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Welcome to Green Monkey Records Album of the Month! What you get here is a new streaming album of High Quality NW stuff that you can listen to with open-mouth amazement each and every month. Some of the time Album of the Month will be stuff that we own and you will be able to buy it either on limited edition disc or as a pay-what-you-want download. Some months it will be something that belongs to someone else or many someone elses; when I can get the rights to let you download someone elses I will and I’ll letcha know. In all cases it will be something that I think is damn cool.
Jeff Kelly - Ash Wednesday Rain
Dearly beloved –
This month we are going to work the Green Monkey vaults and present Jeff Kelly’s Ash Wednesday Rain from 1995. To make it even more beautiful, we’re gonna do something we never do – have a sale!
All month you can buy Ash Wednesday Rain from GMR for a mere 8 bucks (you can still buy it from CDBaby for $13 if you prefer to pay more). This month I thought it would be interesting to go ask Jeff directly to comment on his album – questions are from Tom and Howie.
Hey Jeff –
Here we got in the way-back machine to see if you can remember more than I can.
Easier said than done.
So – Ash Wednesday Rain was done in a comparatively slow period, coming out in ’95. It had been a few years since we had parted ways, you’d done a PJs Single with Joe in ‘93. By modern standards that is short, but you’re a pretty prolific guy. What was going on for you during that period?
Our first child for one thing. That slowed things down a little. I think I only wrote and recorded 7 or 8 songs that year - 1994. "Baby Jane Approximately" and "Ocean Eyes" were recorded after she was born. A lot of the other songs used for Ash Wednesday Rain must have already been in the can.
The cover says this was done at home on some sort of 8-track. It sounds significantly better than the previous Private Electrical Storm. What was your set up at that point and what was your approach to recording the album?
I think, as always back then, I was just recording songs for Susanne and my amusement. Wasn't really planning a record, so it's pretty diverse. Actually, thinking back, it may have mostly been done on 4-track as opposed to 8. But I had this nice delay of Steven's which helped a lot. I can't quite remember that clearly- but it seems like I was bouncing things around on a 4 track porta-studio when I did If Alison Were Here. Maybe it was both 4 and 8.
Hmm. You say it is diverse, but it seems to me less so than some of your other work. There is nothing that really rocks here per se, it is all more moody, a bit more low key, certainly less a potpourri than say Ghosts of Love. Do you disagree?
Perhaps I view it or only remember it as diverse. No, there's no rock songs. But, say, Bettie Page is quite different than Seven Years or Ocean Eyes. And those two are not alike either. There, of course, are similar production techniques used.
Did you play everything?
Yes. Susanne may have done some backing vocals. The keyboard had nice horn sounds. 
Was there any unusual instrumentation on AWR, or is it basically keyboard sounds, guitars and vocals? Did you use real drums or percussion?
No, just the keyboard for the drums. No unusual instrumentation, I don't think. Except I think I did the bass part of Baby Jane Approximately with my voice. And I used our old baby grand piano for Ocean Eyes. It had a cracked soundboard and I found out at some point that it would never stay tuned correctly. It was pretty though.
How did this record come to be? As I fuzzily recall, we got contacted out of the blue by Del Field, a big PJs fan, who said he would put up the manufacturing costs and we got it done. Do you recall differently? Was this already in the works as an album before Del got in touch or was he the catalyst that got it moving?
Not positive but I think Del gave us the idea to take what I was working on and actually make it an album. I do recall it was the first thing you and I ever released on CD as opposed to vinyl. Del has become a very good friend and is still a big supporter of the music. He often comes over from Idaho when we have a gig here in town.
What made you decide to go back to making Green Pajamas records after this rather than focusing on solo records?
Tony Dale called around 1996 and wanted to put out something by the Pajamas on his new label, Camera Obscura. He was talking about reissuing something and I said, well why don't we just make a brand new Pajamas album? I had some stuff done already like Three Way Conversation. I think Steven and I were still recording off and on. I'd written Dr. Dragonfly, for instance, before we had the idea for Strung. There's an alternate recording with Steven playing electric guitar.
The 8-track cassette deck freed me up to experiment and record multiple tracks at home and they sounded pretty good. I remember that being so luxurious - 8 tracks!
I think Tony was a real catalyst for you in getting things going after a bit of a lull. You had the opportunity to go spend some time with Tony in Australia before he recently passed away. Any thoughts you’d like to share about Tony?
Yes, everything lined right up when we did Strung Behind the Sun. I was able to start making releasable records from home. And Tony was very supportive and enthusiastic. That was a successful record but he did say when I was recording Meagan's Bed, "Jeff, I hope you’re not going to do more of your French cafe songs." So I thought, I'll show him, and I went out and bought a little guitar amplifier. That's why there is a lot more electric guitar on Meagan's Bed, which pleased him. Tony was a good collaborator because, if I'd come up with an idea, he'd come back and top it with something wilder. For instance, we had decided to release some of my home recordings, originally released on cassette by GMR. By the time the project got underway it had grown to a four CD box set, big color booklet, etc. That was fun.
Tony was indeed supportive but he wasn't always saying "yes" to whatever I wanted to do. He's the one that said "Oh no, you CAN'T use the band on the front cover," when Joe and I sent him the art for Strung Behind The Sun. He's the one that suggested a painting of Susanne's be on the front, which sort of became a tradition. Once I sent him some record and I had a note with the art: 'please print "add alcohol, increase volume," on the disc. Tony wrote back: "You've got to be fucking kidding, Jeff! That's been done a million times! No way." I didn't argue.
But Tony truly had a profound influence on my life. No doubt about that. Too much to go into here- but things may have gone a lot different I think, if he hadn't made that initial call to me. He was not only a business man with his label but really an artist I think. He had the heart of an artist. He appreciated the little details that make something beautiful. This was very evident when Susanne and I visited, a couple weeks before he died. He shared a lot of music with me, pointing out all of those little details.
What are your favorites on this album? I particularly like Ocean Eyes and thought about putting it on The Anthology if it hadn’t been so damn long.
If Alison Were Here, Jackie, What Became Of Bettie Page, Ocean Eyes. Maybe Shadow Classrooms. Ms. Page turned up later, so that mystery was solved. But I always liked the lyric to that one anyway.
Have any of them every made it to being played live?
No.
 Fifteen years after the fact what is your perspective on the work? How would you stack it up against your other zillion releases?
It was notable as a first release on compact disc. The songs perhaps were more meaningful to me at that time, as one might imagine. A lot changes in 15 years. And yet it was a creative period songwriting-wise I think. If people liked other stuff of mine from around that time, like Strung Behind The Sun, they would probably like this one. I still like pretty much all of the songs, but it definitely does sound like fifteen years ago to me whereas Indiscretion still sounds pretty new.
Any other thoughts on the album?
The cover is one of my all-time favorite paintings of Susanne's.
I very much like it too. What brand of cigarettes are you smoking in the painting?
Cannot recall for sure. I think it was pre-American Spirits. Maybe Merit 100s.
In one sentence, how would you describe this CD?
Some pretty good songs and a lot of tape hiss.
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