How much does studio feel or recording technique impart to a song? Listening to The Waterboys’ version of Girl of the North Country, off their mammoth, expanded Fisherman’s Box set – but not included on the original Fisherman’s Blues album – I started thinking about recording and mixing. I love this sound. It’s so close that you feel like it’s live in the room.
By the time of its recording, Karl Wallinger had departed The Waterboys to form World Party, leaving Mike Scott, the only founder member who has been in every iteration of the band, firmly in control. Scott wanted to move the band into more “folk with edge” territory.
A longtime Bob Dylan fan, Scott gives today’s track a full, acoustic band treatment, rather than the solo Bob on Freewheelin’ or the small ensemble recording by Johnny Cash and a crooning Dylan, which opened Nashville Skyline.
Girl of the North Country (it’s usually “Girl from”) gives us a sound so bright that it’s striking. Even the bass sounds like it’s in “middle” register. Anthony Thistlethwaite’s mandolin playing is at the highest parts of the tiny fretboard and the fiddle of Steve Wickham screeches, just short of a saw through bone. The bass drum thud is shallow, the snare cracks sharp in the backbeat and Scott’s voice has a burr at its bottom, bordering on a rasp. It sounds like very little else.
The Waterboys’ arrangement with violin seems to channel the sound of Desire-era Dylan, rather than the richness of Nashville Skyline, while it has itself a whale of a good time. It sounds spontaneous and sonically “immediate”, like they’re playing it right in your space and bursting with energy. And on that note, here’s wishing you a warm, bright weekend!
I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. You’ll read it here on a Sunday. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.
Listen to Girl of The North Country on Spotify here and Apple Music here.
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