I Can’t Stop is the latest release from the legendary BoDeans, who started making music together more than 30 years ago. The band will be touring throughout the rest of the year, but in the meantime, frontman Kurt Neumann, multi-instrumentalist Sam Hawksley and drummer Kenny Aronoff will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
Hawksley: Kurt Neumann had pretty much finished the song “Slave” (or so he thought!), when he sent it to me. He asked me to put some guitar on it. To me, it sounded full enough. Kurt said, “Well, take one of my guitar tracks off and play some slide.” I took one of his guitars off—something didn’t seem right with the song. I heard it differently. So I muted everything except his vocal. The title “Slave “is so evocative, I wanted to make it sound more like a “work song.” I ended up changing the groove of the song so it was half time. I changed the chords of the song, replayed the drums, bass and guitars and sent the song back to him with a note saying, “You’ll either love this or it’s an interesting way to hand in my resignation.” Thankfully, he loved it!
My friend Matt Fell (who first turned me on to the BoDeans 20 years ago) sent me a recording of him dropping a bunch of gravel that I added to my drum track. Kurt added some guitar to it and that’s the version that’s on the record. My Teisco/Silvertone guitar and bottle-neck is the heart of “Slave.” Being asked to co-produce I Can’t Stop with Kurt Neumann was a great honor. He’s worked with the best producers in the business: T-Bone Burnett, Jerry Harrison, Daniel Lanois, David Z, etc. He could have asked anyone to work with him, but he asked me! In addition to being a great songwriter, he’s also a fantastic musician in his own right. He sang and played drums, bass, mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar, percussion, keyboards and who knows what else. I’m really proud of the work we did on this record, but don’t take my word for it.
