Transnormal Skiperoo

Infobox Album |
Name = Transnormal Skiperoo
Type = studio
Artist = Jim White


Released = 2007
Recorded =
Genre = Alternative country
Length = 55:31
Label = Luaka Bop
Producer = Joe Pernice, Michael Deming, Jim White, Tucker Martine
Reviews = *All Music Guide rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:f9fuxzwhldte~T1 link]
*"Billboard" [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/content_display/reviews/albums/e3i064ef4c02067f0c89df8bebfa7d1870d link]
*"Entertainment Weekly" (A-) (14 Mar 2008, p.75)
*"Filter" (86%) (Winter 2008, p.98)
*"Los Angeles Times" rating|3|4 [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-albums29feb29,1,2881447.story link]
*"The Onion (A.V. Club)" (B+) [http://www.avclub.com/content/music/jim_white link]
*PopMatters rating|7|10 [http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/53316/jim-white-transnormal-skiperoo/ link]
*"Spin" rating|3.5|5 [http://www.spin.com/reviews/jim-white-transnormal-skiperoo-luaka-bop link]
*"Under the Radar" rating|7|10 (Winter 2008, p.89)
*"Village Voice" [http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0810,lewis-4,351037,22.html link]
Last album = "Jim White Presents Music from Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus"
(2005)
This album = "Transnormal Skiperoo"
(2007)
Next album =

"Transnormal Skiperoo" is a 2007 album by Jim White. It was produced by Joe Pernice and Michael Deming, recorded with the band Olabelle and also features tracks with Tucker Martine and Laura Veirs, local Georgia legend Don Chambers and Goat, bluegrass duo Jeff & Vida and percussionist Mauro Refosco.

In a 2007 interview [ [http://www.americana-uk.com/auk/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&topic_id=24&page_id=214 Jim White interview, Americana UK website] ] White said the album title was a term he had invented to describe "a strange new feeling I've been experiencing after years of feeling lost and alone and cursed".

He explained: "Now, when everything around me begins to shine, when I find myself dancing around in my back yard for no particular reason other than it feels good to be alive, when I get this deep sense of gratitude that I don't need drugs or God or doomed romance to fuel myself through the gauntlet of a normal day, I call that feeling 'Transnormal Skiperoo'."

White said the album marked a change of mood, both personally and musically: "I could keep writing songs about being sad and miserable, that’s my stock in trade, but it’s not a true reflection of how I am now. I vividly recall being sad and lost, but now I feel a true sense of purpose. I have a one year old daughter, a wife I love and a place in the world as a musician.

"This record is, in part, a sigh of relief I'm not stuck in the quagmire anymore, There’s still some old songs, like 'Jailbird', that I've only just got around to releasing, but there's lots of different kinds of songs too. I have a feeling people like me better sad, but I hope they are in my corner now I can feel and try to express happiness and a sense of fulfillment.

"It’s still new for me, I've built up a vocabulary over 45 years of sadness and maybe five years of joy, I'm still finding my way. On my last album I tried to write a song of love about my daughter but it wound up being about junkies and sleaze. It's taken me a while to meet the challenge, I hope I've done it with songs like 'Diamonds in Coal'."

Behind the songs

At his website [ [http://www.jimwhite.net/crackpot.html Jim White commentary on "Transnormal Skiperoo" at his website] ] White explains the meaning and background of each song:

* "A Town Called Amen": A song about growing old and settling into a sort of tender acceptance of life. There's a film by Ingmar Bergman called The Wild Strawberries that reminds me of what I was trying to get at in that song.

* "Blindly We Go": "An unusual song for me musically, although the lyrics deal with a familiar preoccupation of mine – the (for lack of a better term) unknowability of God. It's something I find myself thinking about a lot. There's that old Zen saying, "If you meet God on the road, kill him." In the South everyone is always telling me about how God told them this and God told them that, and their recitations of divine contact always feel like constructs of hubris. I have little trust for people who tell me they talk to God and God replies in strangely anthropomorphic, culturally precise ways that exactly mirror the person's mindset."

* "Jailbird": A"n old song from the days when I had to run from my problems."

* "Crash Into the Sun": "My message song. Since it was so preachy I wanted it to be musically adventurous, so I talked my good friend Tucker Martine into producing it. I flew to Seattle, all excited at the prospect of finally getting to work with Tucker with his stable of incredible musicians — Karl Blau, Steve Moore, Laura Veirs, Eyvind Kang."

* "Fruit Of The Vine": "A song that was prompted by thinking about that movie I did with BBC 4 ("Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus"). The images and characters in the film returned to me a lot, particularly the meth dealer who was doing life in prison. I thought about all my friends in similar situations and how their lives carried them to points of desperation and wanted to put some of those sad stories and cultural elements into a song.

* "Take Me Away": A story song, a hillbilly stomper, loosely based on the life and times of a friend of mine whose daddy was a preacher and who married a woman whose daddy was a preacher. He was surrounded by Jesus on every side and there was lots of pressure put on him to be a preacher as well. But he just didn't have it in him. In his heart of hearts he was a deeply creative, intuitive, artistic person, but in the church he had no outlet for his profound talents (he was my musical inspiration when I was in my teens) so he slowly but surely lost his mind. I took him as a character and created a context with the train and the men from the assylum that I thought symbolically represented his plight.

* "Turquoise House": A corn ball homage to misfits. Every album I put out has some goofy song on there that seems to contradict my perceived personality – this sensitive, suffering lost soul.

* "Diamonds To Coal": "A real challenge, both to write and produce. I've always relied on dramatic situations – crimes and murder and betrayal and terrible loss – to convey my feelings about life. This is sort of a juvenile mindset. Sooner or later you have to move on from those dramatic archetypes and talk about the meaning that can be found in the quotidian realm. This is my first attempt to do that. Musically I was shooting for Tony Joe White and never quite hit the target. It makes me appreciate all the more what he does."

* "Counting Numbers in the Air": "A question song. It asks 'how did we get in the mess of being grown up and disconnected from what is essential in life? Musically I've very proud of this song; I feel like I went to an exotic sonic club med on this song."

* "Plywood Superman": "Started out as an observational song, (a song about imagined others), and slowly came around to being a song about an aspect of my personality that I used to struggle with, but that of late I've learned to disregard. For years that side of me held a lot of sway with my sensibilities and choices. I was always a fingertip away from something that I could never quite reach. I quit reaching a while back and what I craved found me, instead of the other way around."

* "Pieces of Heaven": "A song I wrote to my two daughters. It's my way of wishing them well on their way and hoping that they will remember me with the love that I daily feel for them."

* "Long Long Day": I collaborated on this with a bluegrass outfit called Jeff & Vida. They're a husband and wife duo that have great musical skills and really understand how to compliment each other. Vida really nailed the wistful bucolic feeling that I was hoping for in the vocals. She's a great singer and Jeff can play the hell out of anything with strings on it."

Track listing

(all tracks by Jim White)

# "A Town Called Amen" – 3:42
# "Blindly We Go" – 2:59
# "Jailbird" – 5:55
# "Crash Into the Sun" – 4:22
# "Fruit of the Vine" – 7:50
# "Take Me Away" – 4:27
# "Turquoise House" – 3:18
# "Diamonds to Coal" – 4:36
# "Counting Numbers in the Air" – 5:20
# "Plywood Superman" – 5:36
# "Pieces of Heaven" – 3:07
# "It's Been a Long Long Day" – 3:51

Personnel

* Jim White – vocals, guitars, harmonica, banjo, Hammond M3, keyboard, mini-vibes
* Byron Isaacs – bass, dobro, stand-up bass, vocals
* Tony Leone – drums, vocals
* Glenn Patscha – keyboards, vocals
* Fiona McBain – vocals
* Mauro Refosco – percussion
* Patrick Hargon – lead guitar
* Tucker Martine – drums, vocals
* Steve Moore – keys, vocals, horns
* Karl Blau – bass, horns, vocals
* Laura Veirs – vocals ("Crash Into the Sun")
* Clyde Petersen – vocals
* Don Chambers – banjo, vocal
* Matt "Pistol" Stoessel – slide guitar, pedal steel
* Lisa Hargon – bass, drums, vocals
* Brandon McDearis – drums
* Vida Wakeman – vocals
* Jeff Burke – banjo, mandolin, vocals
* Michael Deming – recorder, washboard
* Joe Pernice – vocals ("Take Me Away")
* Levon Henry – tenor sax
* Robin Pratt – vocals
* Patrick Warren – keyboards, marxophone
* Chris Riser – stand-up bass
* Amanda Kapousouz – violin

References