March 23, 2026 • 24 mins
Featured Artist:Rickie Lee Jones
Featured Vinyl: Flying Cowboys
Alexis’ Hot Pick
Satellites
Sam’s Hot Pick
Satellites
GUEST Hot Pick
Satellites
Special Guest Levi Russell joins us for this episode. They were on Season 2, episode 16, go check it out!
https://throughthecreativedoor.podbean.com/e/levi-russell/
Thanks for listening, catch you on the next episode.
Psst! We are always on the lookout for an artist's vinyl to listen to, have you got one in mind that we should check out? Get in contact with us via Instagram @throughthecreativedoor
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CREDITS
Created and Hosted by Alexis Naylor
Co-Host: Sam Timmerman
Music by Alexis Naylor & Ruby Miguel
Voiceover: Ruby Miguel
Edited and Produced by Ruby Miguel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to B-Side, the mini series.
From through the Creative Door, join Alexis and Sam as they dive into the timeless world of vinyl.
For Alexis, vinyl was more than music.
It was a Sunday ritual she shared with her dad, listening, talking, and soaking in the stories behind each album and the artwork on every sleeve.
(00:30):
Though her dad is no longer with us, she continues this tradition with her friend Sam Timmerman.
Join them as they share their passion for vinyl and the stories is records.
Hold.
Hello?
Oh my goodness.
What a special episode of the side this week.
(00:51):
For those who are listening, we have the glorious Levi Russell who was with us for season two episode six, which it's so nice to have you back with us.
Hello.
Hello.
It's good to be back.
It's always fun to chat and it's also nice to be able to see your beautiful studio.
(01:12):
For those who have or have not listened to that episode, I joined you up on the sunshine.
State and was in on that lovely couch behind you.
You can always, and if you wanna listen more about studio couches, you should definitely listen to that episode in season two, episode 16, about how a good producer has a comfy studio couch.
(01:35):
Has to have a good couch for sure, but for every B side, we always have an offering.
And what is your offering this week for us, Levi?
It is Flying Cowboys by Ricky Lee Jones.
I'm not sure if many people know that album or if many people know Ricky Jones these days, but she's a favorite of mine and it was good to force you guys to listen to that album.
(02:06):
It took me about five seconds to go.
I know this from somewhere and it took me another.
Probably five tunes to go.
Hang on a minute.
I've transcribed a bunch of Ricky Lee Jones before.
So you're chucky's in love and those ones.
Yeah.
And instantly I've just clocked it and gone.
(02:27):
I know this person, how the do I know them?
And it was a lot of fun discovering that again.
So thank you for reintroducing.
A big thing about her is she always hands.
All of the best session musicians, right.
Playing on all of her albums.
And it's like a lot of different guys as well.
From the, like from the first album, there's like really classic guys, because I think that was 78, 79?
(02:53):
Yeah.
79. 79. Yeah.
And this is like 89, so this is 10 years later.
I think she put out two albums in between those two.
Just got, so like five or six total and right up into the.
A few years ago, I think.
Yeah, I think she's probably done live albums and compilations and stuff like that, but I think she put a book out a few years ago as well.
(03:16):
So she was at again, maybe like two like that.
Oh, I love the idea of the book.
I should go check that out.
It's interesting that you bring up, actually, I, you brought up so many lovely segues.
One of the things that you were talking about is that she had some amazing musicians that were on so many of her albums.
(03:40):
This particular album, she had Walter Becker as her producer, and it seems from some of the deep dive that I did that he was just so influential in also making sure that it was very carefully placed with the musicians that could add the right texture to the songs that she had on this album.
A great segue into one of my favorite tracks of this album, which is satellites and straight away for me the saxophone instrumentation.
(04:10):
That's very vocal line, like really stood out to me.
David Sandborn, who is an amazing jazz and pop player, which is just a perfect pairing on that track.
Has he played soprano on anything else?
'cause I'd never heard David Sandborn play soprano before and that was an experience.
(04:30):
No, I am not sure that I didn't deep dive into that one as much.
Just as Sam, anytime I hear brass, I get excited.
Yeah, and there's lots of brass and very big variety of instruments all over this.
And like weird pairings, like there was no limits really.
(04:51):
It was just like, let's just put this with that and let's have this real organic sort of thing.
But then there's like.
Really sampled eighties drums just underneath outta nowhere, and the next song's back to fully acoustic with no percussion or anything like that.
Yeah.
It's like they didn't care.
They didn't care what they were doing.
Yeah.
Is that cool?
Let's just go with it.
(05:12):
Something that I really loved about another track ghost Train, I just from.
Something like satellite that has the jazz roots in there of piano and the saxophone and just those sort of layers to then into Ghost Train where it's this driving guitar.
(05:32):
And this rocky vocals without ever having the drop of the band come in.
It's just them, the whole entire track.
And I was like, I love this.
I love this so much.
Well, yeah, I think Ghost Train.
The first few times I've heard, and I feel like first few times most people hear it.
It's like a demo.
Yes.
So it's, it's, it's the, and you can, it feels like she's writing it and as she goes.
(05:58):
Set a cassette recorder up and just play a guitar and figure it out.
And that they could have then built it up into something.
You are like the first time you hear it, you're like, oh, they've gotta produce this out and build it up into something.
But the more you listen to it, it's, no, this is perfect how it is.
(06:20):
And there's also, I didn't notice until recently when I listened in here and you can turn, the speakers are a bit louder.
At a few points.
There's just like ghost sounds and like soundscape stuff, which you'll never hear in like just listening in the car or just casually listening.
You have to have headphones on or be listening somewhere where you can hear lots of details, but it's very subtle.
(06:46):
I did notice that and it, yeah, it's it, but it's, you have to listen to it a few times for you to really hone in on those little sprinkles.
Yeah.
I'd love to pick your producer brain, Levi, in terms of for a start getting Walter Becker as Steely Dan as your producer.
Come on, put him on the base on your title track as well, but from a production techniques point of view, do you draw any parallels between the Steely Dan records in this one?
(07:11):
I don't know if I ever think about that.
I like to make stuff sound good.
And that was, that was pretty paramount for Steely Dan stuff.
Yeah.
But yeah, I'm sure like those influences of just like great musicians and everything being very clear, you can just, you can write it tune, you can write your arrangement and the musicians can come in and play it.
(07:34):
It doesn't necessarily have to be overproduced outside of that.
Walter Becker and Fagan were very, were the best of the best.
Yeah.
And I feel like they lost sight of the big picture.
All the time.
Mm-hmm.
There's, oh, we've got 30 different guitar players to come in and play a guitar solo or something.
They could also do that.
They have the time and the money.
Mm-hmm.
(07:54):
But it's like sometimes you just have to, yeah.
Not overproduce something.
So I think I don't go as far as those guys.
Fair.
Yeah.
I'm not very versed on the actual production technique side of it, but.
I always noticed that Ricky Lee's vocal just sounds like the raw track.
It doesn't sound like there's any processing done at all.
(08:16):
It's just her singing away over the top of whatever track's going on.
Probably an isolated line or something like that so she can sing with the band, but it just sounds so clean and raw.
It doesn't sound like there's been any pro any processing on it.
Yeah, there's bits of, um, there, there's bits of reverb on there.
Okay.
In certain points, but yeah, I know what you mean.
(08:39):
But it's also one of those kind of albums and her whole style, all the, her albums are like that, where he doesn't need anything and 'cause so much of her vocal.
Is that almost talkative, whimsical, kind of floaty, airy sound?
Yeah, I think, yeah, like Van Morrison is like that as well.
(08:59):
Yeah.
Where a lot of the time it's one take and it has to be one take.
'cause can you piece stuff like that together?
Yeah.
I think she's the same, where it's just go in and bang out a tea or sue, and that's the soul.
It's real recording, real music.
As old people might say, no judgment to anyone who the con come on now.
(09:24):
But in all it doesn't, none of it sounds raw unless you're talking about like ghost training, where it's definitely intended to be more raw.
Everything is still so clean and.
Put together.
Mm. And this clarity there and everything.
I think that comes from having those session positions where you can just feel what it's gotta be like from the moment they hit record.
(09:50):
Yeah.
They definitely bang on.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
Hard one to choose, but do you have a top pick off the whole record, Levi?
It started as satellites.
'cause I feel like that's one of the more normal songs.
Some of them, they're a bit out there and that's, you get to track five and it's okay.
(10:14):
This feels a bit more like stuff than I'm used to.
But then also like horses, it's just a classic.
We haven't even dealt that yet.
Haven't even caught yet the horses.
But I think coming back around, I feel like great albums, your favorite song just moves around.
Yeah.
But for a while now, I think it's been Rodeo Girl.
(10:36):
Good one.
Yes.
Which is, I know a pretty stripped back simple track, but just put it on sunset and it's like the ultimate vibe.
Yeah.
I think the whole album is like a Sunset album, but that song is like the pinnacle to me.
That feeling.
Let's dive into horses for all those brave weight heads out there.
Hey.
(10:56):
Yes.
Do you wanna talk about it, Sam?
'cause I have a lot to say about it.
Oh, the only, the only thing is I have to say about it is y'all don't know who wrote the original.
It was Ricky Lee.
It wasn't Darryl.
Yeah.
Let's just quickly before you, you dive into the horses.
That's another reason I picked this, because I don't think a lot of people, everyone knows Sarah breaks weight.
(11:20):
Song and he's made it his own.
And it's such a Australian classic, but I don't know if that many people know the original.
Mm. And like Ricky Lee Jones is so she's everywhere.
No one knows it.
She's on the radio every day in that.
But no one, like you walk down the street like Keely Jones.
(11:42):
No.
Yeah, you do.
You know her songs.
That was another reason I clicked it.
So you guys put the album on and you're like, oh, wait a minute, I know this song.
So circling back to how Sam painted this at the start, which was you listen for five seconds, you're like, hang on a minute.
(12:03):
I know this.
Like another 10, 15 seconds.
Hang on a minute.
I really know.
And for those listening, the entry track to this album is The Horses, which again is what we are talking about with Darryl Braithwaite truly making it his own.
He's had platinum success with it.
He released an album with the Rise.
(12:24):
I think he released horses on that album.
But yeah, it's just an interesting concept that you can have a beautiful album like this one where.
Would you say it's had a massive commercial appeal?
Maybe not, but it is definitely a record that Ricky Lee is very well known for.
(12:49):
But off the back of that is such a brilliant song that is, is just in every Australian's blood and yeah.
How amazing is that?
How amazing.
I'd love to see some cover bands say, here's a song by Ricky Lee Jones.
Yes, definitely.
(13:10):
Sam, how about you?
I loved listening to satellites as well, and then I got down to Atlas's Mark and I just felt happy from an instrumentation standpoint and from an arrangement point of view.
I just loved how much fun they were having with that one.
That's the easy way to say it.
It's chucking a muted trumpet into your country album.
It's pretty cool too.
Yeah.
But yeah, I just had a lot of fun listening to that over and over again.
(13:32):
And not really a left turn more, just a little extra kick at the end of the record to go, Hey, we're really good at this.
Definitely feels like a last song.
Mm. Like some albums really have the great last song.
Uh, it's just like we wrapping it up now and this is it.
'cause some great albums, they just don't have a great last song.
(13:54):
This could have been anywhere on the album, but that, that.
Atlas marker.
It's like that could only be at the end, even though the whole album.
Yeah, it has little pages, different chapters.
It's very simply, like Sam said, just a fun record to listen to.
Truly.
I'm so happy that you put this across our desk, Levi.
(14:15):
I was such a great vibe to listen to.
I'm glad you guys liked it.
I just googled the album yesterday while I was re-listening to it.
It's getting back into the zone and there's a few little, maybe it was a little Wikipedia page, I think of few reviews at this time, which I don't normally really care about, but it was just interesting to see what, like, how it was received.
(14:40):
And I think one of the rolling story reviews said, it's feels like one big long soul.
And that I was like, oh, I hadn't thought of it like that, but.
It really does.
And not in the very same way.
'cause there's so many different songs.
All the vibes are so different, but you can just let it flow through and it's just like different movements of the same sort of piece, which, and I love albums that are like single and they're all like, it's like their vibe, but this is the opposite.
(15:11):
It's just, just let it flow.
That's fantastic that there's so many people that will say you have to listen to albums all the way through.
You have to.
You have to.
When.
A record allows you to do it naturally.
That seems a bit rarer than it could be as well.
I also think that albums that roll into each other when you have an aesthetic across.
(15:38):
Where there's particular imagery that it keeps tying back into.
I think that does lend itself to having albums that are more conceptual, where you can listen from start to finish more fluidly.
Like this album, there's so many references to the sky and the desert, an open road, and that sort of.
(16:03):
It feels to me that it's very much like relationships that are getting reviewed and maybe in past tense and circling back.
There's a lot of questions of bigger things happening around this album, which probably makes it, yeah, easier to have those songs flowing to each other.
Feels like there's lots of mystery in all of these.
(16:26):
Does that restrict you guys as songwriters to a point where.
Maybe the song that you're writing can't necessarily live as a single as much in that context.
You mean as in a single, for a particular album?
Yeah.
So if I've got a conceptual album that I'm writing that's written to be listened all the way through, does that kind of railroad you away from writing?
(16:49):
Just a great single,
I know for myself that.
Sometimes when you're demoing particular songs together and you are planning to do an album, I have had times where I have had songs that don't quite fit in that kind of aesthetic, so I will split it out and do it as part of a different project.
(17:10):
Yeah.
That's for me that have a, you leave I, when you hear demos and people proposing particular projects, how do you see it?
Yeah, it's an interesting thought.
I don't ever like really feel that restricted, but I feel like it is a good sort of practice probably to just be like, oh, this doesn't feel like it's with the rest either.
(17:36):
Let's put it out as a single beforehand, and it's just not on any EP or album or let's say it's later.
But then there's also, there's lots of albums.
Ma mainly more of like maybe the seventies, eighties, nineties, where you have like big record labels and stuff where the single was like the king, especially in the seventies and the eighties where the whole filler, all these filler songs, it's like we just need one or two singles to sell the record and then let's just fill it up with like covers or whatever.
(18:13):
And then you'll have this album.
With one or two great songs and the rest of the album is, it doesn't sound like it or it's just, everything's just like B grade versions of that single, but I feel like now there's less of that.
There's less filler.
There's less like why fill up 10 songs if we've got two good ones to put our two good singles?
(18:37):
'cause people don't need to fill a 12 inch record like they did back then.
Perfect.
Now, before we let you run away, I'm curious about the cover of this vinyl.
Have you, if either of you done any little deep dives on this?
It says, lemme pull out the, because it's like, it's not a gatefold or anything, it's just like the sleeve.
(19:06):
Oh.
Then all of the liner notes.
Uh.
On the sleeve.
Oh, beautiful.
There's so much info here, like all the lyrics.
It's all the lyrics, each song, and then all of the liner notes for each song there.
Amazing.
I do know that the cover art, that's actually from a painting titled and Singing at Your Window
(19:33):
by Jose Esteban Martinez.
So I don't know the, I don't know the history of the painting.
Um, or if there's any significance to it.
I feel like I recognize the painting that's depicted in the corner of the painting.
(19:53):
Oh, the painting within the painting, yeah.
The woman with the eyeshadow and the yellow.
Oh.
Not sure where I recognize that from there.
Also, another great thing about vinyl is all the stuff that you don't get on Spotify and maybe would only get on a Google search if that would even turn up anything, but all of the back cover out and gate folds when you have all the other stuff that's never on Spotify.
(20:19):
But here the back cover is like this nice photo.
It's a very dark and subdued photo.
Hello, Ricky Lee Jars.
Aw, it's very nice.
I'll see if I can try and find it online and add it to our post so I listen.
I gonna look.
(20:40):
Yeah.
What was your favorite song, Alexis?
My favorite.
Yeah.
It would definitely have to be satellites for me.
I love the notes to her sort of jazz roots from previous albums in that song.
Just the little bits of gentle piano that sort of keeps that running.
(21:02):
And then the little tins, the sprinkle of jazz sacks in there.
I'm just, again, such a sucker for brass.
So can't, yeah.
Can't get away from that.
But I just, the thing that just caught me off guard.
Was, and I know we talked about how this record of the whole can really be easy listening, that you can just listen through the whole lot of it, but I actually found satellites quite hypnotizing and I just was in a bit of a trance listening to it that I just didn't wanna get out of it.
(21:36):
I really enjoyed it, and that's rare for me in the sense that normally I go to vocals and I go to lyrics, but I didn't even.
Wanna look at the lyrics, it's very much in it.
Having said that, though, I wouldn't have done my due diligence if I didn't look at lyrics.
And I guess that circles back to what I was saying before about the imagery of relationships and reflecting and this particular lines that really stood out to me.
(22:04):
I'd love to read them out.
So you keep talking in many languages, telling us the way you feel.
Don't stop confiding in the road you're on.
Don't quit.
You are walking satellites.
I just love that.
It just, it's got so much depth and layer to it.
(22:25):
It could mean all sorts of things and I find it quite uplifting.
Yeah, just love it.
Absolutely love it.
My favorite, oh my goodness.
For those listening.
If you don't know Ricky Lee Jones get accustomed.
And also even if for nothing else, listen to the origins of horses because her version is just such a different representation and it's absolutely stunning.
(22:56):
Levi, thank you so much for joining us on Through the Creative Door for an episode of B-Side.
Sam, thanks again as always.
Love your work, Simon.
See you later.
Thank you.
Great to chat.
Ba.
Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Through The Creative Door.
(23:20):
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(23:43):
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We'll catch you on the next episode.
Bye.
Welcome to B-Side, the mini series.
From through the Creative Door, join Alexis and Sam as they dive into the timeless world of vinyl.
For Alexis, vinyl was more than music.
It was a Sunday ritual she shared with her dad, listening, talking, and soaking in the stories behind each album and the artwork on every sleeve.
(00:30):
Though her dad is no longer with us, she continues this tradition with her friend Sam Timmerman.
Join them as they share their passion for vinyl and the stories is records.
Hold.
Hello?
Oh my goodness.
What a special episode of the side this week.
(00:51):
For those who are listening, we have the glorious Levi Russell who was with us for season two episode six, which it's so nice to have you back with us.
Hello.
Hello.
It's good to be back.
It's always fun to chat and it's also nice to be able to see your beautiful studio.
(01:12):
For those who have or have not listened to that episode, I joined you up on the sunshine.
State and was in on that lovely couch behind you.
You can always, and if you wanna listen more about studio couches, you should definitely listen to that episode in season two, episode 16, about how a good producer has a comfy studio couch.
(01:35):
Has to have a good couch for sure, but for every B side, we always have an offering.
And what is your offering this week for us, Levi?
It is Flying Cowboys by Ricky Lee Jones.
I'm not sure if many people know that album or if many people know Ricky Jones these days, but she's a favorite of mine and it was good to force you guys to listen to that album.
(02:06):
It took me about five seconds to go.
I know this from somewhere and it took me another.
Probably five tunes to go.
Hang on a minute.
I've transcribed a bunch of Ricky Lee Jones before.
So you're chucky's in love and those ones.
Yeah.
And instantly I've just clocked it and gone.
(02:27):
I know this person, how the do I know them?
And it was a lot of fun discovering that again.
So thank you for reintroducing.
A big thing about her is she always hands.
All of the best session musicians, right.
Playing on all of her albums.
And it's like a lot of different guys as well.
From the, like from the first album, there's like really classic guys, because I think that was 78, 79?
(02:53):
Yeah.
79. 79. Yeah.
And this is like 89, so this is 10 years later.
I think she put out two albums in between those two.
Just got, so like five or six total and right up into the.
A few years ago, I think.
Yeah, I think she's probably done live albums and compilations and stuff like that, but I think she put a book out a few years ago as well.
(03:16):
So she was at again, maybe like two like that.
Oh, I love the idea of the book.
I should go check that out.
It's interesting that you bring up, actually, I, you brought up so many lovely segues.
One of the things that you were talking about is that she had some amazing musicians that were on so many of her albums.
(03:40):
This particular album, she had Walter Becker as her producer, and it seems from some of the deep dive that I did that he was just so influential in also making sure that it was very carefully placed with the musicians that could add the right texture to the songs that she had on this album.
A great segue into one of my favorite tracks of this album, which is satellites and straight away for me the saxophone instrumentation.
(04:10):
That's very vocal line, like really stood out to me.
David Sandborn, who is an amazing jazz and pop player, which is just a perfect pairing on that track.
Has he played soprano on anything else?
'cause I'd never heard David Sandborn play soprano before and that was an experience.
(04:30):
No, I am not sure that I didn't deep dive into that one as much.
Just as Sam, anytime I hear brass, I get excited.
Yeah, and there's lots of brass and very big variety of instruments all over this.
And like weird pairings, like there was no limits really.
(04:51):
It was just like, let's just put this with that and let's have this real organic sort of thing.
But then there's like.
Really sampled eighties drums just underneath outta nowhere, and the next song's back to fully acoustic with no percussion or anything like that.
Yeah.
It's like they didn't care.
They didn't care what they were doing.
Yeah.
Is that cool?
Let's just go with it.
(05:12):
Something that I really loved about another track ghost Train, I just from.
Something like satellite that has the jazz roots in there of piano and the saxophone and just those sort of layers to then into Ghost Train where it's this driving guitar.
(05:32):
And this rocky vocals without ever having the drop of the band come in.
It's just them, the whole entire track.
And I was like, I love this.
I love this so much.
Well, yeah, I think Ghost Train.
The first few times I've heard, and I feel like first few times most people hear it.
It's like a demo.
Yes.
So it's, it's, it's the, and you can, it feels like she's writing it and as she goes.
(05:58):
Set a cassette recorder up and just play a guitar and figure it out.
And that they could have then built it up into something.
You are like the first time you hear it, you're like, oh, they've gotta produce this out and build it up into something.
But the more you listen to it, it's, no, this is perfect how it is.
(06:20):
And there's also, I didn't notice until recently when I listened in here and you can turn, the speakers are a bit louder.
At a few points.
There's just like ghost sounds and like soundscape stuff, which you'll never hear in like just listening in the car or just casually listening.
You have to have headphones on or be listening somewhere where you can hear lots of details, but it's very subtle.
(06:46):
I did notice that and it, yeah, it's it, but it's, you have to listen to it a few times for you to really hone in on those little sprinkles.
Yeah.
I'd love to pick your producer brain, Levi, in terms of for a start getting Walter Becker as Steely Dan as your producer.
Come on, put him on the base on your title track as well, but from a production techniques point of view, do you draw any parallels between the Steely Dan records in this one?
(07:11):
I don't know if I ever think about that.
I like to make stuff sound good.
And that was, that was pretty paramount for Steely Dan stuff.
Yeah.
But yeah, I'm sure like those influences of just like great musicians and everything being very clear, you can just, you can write it tune, you can write your arrangement and the musicians can come in and play it.
(07:34):
It doesn't necessarily have to be overproduced outside of that.
Walter Becker and Fagan were very, were the best of the best.
Yeah.
And I feel like they lost sight of the big picture.
All the time.
Mm-hmm.
There's, oh, we've got 30 different guitar players to come in and play a guitar solo or something.
They could also do that.
They have the time and the money.
Mm-hmm.
(07:54):
But it's like sometimes you just have to, yeah.
Not overproduce something.
So I think I don't go as far as those guys.
Fair.
Yeah.
I'm not very versed on the actual production technique side of it, but.
I always noticed that Ricky Lee's vocal just sounds like the raw track.
It doesn't sound like there's any processing done at all.
(08:16):
It's just her singing away over the top of whatever track's going on.
Probably an isolated line or something like that so she can sing with the band, but it just sounds so clean and raw.
It doesn't sound like there's been any pro any processing on it.
Yeah, there's bits of, um, there, there's bits of reverb on there.
Okay.
In certain points, but yeah, I know what you mean.
(08:39):
But it's also one of those kind of albums and her whole style, all the, her albums are like that, where he doesn't need anything and 'cause so much of her vocal.
Is that almost talkative, whimsical, kind of floaty, airy sound?
Yeah, I think, yeah, like Van Morrison is like that as well.
(08:59):
Yeah.
Where a lot of the time it's one take and it has to be one take.
'cause can you piece stuff like that together?
Yeah.
I think she's the same, where it's just go in and bang out a tea or sue, and that's the soul.
It's real recording, real music.
As old people might say, no judgment to anyone who the con come on now.
(09:24):
But in all it doesn't, none of it sounds raw unless you're talking about like ghost training, where it's definitely intended to be more raw.
Everything is still so clean and.
Put together.
Mm. And this clarity there and everything.
I think that comes from having those session positions where you can just feel what it's gotta be like from the moment they hit record.
(09:50):
Yeah.
They definitely bang on.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
Hard one to choose, but do you have a top pick off the whole record, Levi?
It started as satellites.
'cause I feel like that's one of the more normal songs.
Some of them, they're a bit out there and that's, you get to track five and it's okay.
(10:14):
This feels a bit more like stuff than I'm used to.
But then also like horses, it's just a classic.
We haven't even dealt that yet.
Haven't even caught yet the horses.
But I think coming back around, I feel like great albums, your favorite song just moves around.
Yeah.
But for a while now, I think it's been Rodeo Girl.
(10:36):
Good one.
Yes.
Which is, I know a pretty stripped back simple track, but just put it on sunset and it's like the ultimate vibe.
Yeah.
I think the whole album is like a Sunset album, but that song is like the pinnacle to me.
That feeling.
Let's dive into horses for all those brave weight heads out there.
Hey.
(10:56):
Yes.
Do you wanna talk about it, Sam?
'cause I have a lot to say about it.
Oh, the only, the only thing is I have to say about it is y'all don't know who wrote the original.
It was Ricky Lee.
It wasn't Darryl.
Yeah.
Let's just quickly before you, you dive into the horses.
That's another reason I picked this, because I don't think a lot of people, everyone knows Sarah breaks weight.
(11:20):
Song and he's made it his own.
And it's such a Australian classic, but I don't know if that many people know the original.
Mm. And like Ricky Lee Jones is so she's everywhere.
No one knows it.
She's on the radio every day in that.
But no one, like you walk down the street like Keely Jones.
(11:42):
No.
Yeah, you do.
You know her songs.
That was another reason I clicked it.
So you guys put the album on and you're like, oh, wait a minute, I know this song.
So circling back to how Sam painted this at the start, which was you listen for five seconds, you're like, hang on a minute.
(12:03):
I know this.
Like another 10, 15 seconds.
Hang on a minute.
I really know.
And for those listening, the entry track to this album is The Horses, which again is what we are talking about with Darryl Braithwaite truly making it his own.
He's had platinum success with it.
He released an album with the Rise.
(12:24):
I think he released horses on that album.
But yeah, it's just an interesting concept that you can have a beautiful album like this one where.
Would you say it's had a massive commercial appeal?
Maybe not, but it is definitely a record that Ricky Lee is very well known for.
(12:49):
But off the back of that is such a brilliant song that is, is just in every Australian's blood and yeah.
How amazing is that?
How amazing.
I'd love to see some cover bands say, here's a song by Ricky Lee Jones.
Yes, definitely.
(13:10):
Sam, how about you?
I loved listening to satellites as well, and then I got down to Atlas's Mark and I just felt happy from an instrumentation standpoint and from an arrangement point of view.
I just loved how much fun they were having with that one.
That's the easy way to say it.
It's chucking a muted trumpet into your country album.
It's pretty cool too.
Yeah.
But yeah, I just had a lot of fun listening to that over and over again.
(13:32):
And not really a left turn more, just a little extra kick at the end of the record to go, Hey, we're really good at this.
Definitely feels like a last song.
Mm. Like some albums really have the great last song.
Uh, it's just like we wrapping it up now and this is it.
'cause some great albums, they just don't have a great last song.
(13:54):
This could have been anywhere on the album, but that, that.
Atlas marker.
It's like that could only be at the end, even though the whole album.
Yeah, it has little pages, different chapters.
It's very simply, like Sam said, just a fun record to listen to.
Truly.
I'm so happy that you put this across our desk, Levi.
(14:15):
I was such a great vibe to listen to.
I'm glad you guys liked it.
I just googled the album yesterday while I was re-listening to it.
It's getting back into the zone and there's a few little, maybe it was a little Wikipedia page, I think of few reviews at this time, which I don't normally really care about, but it was just interesting to see what, like, how it was received.
(14:40):
And I think one of the rolling story reviews said, it's feels like one big long soul.
And that I was like, oh, I hadn't thought of it like that, but.
It really does.
And not in the very same way.
'cause there's so many different songs.
All the vibes are so different, but you can just let it flow through and it's just like different movements of the same sort of piece, which, and I love albums that are like single and they're all like, it's like their vibe, but this is the opposite.
(15:11):
It's just, just let it flow.
That's fantastic that there's so many people that will say you have to listen to albums all the way through.
You have to.
You have to.
When.
A record allows you to do it naturally.
That seems a bit rarer than it could be as well.
I also think that albums that roll into each other when you have an aesthetic across.
(15:38):
Where there's particular imagery that it keeps tying back into.
I think that does lend itself to having albums that are more conceptual, where you can listen from start to finish more fluidly.
Like this album, there's so many references to the sky and the desert, an open road, and that sort of.
(16:03):
It feels to me that it's very much like relationships that are getting reviewed and maybe in past tense and circling back.
There's a lot of questions of bigger things happening around this album, which probably makes it, yeah, easier to have those songs flowing to each other.
Feels like there's lots of mystery in all of these.
(16:26):
Does that restrict you guys as songwriters to a point where.
Maybe the song that you're writing can't necessarily live as a single as much in that context.
You mean as in a single, for a particular album?
Yeah.
So if I've got a conceptual album that I'm writing that's written to be listened all the way through, does that kind of railroad you away from writing?
(16:49):
Just a great single,
I know for myself that.
Sometimes when you're demoing particular songs together and you are planning to do an album, I have had times where I have had songs that don't quite fit in that kind of aesthetic, so I will split it out and do it as part of a different project.
(17:10):
Yeah.
That's for me that have a, you leave I, when you hear demos and people proposing particular projects, how do you see it?
Yeah, it's an interesting thought.
I don't ever like really feel that restricted, but I feel like it is a good sort of practice probably to just be like, oh, this doesn't feel like it's with the rest either.
(17:36):
Let's put it out as a single beforehand, and it's just not on any EP or album or let's say it's later.
But then there's also, there's lots of albums.
Ma mainly more of like maybe the seventies, eighties, nineties, where you have like big record labels and stuff where the single was like the king, especially in the seventies and the eighties where the whole filler, all these filler songs, it's like we just need one or two singles to sell the record and then let's just fill it up with like covers or whatever.
(18:13):
And then you'll have this album.
With one or two great songs and the rest of the album is, it doesn't sound like it or it's just, everything's just like B grade versions of that single, but I feel like now there's less of that.
There's less filler.
There's less like why fill up 10 songs if we've got two good ones to put our two good singles?
(18:37):
'cause people don't need to fill a 12 inch record like they did back then.
Perfect.
Now, before we let you run away, I'm curious about the cover of this vinyl.
Have you, if either of you done any little deep dives on this?
It says, lemme pull out the, because it's like, it's not a gatefold or anything, it's just like the sleeve.
(19:06):
Oh.
Then all of the liner notes.
Uh.
On the sleeve.
Oh, beautiful.
There's so much info here, like all the lyrics.
It's all the lyrics, each song, and then all of the liner notes for each song there.
Amazing.
I do know that the cover art, that's actually from a painting titled and Singing at Your Window
(19:33):
by Jose Esteban Martinez.
So I don't know the, I don't know the history of the painting.
Um, or if there's any significance to it.
I feel like I recognize the painting that's depicted in the corner of the painting.
(19:53):
Oh, the painting within the painting, yeah.
The woman with the eyeshadow and the yellow.
Oh.
Not sure where I recognize that from there.
Also, another great thing about vinyl is all the stuff that you don't get on Spotify and maybe would only get on a Google search if that would even turn up anything, but all of the back cover out and gate folds when you have all the other stuff that's never on Spotify.
(20:19):
But here the back cover is like this nice photo.
It's a very dark and subdued photo.
Hello, Ricky Lee Jars.
Aw, it's very nice.
I'll see if I can try and find it online and add it to our post so I listen.
I gonna look.
(20:40):
Yeah.
What was your favorite song, Alexis?
My favorite.
Yeah.
It would definitely have to be satellites for me.
I love the notes to her sort of jazz roots from previous albums in that song.
Just the little bits of gentle piano that sort of keeps that running.
(21:02):
And then the little tins, the sprinkle of jazz sacks in there.
I'm just, again, such a sucker for brass.
So can't, yeah.
Can't get away from that.
But I just, the thing that just caught me off guard.
Was, and I know we talked about how this record of the whole can really be easy listening, that you can just listen through the whole lot of it, but I actually found satellites quite hypnotizing and I just was in a bit of a trance listening to it that I just didn't wanna get out of it.
(21:36):
I really enjoyed it, and that's rare for me in the sense that normally I go to vocals and I go to lyrics, but I didn't even.
Wanna look at the lyrics, it's very much in it.
Having said that, though, I wouldn't have done my due diligence if I didn't look at lyrics.
And I guess that circles back to what I was saying before about the imagery of relationships and reflecting and this particular lines that really stood out to me.
(22:04):
I'd love to read them out.
So you keep talking in many languages, telling us the way you feel.
Don't stop confiding in the road you're on.
Don't quit.
You are walking satellites.
I just love that.
It just, it's got so much depth and layer to it.
(22:25):
It could mean all sorts of things and I find it quite uplifting.
Yeah, just love it.
Absolutely love it.
My favorite, oh my goodness.
For those listening.
If you don't know Ricky Lee Jones get accustomed.
And also even if for nothing else, listen to the origins of horses because her version is just such a different representation and it's absolutely stunning.
(22:56):
Levi, thank you so much for joining us on Through the Creative Door for an episode of B-Side.
Sam, thanks again as always.
Love your work, Simon.
See you later.
Thank you.
Great to chat.
Ba.
Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Through The Creative Door.
(23:20):
If you enjoy our episodes and find value in them, consider supporting us by making a donation.
Just visit buy me a coffee.com/through the creative door or via the link in our Instagram buy where you can choose an amount and even write us a little message.
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(23:43):
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Thanks so much for being part of our community.
We'll catch you on the next episode.
Bye.
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