The Road To Nashville – A Potted History

Part 1

March 2011 – The quest starts at a mountaintop retreat in the south of Spain – a hidden studio in a house called El Cortijo, ruled by a veteran skin-beater by the name of Trevor Morais. There, as the rain and wind pound on the windows, they capture a couple of handfuls of rough-hewn seeds of songs harnessed from the bittersweet (mostly sweet) fruit of their experience over the preceding five hard-working, post-rapture years, visiting countless corners of the known and unknown world.

MARCH 2012 – Almost exactly (roughly accurate) a year later, the five musicians, having returned unharmed and yet buoyed from their recent trek into the snowy wilds of a Canadian winter tour, reassemble themselves into an unreasonably coherent unit at a vast rehearsal space in a secret location in Werne, Germany – apparently a secret no longer. There, they deconstruct several of the Spanish items, creating, reconstructing and stumbling upon some fresh musical building blocks, emerging nine days later with at least two armfuls of ideas.

June 2012 – At the height of a freak heat wave they descend on the City of Nash in the Land of The Free. During the course of more or less exactly one fifteenth of a month of Sundays (five weeks) they stir away at the ripened fruit until it becomes fourteen individual jam tarts. By this time, Bob, of the Ezrin clan, has appeared with a vision of how-it-should-be and with a firm but flexible grip on reality, helps and aids the musicians polish the assorted riffage into something close to tangible.

July 2012 – The recording – it has been a long time coming but finally they are ready for the red light district – and not what you think! The red light in this case is that moment of truth in that hallowed place called ‘the studio’ where the songs are processed, pickled, prodded and preserved for that unknown quantity that is the future listener. The Ezrin, now known as Bob, cajoles, coddles, criticizes and caresses the musicians into pouring their souls into the arcane, electronic wizardry abundant in such places.

Measured on a scale of one second equals one second, time passes all too rapidly. Within a couple of weeks they complete the foundations of fourteen pieces of evidence from which the best will be chosen. From now on, individual additions would be sought, soloed and slotted into to the jigsaw. The jocular but focused atmosphere created by the outstanding team at The Tracking Room – Bob, Corky, Mike, RZA (not related Wu-Tang), Zack, Jarad, Tommy and Kim – play an essential part in the proceedings.

To be continued…

17 thoughts on “The Road To Nashville – A Potted History”

Rick Freeman wrote on 2013-02-08:

I do not think I am the only one who feels as if Christmas is coming this April.

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Leon wrote on 2013-02-07:

Dear mr. Glover,
to me, Deep Purple is one of the finest bands ever, you are all such great musicians. Really looking forward to the new DP album!

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Paq wrote on 2013-02-07:

I could sell a kidney of mine to work there.

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Paul wrote on 2012-09-21:

New music from Deep Purple is what life’s all about! I hope to hear all 14 bits of inspiration! Fine day indeed…

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Jim Irons wrote on 2012-08-15:

This is fantastic news indeed. It’s been difficult days since Jon’s passing and the thought of a long awaited Purple album makes the future seem just that little bit brighter.

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Robert wrote on 2012-08-15:

Can’t wait. It’s about time you all pulled your fingers out.

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josh wrote on 2012-08-14:

Yessss, fantastic news ! Can’t wait to hear the new album. Ciao, josh

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Syed Shahroll Jamalulail (Malaysia) wrote on 2012-08-14:

Really can’t wait, after 7 years, Deep Purple finally with their new album (the 19th studio album). I have all 18 studio album. Lets hope after this, there’ll be the 20th studio album. Bravo Deep Purple!!!!!!!

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Steve H wrote on 2012-08-13:

Good to know the creative juices are flowing nicely within the DP camp! Been thinking a lot about DP in the weeks since Jon’s sad passing & especially the 4 times i was fortunate enough to see DP with Jon (’91 in Edinburgh, twice in ’93 at Brixton & ’96 in Aberdeen where i was front row that night right in front of your good self! You flashed a grin at me when you saw me singing along to opener Fireball) Great memories .. All the best Roger & hope to see the band back in Scotland in ’13 or ’14..

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jim murphy wrote on 2012-08-13:

Christmas is looking great this year!

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Mark H Bryant wrote on 2012-08-10:

Yes!!!! I can hardly wait!!!

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BK wrote on 2012-08-09:

Roger, thanks for the report. It increases appetites 🙂 ‘The Road to Nashville’ could be the cover. Great photo. Good luck!

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Hristo Yankov wrote on 2012-08-09:

Thanks for update! So, everything is done now. I just hope the album will be on shelf when Fall leg starts. We deserves few set changes too! Good luck, Rog!

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Bruno Molo - Brasil wrote on 2012-08-09:

Can’t wait for the new album 🙂
miss you!

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Wolf wrote on 2012-08-09:

To quote Mad Magazine, i’m so excited i could just plotz. Every time a new energy is brought to the recording booth, magic happens — Steve Morse joins, we get Perpendicular; Don Airey’s premiere results in Bananas. This time Bob Ezrin is invited to helm the control room, who knows what interesting directions DP music is heading into?! Any indications of release date yet??

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Petr wrote on 2012-08-08:

Shouldnt it be March and July 2012? 😉 It´s nice to see that Ian´s leg seems to be OK now…. 🙂

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Mash wrote on 2012-08-08:

Excellent news. Just the tonic and a long-overdue one too! Can’t say just how much I’m looking forward to this…

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