ANN
SAVOY &
LINDA RONDSTADT
Pop
chameleon Ronstadt and Cajun star Savoy possess
two of the purest, sweetest, most satisfying voices
in contemporary music. -
USA Today
Linda
Ronstadt and Ann Savoy sing together as The Zozo
Sisters on their new Vanguard release, Adieu
False Heart, a blending of the lush
Louisiana Cajun sound of Savoy’s rich alto
and the pure soprano of Ronstadt, Tucson-born
and bred, who has deep roots in America’s
regional music.
“Zozo” means “little bird”
in Creole, and both Linda and Ann wanted this
music to reflect their abiding love for the emotional
connections they have to these songs, how they
soar and sing and have both uniqueness and universality.
The music conjures melodies that linger, and stories
that evoke such notions that the price of love
is disappointment and the price of independence
is longing.
“The songs are about love in all its forms,”
says Ann, “and about its tender place in
our hearts.” Ann, who has spent most of
her musical career as she says, “belting
out Cajun dancehall music,” wanted this
collection to come from a certain psychological
place, one of loving kindness and care.
For Linda, the songs on Adieu False
Heart have that same tender resonance
and the extra grace of giving her the chance to
record again with Ann, their two voices blending
seamlessly.
Much of Linda’s post-rock career has seen
her explore Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta, American
standards with Nelson Riddle and the Orchestra,
Latin jazz, and the Mexican traditional music
she heard and loved as a child in Tucson. But
there were other strains of music in her house
as she was growing up: the Cajun music that came
from the Acadian settlements in southwest Louisiana
and were broadcast by Channel XERF in Del Rio,
Texas, and Shreveport’s KWKH, home of the
Louisiana Hayride.
“We heard Cajun, bluegrass, gospel of every
color, rhythm & blues when it was called race
music,” she reminisces. “I used to
listen to the radio under my pillow until 2 or
3 in the morning when I was just seven. People
were singing about trees and grass and I’d
look out of the window and see nothing but cactus
and rock.” When Linda moved to Los Angeles
and started to record there, Cajun fiddler Gib
Gilbeau was in her band for years.
It wasn’t until 2002, however, that Linda
and Ann finally got the chance to collaborate.
That collection, a tribute to Cajun music titled
Evangeline Made, was released by Vanguard in 2002,
and was produced by Ann. In addition to Linda,
it features Cajun songs performed by Richard and
Linda Thompson, John
Fogerty, Maria McKee, Rodney
Crowell, Nick Lowe,
Patty Griffin, and
David Johanssen. The
album was nominated for a Grammy Award
in the Traditional Folk Category. Long respected
as the definitive historian of her genre, Ann
is also the author of Cajun Music:
A Reflection Of The People, published
in 1984 by Bluebird.
Adieu False Heart is then, a natural evolution
of their growing friendship and their close kinship
to the music. The song choices came naturally
as well. “Many of the songs are ones I’ve
sung around the house for years,” says Ann.
Among them are Creole French takes on “Plus
Tu Tournes,” and the 1930s hit “Parlez-Moi
D’Amour.” There are also two
Richard Thompson songs, “Burns’ Supper”
and “King of Bohemia,” Julie Miller’s
“I Can’t Get Over You,”
and David L. Greeley’s “Marie
Mouri,” an adaptation of a slave poem,
and Chas Justus’s
mournful bluegrass meditation “Rattle
My Cage.” The album’s title song,
“Adieu False Heart,” is a
traditional tune from the mid-19th Century, popularized
by fiddler Arthur Smith.
The first single is a heart-wrenchingly exquisite
rendition of the Left Banke’s 1966 hit “Walk
Away Renee.”
Linda felt comfortable with all of Ann’s
tunes, and brought to the studio “Go
Away From My Window,” written shortly
after the turn of the 20th Century by legendary
folk balladeer John Jacob Niles.
In Grammy-winning producer Steve Buckingham,
Ann and Linda found someone ideally suited to
take their thoughts and feelings about the songs
and turn them into music. Says Ann, “We
knew we wanted low-tuned guitars and cellos, bowed
dulcimers, that drone-y sound that is so distinctive.
Steve really made that happen.”
Recording began in the Savoy family Louisiana
farmhouse studio with Ann’s son Joel, an
acclaimed musician himself, as engineer. Joel
invited his bandmates in the Red Stick
Ramblers, Chas Justus, Glenn Fields,
Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer to play. When the project
was ready to go, the group moved to Dirk
Powell’s Cypress House Studios in Breaux
Bridge, where Powell joined them
on banjo and accordion, along with bassist Byron
House, guitarists Sam
Broussard, mandolin player
Sam Bush, fiddle player
and Stuart Duncan. Linda
suggested that they extend the traditional string
band by adding classical violin, viola, cello,
and bass, arranged by Kristin Wilkinson.
A week of recording vocals in Tennessee and another
in San Francisco finished the tracks. “Ann
and I shared these unabashedly female emotions
for our children, our old loves, our new loves
and concerns about the difficulties of raising
a family. The songs are subtle, quiet and pretty;
private thoughts with a communal feel.”
While Adieu False Heart comes straight from Savoy’s
swamps of Louisiana, it has a great deal of Ronstadt’s
eclectic spirit as well. “The album is about
two people from very different cultures who bring
their creativity together and in so doing create
new life for some time-tested songs of love,”
says Ann.
Linda Ronstadt has sold more than 30 million albums
and singles during her remarkable career, earning
several Number One albums and singles, including
the seven-times platinum Greatest Hits and the
triple-platinum What’s New and
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.
She has also won a total of ten Grammys in various
fields, including pop, country, and traditional
Mexican music.
A native of Richmond, Virginia, Savoy is married
to Acadian accordion player and maker Marc
Savoy, has recorded with the acclaimed
Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band,
the Savoy Family Band,
which includes sons Joel and Wilson, and the all-female
Magnolia Sisters that does ballads and obscure
Cajun songs. She also has a swing/jazz band, Ann
Savoy and Her Sleepless Knights. As a result she
says, she “spends hours listening, going
through beautiful music, to find things to express
the emotions I am feeling so I can sing them or
to find rare gems for my bands.”
She has worked with T-Bone Burnett
on the soundtracks for the films “Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” and
the upcoming remake of “All
the King's Men.” In addition
to Evangeline Made she
has produced the CD Creole Bred, spotlighting
zydeco music.
Says Ann, “Linda is an amazing chameleon.
She becomes the color of what she does. The songs
we have chosen for this CD are just the tip of
the iceberg. There are many more songs we worked
on and we hope we will get to continue the Zozo
Sisters musical journey.”
Adieu False Heart was released on Vanguard Records
on July 25, 2006.