Refugee
09-04-2007, 05:05 PM
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Complexity … Patti Scialfa used family life as inspiration.
OF ALL the subjects Patti Scialfa might consider probing on her third album, you would think her marriage would be low on the list.
For one thing, fans have been scouring her songs for Bruce Springsteen-related subtext since she released her first solo record, Rumble Doll, in 1993 - tiresome for an artist who has had much to say about her own eventful life. And few would expect the public dissection of a relationship from the happily married wife of a rock god.
But Play It as It Lays, a weary, emotion-rich record, to be released on Saturday, is pointedly about Scialfa's 16-year marriage to Springsteen. And she does not shrink from saying so.
"My records always deal with a question I have that I don't know how to answer," she says in the living room of the couple's 1720s farmhouse in New Jersey. "The question this time was about the conflicts and the complexities in a long-term relationship, the real things that go on.
"Everybody knows what the good stuff is in a long-term relationship, and so for me it was more compelling and interesting to go into the areas where the conflicts are," she says. "I find those things fascinating to write about; complexities, the darker stuff, the things that are under the rug, in the back room and in the cellar. It was a little scary, I have to say."
What comes through on the record, though, is not callowness but boldness, a determination to get right her many roles: Scialfa, 54, is the mother of the couple's three teenagers as well as a solo artist and a member of the E Street and the Seeger Sessions bands. The most discernible theme is a sense of domestic ennui. "It's easy to dull down a bit, to knee-jerk into cliches, when you're raising a family," Scialfa says, commenting on the opening song, Looking for Elvis, which is about personal reinvention.
Scialfa took 11 years between her first two albums, Rumble Doll (produced by Mike Campbell) and 23rd Street Lullaby in 2004, because of obligations with her family and with the E Street Band, and she regrets not touring to support Rumble Doll. ("I saw that I had three kids in diapers. It was a huge transition - and I derailed myself," she says.) The making of Play It as It Lays, which Scialfa will tour next year, was put on hold because of scheduling with the Seeger Sessions Band.
She recorded the album at home; her backup band, the Whack Brothers, consisted of the co-producer Steve Jordan (percussion, acoustic guitar), Willie Weeks (bass), Nils Lofgren (guitars, pedal steel guitar, dobro), Cliff Carter (keyboards) and Springsteen (Hammond B3 organ, acoustic guitars, electric guitar, harmonica).
Jordan's presence grounded her, she says. "Steve I've known since I was 19. I needed to be surrounded by people who gave me my autonomy, do you know? Who reflected back my own path. That was important."
That quest for autonomy is understandable. Scialfa is still subject to cries of "Bruuuuuce!" when she takes the stage, and she often crosses paths with fans who want to assign Springsteen a larger role in her music. "People say: 'Oh, did he write that? It sounds like something he wrote,"' she says.
Forging an identity apart from Springsteen's can be an uphill battle, as any number of New Jersey rock artists pelted by requests for his songs have discovered. Scialfa had a final word of advice for them: "Just say no."
Play It As It Lays is released on Saturday
Complexity … Patti Scialfa used family life as inspiration.
OF ALL the subjects Patti Scialfa might consider probing on her third album, you would think her marriage would be low on the list.
For one thing, fans have been scouring her songs for Bruce Springsteen-related subtext since she released her first solo record, Rumble Doll, in 1993 - tiresome for an artist who has had much to say about her own eventful life. And few would expect the public dissection of a relationship from the happily married wife of a rock god.
But Play It as It Lays, a weary, emotion-rich record, to be released on Saturday, is pointedly about Scialfa's 16-year marriage to Springsteen. And she does not shrink from saying so.
"My records always deal with a question I have that I don't know how to answer," she says in the living room of the couple's 1720s farmhouse in New Jersey. "The question this time was about the conflicts and the complexities in a long-term relationship, the real things that go on.
"Everybody knows what the good stuff is in a long-term relationship, and so for me it was more compelling and interesting to go into the areas where the conflicts are," she says. "I find those things fascinating to write about; complexities, the darker stuff, the things that are under the rug, in the back room and in the cellar. It was a little scary, I have to say."
What comes through on the record, though, is not callowness but boldness, a determination to get right her many roles: Scialfa, 54, is the mother of the couple's three teenagers as well as a solo artist and a member of the E Street and the Seeger Sessions bands. The most discernible theme is a sense of domestic ennui. "It's easy to dull down a bit, to knee-jerk into cliches, when you're raising a family," Scialfa says, commenting on the opening song, Looking for Elvis, which is about personal reinvention.
Scialfa took 11 years between her first two albums, Rumble Doll (produced by Mike Campbell) and 23rd Street Lullaby in 2004, because of obligations with her family and with the E Street Band, and she regrets not touring to support Rumble Doll. ("I saw that I had three kids in diapers. It was a huge transition - and I derailed myself," she says.) The making of Play It as It Lays, which Scialfa will tour next year, was put on hold because of scheduling with the Seeger Sessions Band.
She recorded the album at home; her backup band, the Whack Brothers, consisted of the co-producer Steve Jordan (percussion, acoustic guitar), Willie Weeks (bass), Nils Lofgren (guitars, pedal steel guitar, dobro), Cliff Carter (keyboards) and Springsteen (Hammond B3 organ, acoustic guitars, electric guitar, harmonica).
Jordan's presence grounded her, she says. "Steve I've known since I was 19. I needed to be surrounded by people who gave me my autonomy, do you know? Who reflected back my own path. That was important."
That quest for autonomy is understandable. Scialfa is still subject to cries of "Bruuuuuce!" when she takes the stage, and she often crosses paths with fans who want to assign Springsteen a larger role in her music. "People say: 'Oh, did he write that? It sounds like something he wrote,"' she says.
Forging an identity apart from Springsteen's can be an uphill battle, as any number of New Jersey rock artists pelted by requests for his songs have discovered. Scialfa had a final word of advice for them: "Just say no."
Play It As It Lays is released on Saturday