Shocker Alert: Seattle Indie-Folker Rosie Thomas is planning on enlisting Indie-folker Sam Beam, who of course fronts the Indie-Folk outfit Iron and Wine, to produce her Indie-Folk follow-up to 2006's Indie-Folk affair These Friends of Mine. Hey, sometimes you’ve just gotta think outside the box, man.
Thomas, who is currently touring in support of her recently-released Christmas album, A Very Rosie Chistmas, claims that this totally radical, totally experimental, and highly unorthodox collaboration has been brewing for some time, critics be damned. "We've been talking about doing it for a year," Thomas said. "I think it's going to be different because we write different kinds of things [ed: ?!?]. I'm just going to come up with a bunch of songs, and when I like them I'm going to give them to him and he's going to start putting them together musically." (I wonder who used to do that job before...)
Uh, but yeah, in all fairness, Thomas does have a slightly different vibe planned this time around. Namely, she intends to “move the rhythm up a bit... go for a more soul-filled feeling" on her forthcoming tunes, which she says comes, of all people, at the behest of the dowdy, flannel-wearing Beam. "He was really pushing me for years; ‘I want you to write that Motown record you've always wanted to write,’" notes Thomas, who apparently also can’t believe that Sam Beam likes R&B. "I just start laughing, 'cause it's like, ‘Sam, look at you. You have a beard. How can I go to you to write this kind of stuff?' But I know he has it in him. It'll be fun, regardless." Well, it can’t be that hard, Rosie. This guy seems to manage just fine.
Thomas says she's written a few things already but plans to start working in earnest after the New Year, when she goes to either New York, Los Angeles, or Nashville to hunker down. "I tend to need to get away to write, get out of my comfort zone," she explains. "That's when I feel most creative." Yeah. Me too, Rosie. Say, I think I’ll get away after the New Year and maybe ask the label to fly me on down to... oh wait, I have a day job.
A Very Rosie Christmas Tour: