tracks

You Don't Have To Lose
Ramadan Moon
Your Kind Of Madness
The Rain Stops Everything
Almost A Stranger
You Don't Know
Too Much Love
Let The Sunlight Dry Your Tears
Old Dreams Fade Away
Northern Sky
Weary Traveler

notes

Produced, engineered and mixed by Chris von Sneidern and John Wesley Harding.

From the press release:

During graduate studies at university, David met fellow student Wes Stace (later to be known as US-based singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding), and the two became part of a busking band playing blues and folk songs mostly discovered on old Ry Cooder records.

While carrying on field research in development anthropology in Bangladesh in the late ’80s for his PhD (David currently teaches at the London School of Economics), Lewis started writing and performing songs and collaborating with John Wesley Harding on compositions via tapes and faxes. Three of those songs – “Red Rose and the Briar,” “Ordinary Weekend,” and “Cupid and Psycho” wound up on various Harding CDs.

With Harding and fellow musician Scott Matthews as co-producers, Lewis recorded his first album, No Straight Line, at Matthews’ San Francisco studio. Harding, Matthews, Robert Lloyd (a frequent Harding accompanist) and guests like REM’s Peter Buck on mandolin created an acoustic-based recording that also featured “unexplained ‘atmospherics’...setting up some interesting spooky textures,” according to Sing Out!

Lewis and Harding started working on For Now soon after the first album was released, this time convening in von Sneidern’s studio in San Francisco with Prophet and other musicians. After an hour or two of rehearsals, Lewis and his ad hoc band recorded the rollicking “The Rain Stops Everything” (driven by David’s gusty harmonica), the sensuous “Ramadan Moon” (featuring Richard Thompson-like guitar from Chuck Prophet), and valedictory “Weary Traveller,” with regret-filled solos and fills from Prophet and accordionist Robert Lloyd, all songs cut virtually live on the second or third take. Record company woes and personal logistics (Lewis lives in England, Harding in the U.S.) caused a break in the recordings. A year went by before the next sessions, then more time elapsed before the last songs were finished. A particular treat for Lewis was the participation of Al Stewart on “You Don’t Know,” a song co-written by David and Harding. “Al was cajoled one night into joining us for a meal and, of course, an excellent bottle of wine,” recounts Lewis. “It was a great moment for me because I’ve long admired Al’s work. Anyway, it must have been the wine, because Al then agreed to come into the studio and do some vocals!”

Although Lewis’s globe-trotting experiences inspired and inform some of his material, the various aspects of love – accepted, imploded, frustrated, postponed, denied – dominate the majority of the songs, including “Almost a Stranger,” “You Don’t Know,” “Your Kind of Madness,” “Let the Sunlight Dry Your Tears” and “Too Much Love.” While Lewis is an accomplished guitarist, it is the contrast between his boyish voice and the depth of experience in his lyrics that sets up an engaging and mysterious invitation to listeners to get lost in his music.

“I wanted the music to be completely detached from any trend or fashion, like it sounds as if it could have been recorded any time in the last thirty years,” explains Lewis.

credits

Backing Vocals – Al Stewart (tracks: 6)
Co-producer – Chris von Sneidern, Wesley Stace,
Electric Guitar – Chuck Prophet

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