Dave Edmunds says his instrumental covers album almost never happened at all.
The Welsh guitar icon released Rags & Classics on June 9 via MVD Entertainment Group and in May, he made his version of the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows available to stream.
But he says that if he’d made the record via the more traditional route of hiring a studio and engineers, he might not have gone through with it.
He tells UCR: “It seemed never-ending at one point. But then as I got over halfway through, I got more encouraged to keep at it. I just record when I feel like it. If it had been booking a studio and hiring musicians and getting an engineer and a producer, this album would never have gotten made.
“I wasn’t sure I’d ever get around to it. I’ve got a little studio at home, and I used to record on analog tape when I had a studio in LA. But I’ve gone digital. I got the studio set up and I just started messing around and doing things without really having much of a plan for it or even plans to release it.
“I record for fun a lot of the time, and that’s how some of these tracks came together. Then it started shaping up to be a guitar album, so I thought, ‘Well, I’ll keep going and see where we get.’
“It’s just a hobby. Like most of my career has been really. It’s never been goal-oriented.”
Asked whether he will play any of the instrumental tracks live, Edmunds says: “I don’t know. I haven’t thought of it. I hadn’t recorded it in any way that I was thinking of doing it live. I would have to get to the band that I work with in Sweden. The next time we rehearse, I might try some of it — it’s only a four piece band.”
RAGS & CLASSICS TRACKLIST
- A Whiter Shade Of Pale 2. I Believe I Can Fly 3. God Only Knows 4. Wuthering Heights 5. Your Song 6. Black Mountain Rag 7. Classical Gas 8. Green Onions 9. Cannonball Rag 10. Symphony No. 40 In G Minor, Molto Allegro
