{"id":2445202,"date":"2019-06-11T15:21:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T21:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=846783"},"modified":"2019-06-11T15:21:17","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T21:21:17","slug":"dr-john-knew-the-end-was-near-he-recorded-one-final-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/dr-john-knew-the-end-was-near-he-recorded-one-final-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. John Knew the End Was Near. He Recorded One Final Album"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In December of last year, guitarist Shane Theriot got into his car and drove to Mac Rebennack\u2019s New Orleans house with a completed version of the record he had just produced for the Hall of Fame pianist, singer-songwriter and producer ubiquitously known as Dr. John<\/a>. Rebennack\u2019s health was declining by that point; his walking had slowed to the point where it had become an effort for him to leave his house. Six months later, his family would announce his death as a result of a heart attack.<\/p>\n

But over the course of the previous year, at a series of recordings at New Orleans\u2019 Esplanade Studios and the homes of Rebennack and Theriot, Dr. John had completed his final album, a mix of new originals, country-tinged covers and reworked Dr. John classics recorded with a series of hand-picked New Orleans session musicians. Despite his failing health and various logistical roadblocks, the piano player, songwriter, and singer who recorded over 30 albums throughout his career had seen his way through completing one last album.<\/p>\n

Listening to his finished album, Mac was elated. \u201cWe sat and listened to everything twice,\u201d says Theriot, \u201c<\/strong>He was singing along and had a big grin on his face. Then he walked me out to my car, stared at me and said, \u2018I\u2019m glad. I made the right choice.\u2019 And then he hugged and kissed me on the cheek.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details of the completed album, such as title and release date, are still in flux, but Dr. John\u2019s final work was completed in full while the singer was alive. Nevertheless, Dr. John seemed to sense throughout the process that it may be his last. \u201cTowards the beginning, I don\u2019t think Mac realized it would probably be his last record, but towards the end, I think he knew,\u201d says Theriot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would break my heart because he would come to my house, and I knew he wasn\u2019t feeling great, and Mac\u2019s work ethic, he was old school; he grew up doing five sets a night. And so he told me on several occasions, he would say, \u201cWhatever we gotta do, we gotta do it. We gotta get it done, Sha-zane,\u201d he would say, his nickname for Theriot. \u201cWhatever we gotta do to finish this motherfucker, we gotta finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMac understood that this was his last record,\u201d says David Torkanowsky, who played keyboards on the album. \u201cIt was emotional in the studio just to hear him. It had a certain weight to it that only something that\u2019s the last time you do it can have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. John began recording his final album in 2017, first at Theriot\u2019s home, then at Esplanade Studios. In early 2018, his health declined, and at a second session at Esplanade, he struggled to play the piano. \u201cIt was really difficult for him to deliver a performance,\u201d Esplanade studio engineer Misha Kachkachishvili says of the second session.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cHe was singing along and had a big grin on his face\u201d \u2013 Dr. John producer Shane Theriot<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But by March 2018, the Hall of Fame musician\u2019s health had rebounded to the point where Theriot was able to set up a makeshift studio at Dr. John\u2019s home and record him \u201cRick Rubin\/Johnny Cash style,\u201d says Theriot. \u201cWe took on a similar approach out of necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resulting album is anchored largely in traditional country music. \u201cThese were people he grew up on, a lot of people didn\u2019t know that,\u201d says Theriot. Dr. John had idolized Hank Williams Sr. since he was a teenager, and according to New Orleans musicians like John Scofield, he had been talking about recording a country-tinged piano record a la Ray Charles\u2019 Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music<\/em> since at least the Eighties. The album features several country classics like \u201cOld Time Religion\u201d (a duet with Willie Nelson<\/a>), Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cGuess Things Happen That Way,\u201d and \u201cFunny How Time Slips Away,\u201d as well as several Williams covers like \u201cRamblin\u2019 Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a version of [Hank Williams\u2019 1949 song] \u2018I\u2019m So Lonesome I Could Cry\u2019 that\u2019ll make you cry when you hear Mac sing it,\u201d says Theriot. \u201cAs this record took shape, it wasn\u2019t intentional, but the common thread is that the songs all deal with time and looking back. When you hear Mac sing, it\u2019s somebody that\u2019s lived a really full life. He sounds great, but he sounds exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lyrical content\u201d is country, Torkanowsky says of the record, \u201cbut it was completely Rebennack\u2019ed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from four new uptempo originals that Theriot describes as \u201cvintage Mac, with horns and girl singers,\u201d Dr. John also recorded newly arranged renditions of his own classics like \u201cSuch a Night\u201d and \u201cI Walk On Guilded Splinters,\u201d the latter a \u201ctrippy\u201d rendition featuring Rickie Lee Jones.<\/p>\n

Theriot was intent on not bogging down the album with superfluous featured appearances. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to load the record down with guests,\u201d he says. Apart from Jones, Nelson and Aaron Neville, who joins Dr. John for a \u201cNew Orleans street party\u201d rendition of the Traveling Wilburys\u2019 \u201cEnd of the Line,\u201d the album is a largely stripped-down affair, with Dr. John\u2019s vocals and piano playing highlighted in the mix. \u201cHe\u2019s right there for everybody to hear,\u201d says Theriot.<\/p>\n

Theriot says he remains grateful that Dr. John was able to see the album completed while he was still alive. \u201cMac got to hear it and live with it and make suggestions,\u201d he says. \u201cThis was one of his creations.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December of last year, guitarist Shane Theriot got into his car and drove to Mac Rebennack\u2019s New Orleans house with a completed version of the record he had just produced for the Hall of Fame pianist, singer-songwriter and producer ubiquitously known as Dr. John. Rebennack\u2019s health was declining by that point; his walking had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 17:00:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}