Palladium favorite Lauren Mitchell is back at the Side Door this Friday with a big new album and a large band, including some special guests.
Tickets are going fast – this show will be sold-out by Friday – so I recommend you follow this link for online tickets or call 727 822-3590 to get yours today.
To get you in the mood, I talked with Lauren this week about the new album and the Friday show. Here’s what she said:
PALLADIUM PAUL: I know you made a big step with this album – recording in LA with a bunch of top players. Can you give us some details on this adventure?
Lauren at the Side Door
LAUREN MITCHELL: It was incredible, to say the least. I almost couldn’t believe it when my friend Jack Sullivan (Blues Music Magazine) told me he had spoken to Tony Braunagel about me, and that Tony had looked me up online and was willing to work with me. It’s not every day that a girl from small town Ohio gets the chance to make an album with a Grammy winner! The experience in the studio was wonderful and intense. We cut 13 tracks in 8 days. And that included background vocals, horns, everything! The only thing they had left to do when I went home were a few guitar solos. Tony and all the musicians he assembled to play on the album were really easy going and down to earth. We had a great time during the sessions and I got to hear the guys tell stories about working with artists like Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and my personal musical SHEro, Etta James.
I actually had a very humbling moment when we were getting ready to record one of my original songs, “Lead Me On”, which I wrote as a kind of tribute to the soul ballads that Etta was known for (and that I absolutely love). The guys were listening to my demo recording and talking about how they were going to approach the song … and it hit me like a ton of bricks … I was in a room with, and about to have, five musicians that had all worked with Etta James record MY song. I thought I was gonna fall off my chair and actually had to leave the room for a minute. That was the one time during the sessions that I got really nervous and kind of freaked out a little bit. Tony was wonderful though … he sensed that something was bothering me, we chatted for a minute outside, and then he promptly kicked my butt & told me I had nothing to worry about. We walked inside, he stuck me right back behind the microphone and without a beat went into the drum room, and said “Let’s do this!”. We cut the song in one take. Live vocals and everything. It was magic. There were a lot of moments like that. It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget. And hopefully I’ll get to do it again in the future.
PALLADIUM PAUL: Who did the songwriting on the album?
LAUREN MITCHELL: There are three tracks that I co-wrote with my Sarasota writing partner Sheri Nadelman, “Soul Music”, “Lead Me On” and fan favorite “Brown Liquor”, and a fourth (the title track, “Desire”) that Sheri and I had started working on over 2 years ago that we couldn’t finish. Tony hooked me up with a songwriter friend of his, Jeff Paris, who helped me get it done, and it turned out even more amazing than I had imagined. There are also two original tracks that I borrowed from my friends – “Bridge of My Dreams” from Tampa Bay’s own TC Carr, and “Feels So Good” from former Sarasota resident Tomcat Blake. Tony brought me one more original song in the track “Today”, and the rest are some deep covers that Tony and I unearthed and chose together.
PALLADIUM PAUL: I really admire how professional you are and how hard you work at your career. Do you see this album moving you farther down that road?
LAUREN MITCHELL: Wow … thank you for the compliment, Paul. I really appreciate that coming from you. I do hope that this album will help move my career forward. That’s why I took the leap of faith in working with Tony. I knew he had a stellar reputation and that his work was great. It’s a hard thing to meet somebody over the phone and via email, and then trust them to do something with you that is so intensely personal. Not only was this a leap of faith in me putting my trust in him, but also in myself … Going for broke in a way. It was not an inexpensive project, and I just figured “If not now, when?”. As of this moment, I can say that the way the album is being received is telling me I made the right decision. I get reviews from Frank Roszak, the publicist I hired to help me get this thing out there, almost daily, and they’re all very positive. DJs are spinning it and telling me they like it … and last week I even made it into the top 50 albums on the Roots Music Report chart. I’ve never had an album that came close to being on the charts before … so yeah. I do think this album will help move me along & give me some visibility on a more national level.
PALLADIUM PAUL: Tell us about the band we’re going to hear this Friday night in the Side Door?
LAUREN MITCHELL: It’s gonna be a blast. I wanted to do my best to recreate some of the sounds that are on the album … and ya can’t do that with just a 3 piece band. So I’ve brought on a few extra players for this show and another on the East Coast next week. We’ll have my usual setup, guitar, bass, drums and I’ve added keyboards, saxophone, and two background vocalists. It’s been a lot of fun rehearsing with all of them over the last couple weeks, and I think the audience will enjoy what we’ve put together. Not to mention that I’ll be singing some of these songs live for the FIRST TIME on Friday! I’m excited (and maybe a little nervous) to perform the new music this way for all of my friends, fans, and Believers here in Tampa Bay.
I should also maybe let one more “cat out of the bag” now, that I’ve been keeping to myself. I’m thrilled to tell you that we’ll have Josh Sklair on guitar for this show. He played on the album and we hit it off during the sessions. We’ve stayed in touch and he is flying in from Los Angeles to do my first CD Release Party with me. He is a two time Grammy winner and former producer, guitarist and music director for Etta James. I think we’re gonna have a good night this Friday. I know I am!
Lauren photographed at the Palladium
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