When we started running our Masterclasses back in March 2022 someone might have joked "Hey, we could make an album!" 2 years later and we are joking no more!
Looking back it might be appear we have had some grand plan! Masterclasses, YouTube channel, Showcases and now an album, but the whole process has been much more organic than that.
At our Glasgow Showcase in September of 2023 hearing all of the songs together in the one evening made it clear the high quality of songs that had been written over the 3 Masterclasses up until that point. Afterwards the excitement level within our band of songwriters was at fever pitch, and so the obvious next step was to make a recording.
Finding time in James and Bobby's diaries was going to be a challenge. As it turned out Bobby was unavailable for the first 3 months of 2024 and James had a gap in February. It was a shame not to have Bobby fully involved in the recording process, but we decided to go ahead with James at the helm. Two weekends of studio time were booked at La Chunky in Finnieston Glasgow and everyone started practising.
So on 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th February 2024 we got to work on the album. Each songwriter had a 3 hour slot in the studio with James and Gaspard our wonderful sound engineer . Focus was on getting the vocals and guitar recorded, plus anything else that could be done in that time - which ended up ranging from piano, bass, Hammond Organ and accompanying guitar parts from James.
From Masterclass #1 we had demos of Rab Noakes performing "Long and Lonesome Night" that he wrote on that weekend. It was a great duet with James. Rab passed away later in 2022 and we were delighted to have agreement from Rab's estate to include this song on the album. James did some production on the demo and it has turned out great. What an honour to include one of the last song's written and performed by Rab on our album.
It was always an ambition to have the album released on vinyl. With 20 songs this meant either a double-album or 2 single albums. We decided to go for 2 single volumes. Volume 1 covers Masterclass #1 and part of #2 and Volume 2 covers the rest of Masterclass #2 and Masterclass #3.
By the time we got to recording the album Peter Hall, Jamie Campbell (Dignity Row) and Bobby Motherwell (Sulidae) had already recorded their songs for their own albums and we were honoured to also be able to feature them on the Secret Coast Songwriters volumes.
The final icing on the cake was when Last Night From Glasgow record label agreed to release the albums. LNFG are one of the best labels in the UK for championing new music, and also keeping alive people's love of music from the 80s and 90s. They have released and re-released albums recently from Friends Again, Love and Money, The Bluebells and The Cowboy Mouth, so an ideal label for us to find our audience. A big thank you to Ian Smith and the team at LNFG for their support.
Having had so much fun making the album and having such good feedback on the quality of the songs and the production, we think we will do these for our future Masterclasses. Volume 3 here we come!
The track listing for Volume 1 is:
- Dust From Your Shoes – Gerry McBride
- I Will Love You – Steven McDonald
- Dreaming Blue Girl – Sandrine Certenais
- Shirt Tails – Peter Hall
- Not a Love Song – Dignity Row
- When I Go – Only When I Glow
- Watching Shadows – Linda Scott
- Ready to Fall – Dougie Smith
- Ordinary People – Lynn Whitaker
- Long and Lonesome Night – Rab Noakes
The track listing for Volume 2 is:
- Save You All My Blues - Sulidae
- Afterlove - Peter Hall
- Ordinary Day - Liz Kentish
- Breaking The Feeling - Ray Scullion
- False Daewn - Ross MacDonald
- Shall Not Be Released - Lynn Whitaker
- Just Like You - Only When I Glow
- Hometown - Stuart Gillies
- Black Box - Alan McGinley
- Something Good - Steven McDonald