Blame Sally: A Modern Female Version of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

The music of Blame Sally is diverse, relevant and harmonious. The four women who make up the quartet, Pam Delgado, Renee Harcourt, Jerri Jones and Monica Pasqual, are accomplished musicians in their own right, each having written and performed independently. The San Francisco residents joined forces in 2001 to form the band and subsequently released their debut live CD Blame Sally. Their newest CD, Severland, was released in 2007 and is a stellar collection of folk and pop songs. They've performed at a number of acoustic festivals around the country including Four Corners Music Festival and Live Oak Music Festival. They are set to perform at the American River Festival in Coloma, California, in September. My dialogue with Blame Sally for Indie Mosaic Music:

(Indie Mosaic Music): Your music has been described as lush, brainy, pure and honest. How would you describe your music to the new Blame Sally listener?
(Blame Sally): Monica: Wow, that's a pretty nice description. I don't know about the brainy part, but I'd definitely call it pure and honest. It's also pretty eclectic because we are such different writers with different experiences and musical tastes. Somehow we've managed to merge these differences into something pretty unique and coherent. But new listeners often want something they can refer to - I like to think of us as something like the modern female version of early Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - lots of harmonies, very different writers, good playing. The 60s and 70s had several groups like that - Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and, of course, the Beatles. I don't know of that many that are doing that in our genre these days - there are groups of individual songwriters who have come together to record and perform, but to me most of them still sound very much like songwriters playing each others songs. I think we have managed to create a sound that is recognizably Blame Sally, no matter who is singing lead or who wrote the song.

(IMM): Given that each of you has an extensive songwriting background, how did you decide which songs to include on Severland?
(Blame Sally): Monica: We try to be pretty even-handed about that and at the same time we look at what will work within the context of a whole album. Renee and I write a ton of songs, so we usually can choose from a pretty big pool. Sometimes there are songs that are just obvious, (we knew "If You Tell a Lie" had to be on that album because it was so timely). Then there are songs that really define the album - in this case, I think the title song, "Severland" really set the tone for the whole album. We all felt that it aptly portrayed the mood of the times - both personally and globally. "Devil to Pay" worked on the album because of Severland - they were like the two very serious anchors. Pam's "Trouble" was a wildcard. She wrote that song and we loved it, but it was like nothing we'd performed before - really raucaus and old country sounding - it was tricky to fit into the album, but I think that, "Moth to a Flame" and "Long Time" ended up balancing out the more serious tone. I generally work on the order of our sets and of our albums and I think "Severland" was the hardest to order - but for me it's also the one that works best as a whole album.

(IMM): What's the songwriting process like for the band? Do you write together or individually?
(Blame Sally): Monica: Jeri and Pam sometimes write together and Renee and I have written a Blame Sally song together (we've also composed music for film and tv together) - but as a band we hadn't ever written together. We just wrote a song together a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty fun. It's too early to say what the process will be like, but I think in general we all understand that the key to writing together is dropping the ego as much as possible. I think that's a challenge for writers. I suspect for me that my attachment is mostly to words - I'm really picky and attached to what I say and how. I'm hoping the song we just wrote goes on the new album - it's a true collaboration.

(IMM): For each member of the band: what's your favorite song on the CD and why?
(Blame Sally): Monica: "Severland" and "Devil to Pay" tie for me. I love dark, sad songs. They both have a raw quality and a lush quality. I love Jeri's guitar solos on both and the groove. Renee: "Besalu" and "Severland." I usually go for the groove songs, but in this case, emotion wins out. I have always loved "Besalu" and was quite pleased with the recording (although I haven't listened to it in probably a year). "Severland" can still make me cry if I really let myself in it when I listen. Jeri: "House of the Living" is my favorite song from "Severland." It's such a song of the times to me, mournful, sarcastic and ultimately hopeful. I love the way it sounds too, Pam's gorgeous vocal performance, Renee's guitar in the intro and her anti-solo, Monica' haunting piano throughout. All of us stretched instrumentally on that arrangement. Pam: My favorite song on the album is "Severland" for its layers of emotion... It's the only Blame Sally song that I always include in my workout playlists. It's super good for warm-up and/or cool-down.

(IMM): What's the back story on the title of the CD Severland?
(Blame Sally): Monica: Renee can tell you about the reason she titled the song that. As far as why we titled the album that - again, it totally described the sort of cut-off and stranded feeling of the times. We'd all had some really difficult experiences in the year before the record came out and I think that we felt that the world was also in that space. It's a cool made up word, very evocative and probably has a different meaning for each of us. Renee: It was the last mournful song I wrote about the grief I had over the breakup of a long-term relationship with someone I still consider to be my soul mate. "Severland" is a place I made up...the place I felt I was in for so many years following the break up. Severed from my soul mate and my family. The severed from family feeling is an old, familiar feeling I have felt since I was a kid growing up, which I feel is finally healing.

(IMM): Which of your songs received pre-Grammy nominations? What was that experience like?
(Blame Sally): Monica: That was fun. We were pre-nominated for Best New Artist, Best Album and Best Song: "Severland."

(IMM): How has the vibe of San Francisco influenced your music?
(Blame Sally): Monica: San Francisco is the biggest little city or the littlest big city - either way, you get all the culture, the diversity, the excitement of a bigger city and yet it's so much easier to be here. Personally, I think that in San Francisco we've had the luxury of being able to approach our music from a relaxed placed without all the pressure to succeed that we might have gotten in LA or NYC. I think we've developed a style and sound that is organic and unafraid.

(IMM): I like to toss in a bonus non-music related question for fun. Here goes: What tech gadget could you NOT live without?
(Blame Sally): Monica: Oh, oh. Wrong person. I'm going to toss that one to one of the other Sallies. Personally, I've always thought I'd love to go back to the 19th century, ride a horse and sit by the fire with a book. I'll admit that the Web has probably been pretty good for us, though. Renee: I think I could live without just fine without any of them, but I do love my Mac and my iPod. : ) Jeri: Well, in my case this question IS music related. I couldn't live without my electronic guitar tuner with all those stringed instruments onstage and no guitar tech. My life would be a nightmare without my tuners and I travel with three of them. I should suggest that Apple add it as a feature to my iPhone. Pam: My Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS unit... In fact I can't believe everyone in the band didn't come up with this one. We've all become quite dependent on it while touring. Monica named her Clare. Clare provides us with endless amounts of entertainment and Renee and I might be falling in love with her...