For this record, we pulled together a band of badasses. After a couple of weeks of rehearsal we took the circus on the road to Valdosta to record the record.
Steve (vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, bass), Roger Brainard (electric/lead guitars), Franher Joseph (electric and upright bass), Brian Hudson (drums), Barry Best (pianos and organ), Mark van Allen (pedal steel), Makinsey Rosser, Heidi Huelskoetter, Mary Gill (background vocals), Ben Davis (tenor and bari saxes), Paul Poovey (trumpet), Alex Slinin (bass, lap steel, keys). Mark Neill (percussion). Horn arrangements by Barry Best.
Words and music by Steve Baskin and Roger Brainard except Pick Up the Pieces by Steve Baskin, Dinner with Lou by Steve Baskin, Roger Brainard, Scott Shiflett, Dances by Moonlight by Steve Baskin, Alex Slinin and Time for Bed by Alex Slinin. Sentimental Lady written by Bob Welch.
Produced by Steve Baskin and Rich Herring. Recorded by Mark Neill at Soil of the South Studios, Valdosta, GA with additional tracks by Steve Baskin, Underground Studio, Atlanta, GA. Mixed by Rich Herring, Wurld Records, Nasvhille, TN. Mastered by Colin Leonard at Song Mastering, Atlanta, GA.
Photography by Kevin Garrett. Designed by Jeff Smith.
Mind Your Step
2020 | Vinyl, CD, Digital My fourth full-length record was also my first full dive into Pop Americana, and to make it, I went backward. The album was recorded by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Mark Neill at Soil of the South, his studio in South Georgia. Neill doesn't have computers in the studio. No shortcuts. Real players on real instruments, everything to tape. Pre-production lasted five months. The sessions ran about eleven very long, tough days. It was about as hard as I've ever worked on a record.
The result, as Declan Culliton wrote in Lonesome Highway, is an album that "harks back to the early '70s, an era when numerous American bands introduced soul and folk into their mix." Culliton heard the full range – the rocky opener Afraid Today, countrified Big Wedding, Small Divorce, the rich soulful title track complete with horns and organ, the delightfully funky Glass of Wine – and he concluded that "you get the impression that the material on the album was what Baskin was born to make, as it is oozing with warmth from start to finish."
The hook for the title track came from the mysterious lady at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam who comes over the PA system as you reach the end of the moving sidewalk. Mind your step – delivered in the most lyrical and lovely way. The song that followed reminded me of the music I heard and played growing up, backing soul greats like Sam Moore, Carla Thomas, and Percy Sledge. Glide Magazine called it "a soulful anthem that feels real and direct — Baskin's vocal balance of Americana rocker and soul singer is a perfect fit for this R&B-laced tune bursting with organ, a powerful beat, and a hard-hitting chorus."
The humor shows up too. "Big Wedding, Small Divorce" — "aren't they all?" as Jeff Clark noted in Stomp and Stammer — and "Dinner With Lou," a reflection on sitting next to Lou Reed at a New York Hard Rock Café dinner, navigate contemporary life with a light touch. Skope Magazine put it plainly: "Baskin is a smart lyricist, and there isn't a throwaway song on this album."
Dancing About Architecture in the UK summed it up best: "He knows how to take a whole bunch of musical genres, ones that already share a certain amount of musical DNA, and finds the perfect way to dovetail them together so that they complement rather than clash. The result is a great rock 'n' soul record."
