someplace new.
What's the response been like, from friends and fans since these songs reappeared in June of 2022? Any surprising responses? Even amongst yourselves? The response from the release has been very positive! I suppose some people in STL might remember the band, but we only played a few live shows and I bet a majority do not, and never knew Spinning Jenny existed. It was certainly a surprise and honor to be listed on Steve Pick’s Best of December 2022 albums!
Lastly -- and this could or could not be tricky -- what did you want to happen with this release? Reconnection with one another? A desire for these songs to simply be heard? What's the notion of "success" for this collection of stellar songs in your mind(s)? For me, releasing the Spinning Jenny recordings is twofold. First, remixing the songs now gives the music the audio production and presentation it deserves. And second, it’s great to have it released into the world, and available on Bandcamp and streaming platforms. We have a few ideas to pursue to hopefully gather some exposure to the album, and with any luck, maybe someone out there will hear the record and love it as much as we do.
As noted above, you can stream/purchase Spinning Jenny’s The Great Story at the band’s Bandcamp page.
Silver Tray dedicates both of these interview segments to the memory of Matt Albert.
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