{"id":28400,"date":"2024-11-06T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T10:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28400"},"modified":"2024-10-22T16:53:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T20:53:26","slug":"closer-to-live-closer-to-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/06\/closer-to-live-closer-to-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Closer to \u2018Live,\u2019 Closer to Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters\u2019 new album was made the old-fashioned way<\/strong><\/p>\n

In early August, Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters released their latest album, The Ones That Stay<\/i>. After a high-profile slot at the AVL Fest, the Asheville group was off to tour the UK, their fourth tour there but the first since the pandemic. With that tour concluded, for now Platt is settling back into a quieter routine, focused more on home, family\u2026 and more songwriting.<\/p>\n

That straightforward, emotionally resonant songwriting is at the heart of The Ones That Stay<\/i>. The immediacy of Platt\u2019s lyrics is well served by uncluttered yet appealing arrangements featuring bassist Rick Cooper, Evan Martin on drums, pedal steel player Matt Smith and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Williams. To capture that blend, the group employed an old-fashioned method that has fallen out of widespread use.<\/p>\n

One virtue of modern recording technology is the ability to record each instrumental and vocal part individually, piecing the parts together in a seamless whole. But something can be lost in the process; the end product risks taking on a sterile, too-polished quality that can detract from its authenticity.
\nWith that in mind, for The Ones That Stay<\/i>, singer, songwriter and guitarist Platt made the decision to track \u201clive\u201d in the studio. Working with co-producers Scott McMicken and Greg Cartwright, Platt and her band mates focused more on an audio v\u00e9rit\u00e9<\/i> aesthetic than a technically flawless one.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, there\u2019s often something that gets lost in translation in the studio,\u201d Platt says, \u201cwhen you\u2019re trying to get everything spot-on pitchwise, rhythmwise.\u201d With a goal of combining the living, breathing vibe of a concert performance with the sonic quality of a recording studio, the musicians gathered together in one room, without separation, to record the album\u2019s twelve songs. \u201cWe tried to capture the performance rather than trying to make a \u2018correct\u2019 record,\u201d Platt says.<\/p>\n

Adding to the spontaneous, real-time character of the music, the Honeycutters made a point of not playing the songs onstage prior to the sessions; that approach brought a freshness to the way that each musician tackled his or her parts. And as the finished product demonstrates, the sessions came together brilliantly. \u201cWe\u2019ve been playing together so long that it\u2019s like family,\u201d Platt says. That \u201cfamily\u201d provides musical support for Platt\u2019s lyrics, always a highlight of her work with the Honeycutters.<\/p>\n

Some songwriters draw upon personal experience for their lyrics; the results can be starkly confessional. Others write with an eye toward universal themes; the danger there is that there\u2019s not always something new to be said about well-worn topics. Yet many of the most effective lyricists navigate a path that takes the best from each of those approaches. That\u2019s often Amanda Anne Platt\u2019s favored method.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always some kernel of my personal experience or emotion in the songs,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not usually comfortable writing from a purely autobiographical place.\u201d Platt explains that an event in her own life \u2013 or an observed event in the life of someone else \u2013 will often serve as the spark of an idea. \u201cI\u2019ll hear a story from somebody else,\u201d Platt says. \u201cI\u2019ll think, \u2018That\u2019s never happened to me, but I can relate to it because of the core emotion.\u2019 And I\u2019ll write from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

photo by Eliza Bell<\/p><\/div>\n

That method of songwriting brings with it a kind of freedom, because it allows Platt \u2013 when she wishes to do so \u2013 to dig deep into the kinds of emotion-filled topics that she might not feel comfortable sharing in the first-person. And built into that approach is a kind of universality that\u2019s achieved without specifically aiming for it. Platt values those qualities both in her own songwriting and in the work of artists whose music she enjoys.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a listener, if something really confessional is handed to me on a platter \u2013 \u2018This is exactly what I was thinking and feeling when I wrote this song\u2019 \u2013 then I have more trouble connecting to it,\u201d she explains. \u201cThat\u2019s how I digest other people\u2019s art. And when I\u2019m writing, I don\u2019t want to paint such a complete picture that I\u2019m painting out the listener\u2019s own experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

As opposed to writing with a specific album project in mind, Platt says that in a real sense she\u2019s always, always writing. She\u2019ll collect lyrical or thematic ideas and save them for when the time is right. \u201cI\u2019m always taking notes,\u201d she says. And when she finds an opportunity to sit down and strum her guitar (\u201can extremely rare moment these days,\u201d she admits) she\u2019ll refer back to those notes. \u201cI\u2019ll start to go over my stash of napkins, journal pages, phone memos and what-have-you,\u201d Platt says.<\/p>\n

Both in its sound and lyrical content, Platt\u2019s music has much in common with classic country. And she has no problem with that label being applied to her work. \u201cI\u2019m certainly not offended by it,\u201d she says with a chuckle. \u201cWhen I first started writing, I was very into classic country and old time music,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I wasn\u2019t all that sure of myself as a songwriter\u2026 or as a human being.\u201d In those days, she admits today, she felt she was hiding behind a genre label. \u201cWhen I listen to early recordings of myself, I feel like I was singing with a very strong southern accent. I was trying to sound like a Southerner and a \u2018country singer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

These days \u2013 having lived in Asheville for more than 20 years \u2013 New York-born Platt observes that if anything, she has more of a Southern accent today than she did back then. In her music, though, her singing style is more natural, not at all forced or flecked with artifice. \u201cI\u2019m more comfortable with myself,\u201d she says. \u201cI just sound how I sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of becoming more comfortable in one\u2019s own skin makes itself known in both the music that Platt writes and records with the Honeycutters, and in her approach to the whole business of music. \u201cWe put out our first album, Irene<\/i>, in 2009,\u201d Platt says. \u201cAnd it did reasonably well, better than expected. It had a reach beyond Asheville.\u201d But she says that as a result of that modest success, when the time came to make a follow-up record, she was \u201cgripped with fear\u201d that it could never be as good as the first.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found that instead of thinking about what I was trying to express, I would think about how people might hear it: \u2018How will this be received?\u2019\u201d With hindsight, Platt believes that such thoughts dilute the artistry of making music. \u201cThe lesson there,\u201d she concludes, \u201cis to separate those things, and to try to remember why I started writing songs to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Honeycutters\u2019 recent run of dates in the UK marked the band\u2019s first tour there in more than four years. \u201cIt was the nicest thing,\u201d Platt says. \u201cWe reconnected with friends over there; it felt a little bit like coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that UK tour concluded, Platt is back home with her family. And save for a likely Holiday-themed hometown show later this year \u2013 a long-standing Honeycutters tradition \u2013 Platt doesn\u2019t have much planned for the near future. \u201cHaving two little kids now, it\u2019s easier to sit close to home,\u201d she says. But one thing is for sure: Amanda Anne Platt will keep writing songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters\u2019 new album was made the old-fashioned way In early August, Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters released their latest album, The Ones That Stay. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,20,41,49],"tags":[3173,2688],"class_list":["post-28400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alt-country","category-americana","category-country","category-interview","category-new-release","tag-amanda-anne-platt","tag-honeycutters","cat-4-id","cat-6-id","cat-20-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28403,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28400\/revisions\/28403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}