We had originally scheduled to record the final 6 songs of the record in May of 2023, but plans changed and everyone had a bunch of scheduling conflicts (that is, everyone but me). Sometimes those kinds of things work out, because it turned out that 2 out of the 6 songs we were going to record at that time weren't ready for prime time.
Close to You was the last song written for the record. The day before I wrote it, I was thinking that I really needed another song with an R&B vibe. The idea was that the song “Higher” needed a companion on the record.
I started working on the verse and it had this classic Motown and “I'll take you there” kind of vibe which was classic 1960's Muscle Shoals and Swampers type stuff. I demo'd the tune being 1000% sure that I couldn't pull it off vocally. But when I heard the playback of the La-La's at the end of the song, I was like “I am absolutely going to record this tune--if no one likes it, at least I will.”
When we got to the studio, Jimbo wanted me to play it acoustically. He loved the intimacy of the demo. I convinced him to give the thing a try with the band and the moment everyone kicked in, I was signaling “touchdown” in the booth--the song felt sssooo sooo good. It took us a bit for Will McFarlane to come up with the nifty guitar lick that starts the song, but once we did that, it all came together nicely. I absolutely love the song.
Also: Jimbo sings harmony vocals on the “dreaming of you” line in the bridge. So cool.
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Some Kind of Woman was the second-to-last song to make it on the record.
In my mind, the song came together as a cross between a George Michael tune (my dream) and Brian Ferry trying to sound like Neil Diamond on “You'll be a Woman Soon.” (Weird, I know).
The original demo had the same chorus, “You're some kind of woman, my kind of woman” but then had a tagline added to it ("make me fly…make me fly high). When Jimbo heard the demo in the studio, he was like, “ya, we're not doing that. The chorus is Some Kind of Woman, my kind of woman. Full Stop. ”)
Simple enough. The song was tracked by the band in a take, I think.
It was Jimbo's favorite tune that he'd ever heard me demo.
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