On the Record...

"Long Black Train"

This series, “On the Record,” will be a weekly Substack exclusive in which I’ll go through my recorded catalog song by song starting with my first album, Alabama Song, which was released on MCA Records in 1998. Photos will be attached if available and tolerable.

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Same hotbox apartment I described last week. Some time during the spring of 1997. We’d already done the demos for Tony Brown/MCA Records and things were looking good — but the pressure was on to write the songs for what would be my first album because everyone was convinced there was going to be one.

I had a publishing deal in the works as well but hadn’t really entered the world of co-writing yet, not outside of writing with my then husband, Butch, with whom I ultimately wrote “Long Black Train.” I’ll never forget the evening that I got home from my job at Fido, a coffeeshop that was in Hillsboro Village just a few blocks away (owned by the same kind man who opened Bongo Java, which was Nashville’s first proper espresso joint), and answered the phone to him telling me he’d figured out some verse lines while he worked at his courier job which gave him a lot of time in the car. I don’t remember which lines they were, but I do remember they led to finally finishing up the song. Butch would tinker with lines incessantly, sometimes to my dismay, but at that point in my life I hadn’t figured out how to defend myself artistically and didn’t have the confidence to stand up for my point of view or even the words that I wanted to sing. That’s another topic. I’m sure I’ll get to it later.

One of the things that record labels like to do is set up showcases for artists that they’re seriously interested in. It used to typically go like this: record label is interested in signing a young artist / young artist isn’t actively touring or maybe doesn’t even have much experience playing shows / record label wants to see how the young artist behaves on stage — what their natural charisma is like, how confident they are playing in front of a band, what they look like when they perform — so they hire a musical director to put together a band and some songs for the artist to perform for the entire staff of said record company because they like the entire team to be on board and excited (they also like to get the okay from the promotion department because they’re the ones that have to get the artist played on the radio) / label either rents a small music venue or a room at one of the local rehearsal spaces in which the showcase will take place / the young artist rehearses with the band that’s been hired for a few days until it’s all seamless / the showcase takes place and it either seals the deal or ends all hope of it.

I’m telling you all of that because I did a showcase for MCA in June 1997 and performed “Long Black Train,'“ as part of the six-song set I did for them. It was one of my few uptempo numbers (good uptempos are like hen’s teeth for female singers) and I needed every one I could get. It was hard for me even then because I had a sense that I don’t like to sing a lot of words, and uptempo songs tend to be syllablicly plentiful. But I loved “Long Black Train.”

I told you last week that I was quite taken with Tammy Wynette at that time and built many affectations around my fascination with her, so this week I’ll get to my Merle Haggard obsession. Clearly, “Long Black Train,” owes a great debt to Mr. Haggard, and specifically his compositions, “The Fugitive,” and “Rambling Fever,” from which we borrowed heavily for the recording. I was raised on The Hag’s records — they are what country music is for me and set the bar for my own recordings, especially the early ones.

I don’t even remember when we committed it to tape — I think it was that same late spring of 1997 at The Love Shack in Nashville, less than a mile from that hotbox apartment at Glen Manor, but I could be mistaken. In any case, Kenny Greenberg was again on board as producer. We searched for the right vocal mic to make sure the top of my voice didn’t thin out too much. The song has a pretty wide range from low in the verse to high in the chorus (plus, I did the harmony vocals) and we wanted to keep it rich and classic sounding — this was 1997 when most things were still recorded to tape, but most people weren’t still recording in analog. I was, and was determined to, precisely because that style of recording, among other things, provided the warmth in the music that I loved.

Ahh… those days are such a blur, but when I was talking with my sister today we both acknowledged that years of our lives are wrapped up in the recordings we’ve made — for me, they’re the road map for what’s behind me. They’re how I remember everything. I don’t keep journals, I make art.

Personnel, if I remember correctly:

Kenny Greenberg: Producer, Guitars

Rick Plant: Guitars

Dan Dugmore: Pedal Steel Guitar

Michael Rhodes: Bass

Chad Cromwell: Drums

When I listen to “Long Black Train,” now, I hear a kid trying so hard just to be somebody. Yes, I had pipes, but not the confidence or experience to use them like I’d grow to be able to do later. It’s so innocent sounding — the accent in full display (couldn’t help it and didn’t know I needed to), the influences front and center — but I also think it stands up as classically, and even classily, done. I don’t mind the tips of the hat to those who gave me a path. Even though it wasn’t the one most smoothly paved, it’s proven to be one that I’m glad I took.

And by the way — on the night of that showcase I did for MCA Records, Tony Brown not only hugged me and told me “We’ve got a deal,” as soon as my feet left the stage, but he also told me that “A Soft Place to Fall,” was going to be featured in Robert Redford’s next film and that there might be a part for me in the movie.

What a life.

https://www.nodepression.com/allison-moorer-her-aim-is-true/

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