When an album of mine turns 20 years old, I feel like I need to give it a little love. In 2017 when my first album, Taken was 20, we had a belated release party. Back in 1997 I was too poor to throw a release concert. We fixed it in 2017 by having a lovely evening in the Veteran’s Hall in Spanish Fork, where we played the album from start to finish, along with songs from my other albums, for fans and friends who have been there with me from the beginning. It was so wonderful.
Heart Made of Wind did have an album release party in November of 1999. The CDs had “2000” printed as the release because it sounded so much cooler at the time. And that’s probably when it actually hit stores. I hired a full band, and sent postcards to everyone I knew. Including some local V.I.P.s I figured were long shots. Almost everyone came! It’s probably a good thing that happened because here in 2020 there will be no celebratory memorial concert, since concerts and gatherings are frowned upon due to the pandemic.
I’d still like to shine a little light on the record, though, and make everyone indulge me as I wax a little nostalgic. I had released Taken a couple of years before. After playing in record stores and coffee shops to three people at a time, and occasionally opening for local bands, I secured a distribution deal and my little career was getting started. Still, I was mostly penniless and had no idea how I’d continue to move forward, until a friend of my sister approached me and offered to invest in another album. This was before the days of Kickstarter, and it was still a little wild for someone to release an album without a record label, so it was amazing that someone would be so generous. Bob Borden graciously invested in this project, and told me I could record whatever kind of project I wanted, as long as he could come to the sessions to see what it was like. He flew in from Dallas, TX to be with us. He never was controlling or critical. It was fun to have him there and I think he enjoyed stepping into a reality a little different from his normal life for a couple of weeks. I’ll forever be grateful to him. Recording a second full album is what I think allowed some industry people to take me seriously, and it opened some doors to me. Artistically it was also a turning point in my life. I had no television at the time. I never had heard of social media. I had a job I didn’t love. I desperately wrote songs with every square millimeter of spare time. I wrote songs to feel alive. I wrote songs to feel powerful. I wrote songs to cast spells on boys. Sometimes they worked. And like all magic spells you read about in fairy tales, the spells wore off. But they were fun to cast. Is every song perfect? No. If you read the info I put for each track on Bandcamp, you might laugh along with me about some of the imperfections. But I can hear the creative fighter in me when I listen to these songs, and I can hear the girl who wouldn’t give up in spite of being lonely and broke and a little overwhelmed, and I’m thankful for her. If you're still with me, thanks for following along as I remember this magical project 20 years later, before 2020 comes to an end.
Heart Made of Wind is on the music page here on the website, and also on Spotify, but if you visit https://cheriecallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/heart-made-of-wind, you can listen to the album, read more fun facts about the songs, and download it for free or pay what you want. If you’re crazy and want an actual CD, boy would I love to send you one. Send me a note at callcherie@gmail.com with your address and either send money via PayPal, or Venmo Cherie-Call and I’ll fix you up for $5 a CD.
Oh, and it’s also on Spotify.
In case you don't make it over to the Bandcamp page, here are a few fun details. Most of the songs were recorded at June Audio in Provo with Scott Wiley as the engineer. It was where I really came to know the amazingness of Scott. His studio was brand new but he was already amazing and probably should have gotten some producing credit on this record with all of the amazing ideas that he made happen.
Quite a few of the songs were originally written and recorded for films by my friend Dan Austin. It started with True Fans, which I helped find and record music for, along with my friends from the band, Lincoln Highway. I watched so many edits of Dan's film and tried to help him figure out which pieces of the hundreds of hours of footage he should use. He and his best friend and his brother had ridden bikes across the United States with a basketball they had signed by people who showed kindness to them along the way. They presented the ball to the basketball hall of fame in Springfield, Mass. while they were on their trip. I first met Dan not long after he made the trip. I wrote Heart Made of Wind as I watched the story arc take place from all those edits. The film went on to win the Banff Mountain Film Festival's Audience Choice award.
While we were neighbors on 1st Avenue in Salt Lake City, Dan planned and executed another adventure of riding his bike from the border of Mexico down to Chichen Itza to play a game of basketball one on one on New Year's Eve of 1999. It was called, "Last Game", and it's where my song, Pilgrim, Go! comes into the picture.
Dan now runs an amazing organization called 88 Bikes which gifts bicycles to women and girls all over the world, many of which are sex trafficking survivors. The bikes and accompanying mentorship helps them start a new life. Check it out at 88bikes.org
There's a lot more I could tell you about that part of my life and the songs themselves. You can find a little bit more on the Bandcamp site, or maybe if you see me at a show I'll play a tune and tell you another story. But it will always hold a special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy.
