 Eda Maxym – “Imagination Club” [Family Tree 2007]
This is Eda Maxym’s first solo release and though I tried at first to maintain a healthy distance as an outsider, as it was all happening in The Weaving Room, our garage studio in the Oakland Hills, it didn’t take long before my involvement in the project became fairly central. This turned out to be a real Home Team effort, with Simon Tassano coming in for the mixing sessions as the grand finale, although Eda’s choices of musicians do introduce a number of new faces to the Family Tree.
Among these the stalwart pillars of support for Eda’s new flight into creativity were bassist Chris Kee and his partner Jane Selkye, who provided a willing foil for Eda’s ideas, did great backup vocals and seeded a number of the guitar parts, especially the moody slide playing on one of the CD’s standout tracks, “I’ve Got a Feeling” (which to my mind knocks spots off the original, and I challenge most un-prepped listeners to even recognize the songs’ origins in its current clothes) and gave the project a very solid foundation.
Over the months of the recording process, carved out between family commitments and day to day life, many fine musicians and friends stopped in to contribute to what I believe has turned into a stellar project. To my surprise, me being an interested observer turned irrevocably into Co-Producer as my ideas for arrangements and fine tuning got me taking my guitar out of mothballs and, working through very sore fingers, I contributed quite significantly on this, an instrument I have actually played for much longer than I have played the Didj!
Examples of this tendency can be found on the opening cut, a reworking of “Hole in the Road” (Which originally appeared on my retrospective ’97 release, Family Tree). I remember the moment of inspiration, after luch, kicking in as I fell into my default 70’s/80’s Congo soukous guitar setting and found it worked wonders with the instrumental breaks in the song – a new direction.
So, while this is REALLY a CD that finally puts Eda and her talents center stage, where she deserves to be – She is a super talented vocalist and songwriter with an ability to delve deep into subtle and emotive melodic ebbs and flows with her voice that get to the very core inside the listener – it also raises the lid on some of my own hitherto submerged musical strands.
Wake up time 2007! Stay tuned for Eda Maxym & Imagination Club. AND, if you’re looking for another sublime Eda Maxym experience check out “Gathered on the Edge” by our mid-nineties group, Beasts of Paradise.
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