When conceiving Between Us, Ana Egge knew she wanted to do something new and different for her 12th album. The process started early in the pandemic, when she began collaborating online with Irish singer-songwriter Mick Flannery, whose path she had crossed at festivals over the years. They would FaceTime regularly for two-hour songwriting sessions. “It was so fun, and the writing happened so easily — it was almost eerie,” Egge admits. “Almost every time we’d meet up, we would write a whole song.” Nine of Between Us’ 11 songs came from these virtual sessions. They wrote so many songs, in fact, that Flannery, himself an award-winning musician, is doing his own album including some of their collaborations.
Between Us is set for release September 17th on StorySound Records.
Egge also added another new element to her songwriting when she started a dream journal after realizing so many songs and melodies were appearing in her dreams. When she would become aware of dreaming about a song, she would wake herself up and hum the song idea into her phone. Her dreams, she reveals, were the genesis for many of the album’s tunes.
Searching for a producer with a fresh sonic direction to bring these brilliant, thought-provoking songs to life, Egge met with Lorenzo Wolff after being fascinated by his work on the recent Judee Sill tribute Down Where the Valleys Are Low. They quickly found a common wavelength on how to approach her music. “She was interested in making a big, messy record that reinforced the message of this beautiful collection of songs,” Wolff explains. “I was able to make sonic choices in a very deliberate way to reinforce what she was already saying so eloquently in the songs. And since Ana has such adventurous ears, she would not only be accepting of this landscape, but push the arrangements into even more ambitious territory.”
Aware of how few people of color she had worked with in the past, and how few she has encountered in the acoustic music scene, Egge prioritized diversity among the musicians she worked with on this record. “It’s up to me to work for an equitable, inclusive community as much as I can in my life and career,” Egge states. “I can be one of the people trying to make a difference; even though that might be small, it’s still in the direction that I want the world to be moving in.”
The players Egge and Wolff assembled were all people she had never played with before (except for backing vocalist J. Hoard) and they brought eclectic musical backgrounds to the music. Corey Fonville, who told Wolff that “no one ever calls me to play on this kind of stuff,” drums in the jams and jazz group Butcher Brown. Bassist Michael Isvara Montgomery and guitarist/steel guitarist Jonny Lam are part of the African psych-funk outfit Sinkane. Egge had seen flautist Anh Phung performing in a bluegrass band. New Orleans-schooled keyboardist Jon Cowherd has a long association with Brian Blades (Joshua Redman, Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell), while the horn players’ credits range from Ricky Martin to Rhiannon Giddens.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the video for “Heartbroken Kind,” one of a small handful of songs on the album that finds Egge delving into the complexities of troubled relationships. Backed by a thick and soulful groove, Egge lets her dreamy vocals shine as she taps into passion and heartbreak simultaneously. We get treated to a slowburning saxophone solo to add to the airy emotion of the song, but mostly we get Egge’s vocals washing over us like a cool breeze on a humid summer night. With hints of soul, Americana and folk, “Heartbroken Kind” finds Egge once again carving out her own sound. The video offers a calming and vibrant visual to complement the music.
Egge describes the inspiration behind the song:
“This song came to me in a dream. The melody and the beginning of a story about a woman named Abby. She’s stuck in a story she tells herself. That she’ll never be able to love again because she still only loves the one who broke her heart and she’s “in love with that feeling.”
WATCH:
Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez
