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| Raul Malo - 'After Hours' Raul Malo looked to country & western greatness not only for the songs on his new album 'After Hours, ' out July 17th on New Door Records/UMe, but for inspiration on how to record them. Malo cites the production style of Owen Bradley and Ray Charles' 'Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music' as influences on the new record. Because of this, Malo and his band recorded the entire album live in the studio with little to no overdubs. "On the records that were made back then, " Malo notes, "you hear a performance, not a construction. Ray Charles would go in there and give you two or three takes, and that was gonna be it, so the engineer had to capture it. That's why those records sound so great, because they caught a moment in time. " Malo's "moment in time" opens with a slow-burning, seductive take on the standard "Welcome To My World, " with Malo's powerful voice taking center stage among the muted horns and piano, and among other highlights, he tackles two of country music's greatest songs, "Crying Time" by Buck Owens and Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart." The former features Malo's aching voice accompanied by a mournful clarinet and slow, shuffle beat, while the latter is reworked as a '30s swing with jazzy horn stabs and a rollicking beat. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |