The Curtains Are Twitchin

Album: Blue Lights On The Runway (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lead vocalist Paul Noonan told Billboard magazine that "in terms of realizing a vision for a song," this is his favorite track on Blue Lights On The Runaway. He explained: "I always had this idea of having a New Orleans brass section. Somebody sent me links to YouTube footage of jazzer's funerals in New Orleans and a band playing 'A Closer Walk With Thee.' It has this wild energy that's whipped up during the course of the song that's really joyous but kind of sour occasionally, and woozy. I really heard that flavor in this song; it's pretty conventional but juxtaposed with a brass section building to this crescendo. I went online and eventually made contact with some musicians in New Orleans, sent them the songs, traded ideas until we landed on something we were happy with and recorded it. It was very satisfying. And then the three of us put down the extra percussion as if we were in the [brass] band, playing the big bass drum and the cymbals. We didn't really have the swing, but it's buried in there. For a few minutes, we were striding."

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