“Yes, it came out a bit ago and the title is “Red Light, Green Light,” it's just more like a visual aspect of it; it's not like it's the marquee song of the album. I had a concept for the cover and it just had a fun sound and It's 10-tracks; not an overwhelming amount of material but for me that was the perfect amount. The songs are all very fully realized and it felt like it had a great arc and cohesiveness to it; it has got some ballads and it's got a couple of funky tunes because I like that too.”
Vonda Shepard has been singing and creating for seemingly all of her life. A powerful vocalist and songwriter, she began her career in music singing with artists such as Rickie Lee Jones, Al Jarreau and perhaps most notably; Jackson Browne but it was her repeated performances as the "Band in the bar" on the popular television show "Ally McBeal" that brought her talents to the forefront of both television and the stage; garnering her two Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards and she still holds a Billboard record for sales of a television soundtrack.
Over the five-year run of McBeal (1997-2002); she wrote hundreds of songs and worked at a pace that was perhaps out of character or shall we say; somewhat contradictory to her style? So, surely, putting out this new album, which was written during the lockdowns of the pandemic, was different; no?
“Yeah, if I had to write a whole new album now because I'm so busy with life and everything it's really hard to fathom," she laughed as she discussed her domestic side; husband, children; the things which cause one to focus. "I mean, I can fathom writing a song and that's kind of how you want to approach it anyway; just take it one day at a time with the writing but it was not an easy task. I have to admit writing is the hardest thing that I do but it's also one of the most gratifying so, it's worth it. Working on Ally McBeal was a production of about 500 songs so I'm used to working hard in that way and a lot of the songs were my own; some of which were already recorded from albums but the reason that this is hard is because I'm very particular and I don't like to settle with anything whether it's the lyrics or the chords. I'm not saying you need to get everything perfect but it's a lot of work on editing and just hashing it out and coming up with the whole package of the song and what makes it flow and makes it feel really complete. So, it's a lot of work; it's like a painter, you're staring at this blank canvas and hoping something happens and it is daunting yet fulfilling at the same time.”
A recent press release had this to say about "Red Light, Green Light,"
‘Red Light, Green Light’ reflects Vonda’s classic, deeply personal introspection. “The album was written and recorded during the height of the pandemic,” she reveals. “It took a massive amount of discipline to go through this process but the isolation actually lent itself to going deep into the writing.” The album offers energetic tunes and soulful ballads written with purity, joy, and pain, covering themes of unrequited love, the “heartbreaking experience of being a parent,” and the existential crisis that we all experienced during the pandemic, balanced with a touch of hope that all of her songs evoke."
Shepard elaborated on just that, “I always write about my own life," she began. "There's some songs about my son who is 16 and the trials and the great joys of that. There is a line in one of the songs, I think it's in the song “Made of Rain” about when you're trying to reach a teenager and it says, “A million combinations here and every gear and still I can't get through” and that kind of sums it up. I also have some unresolved past relationships that I kind of delved into and work out a little bit like, “Red Light Green Light;” it's not the present day and it's cool because you've got all of this life behind you that you can dig into if you're feeling inspired and then there's some slight political comments here and there but I don't like to get too much into that because it's not as melodic. I mean, it's trickier to make it sound like a really good song when you've got too much information that you're pounding in there; you know?”
Produced by her husband Mitchell Froom who has worked with Elvis Costello and Fleetwood Mac among others, Vonda was thrilled with his work and the entire process which all took place at their own home studio.
“This is our eighth album together I believe and it took about a year and a half to write which seems like a long time but that's how long I work. I guess we worked on the album for about maybe, well, when I say work on the album, I mean work with Mitchell on the pre-production which was extensive. I mean, we worked for months on the arrangements and he would listen to a song and he'd say, “You know, I think this needs another section and it needs a passing chord” and so he'd sit with me in my writing room and go through it and we spent many months on that and then there was about a month and a half of recording and mixing. We have a really great studio here, it's where Mitchell does all his albums; it's a very high-fidelity, high-level studio at our house. Luckily, we built it when we first got this house 24 years ago; we invested in that and it's been amazing because he works with so many amazing artists and they come here and do records and it saves the budget for them.”
Poised to hit the road early in 2023, Shepard has shows on three consecutive nights beginning January 11 in Maryland and ending with a show at 54 Below in New York City on January 13 with a first-time City Winery appearance in between. Once those are in the books, she heads over to Europe where many American artists, including herself, seem to have found larger audiences.
“The tour starts with a show in Annapolis and then we go to Philly to play The City Winery, then we come to New York for those three shows; it's just a short run. This is the first City Winery show I’m playing so, I'm kind of curious to see how it goes. We could really use one of those, a venue that size here in L.A. because it is hard to find places to play here that are the right feeling and the right size.”
"We leave on January 10 for the East Coast for those few shows," she continued, "Then I'm going to play for the people who book performing arts centers so, I'll be in New York actually for three days during that time playing for them doing showcases because I'd like to branch out in the States and play more shows here at home. Then we go to Europe for the whole month of February and now we're booking for this summer; we're going to try to do some stuff here in the States this summer. I think the issue for me with the States is that it's huge and unless you're on a proper full-on tour it's really hard to tour the states; at least for me. So, what I do is the West Coast and the East Coast and then I kind of sometimes will go do a little pocket in the Midwest but that's not very often and I feel like the reception is really good on the West Coast and East Coast for me but I just play a little bit larger venues I think in Europe. I would say that because I keep coming back to the same cities like New York and Annapolis because I have built up a following there and people seem to like it but I definitely have a larger following overseas for sure.”
Three chances to see Vonda Shepard, what a perfect way to shake the post-holiday "Bah Humbugs" and according to the lady herself; one can expect a great night of music, thanks to some very talented people.
“We are going on the road as a quartet, including myself and these are some of the best musicians alive; I swear. I'm bringing James Ralston on guitar who was Tina Turner's guitar player for 20 years, Jim Hanson on base who I've been with for 28 years and Mauricio Lewak on drums; he has played with Jackson Browne for 30 years and that's where I met him when I was singing with Jackson. So, yeah, it's just a great band and we just did the UK so we're pretty tight. I'll probably do about five or six songs from the new album and I'll do some of the favorites from my own solo albums over the years and then I'll end the show with two or three Ally tunes because people get very excited when I play those too but sometimes I'll put one in the set like “Walk Away Renee” or something really familiar from the show because people, especially the ones who are fond of Ally, get very happy about that. I play a couple of solo songs at the piano and we’ve built the show so that by the end it has got a party feeling to it but it's at a nice pace with a lot of dynamics. I’ll also have Cds for sale at the shows; I know hardly anyone uses them now but I'll have them at the shows and I also have them on my website and people can get them there if they want.”
To discover more about Vonda Shepard, the tour and her new album "Red Light, Green Light," please visit https://www.vondashepard.com/home.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
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