“Some of my favourite records take you on a journey,” Daniel Lanois once commented. Acadie takes the listener on more than one – a journey through his homelands in Canada; a journey through the past, as traditional ways of life are half remembered and the folk songs of the past are referenced; and also a deeply moving spiritual journey.
By 1989 Daniel Lanois’ reputation was second to none - Rolling Stone hailed him as “the most important record producer to emerge in the Eighties” and artists such as Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel and U2 queued up for his services. His production style became a byword for quietly epic, atmospheric, stirring, delicate yet impassioned music. Above all Lanois captured the essence of the acts he produced. By insisting on relatively ‘live’ recording, with the control board frequently amongst the musicians to absorb the feeling of the music, Lanois was able to imbue his records with a vibrant immediacy and genuine emotion.
Daniel Lanois was born on 19th September 1951 in Quebec, Canada. Exposure to traditional French Canadian folk music via his parents influenced his passion for strong simple melodies and the immediacy of improvisation, but the production side also intrigued him. In the 1970s Daniel set up a home studio with his brother Bob and by 1980 the brothers were running the Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton, Ontario. At this point Brian Eno recorded some of his groundbreaking album On Land at Grant Avenue striking up a friendship and partnership with Lanois that continues to this day. In 1984 U2 persuaded Brian Eno to produce their next album. Eno insisted on bringing the more technically proficient Lanois with him as he felt that U2 and Lanois had a lot in common. The duo’s production of The Unforgettable Fire was so successful that they returned for 1987’s The Joshua Tree and various subsequent U2 projects. By the end of the decade Lanois had realised two great ambitions - working with Bob Dylan on Oh Mercy, and with the soulful Neville Brothers on Yellow Moon.
By 1989 Lanois had relocated to a house/studio called Kingsway, in New Orleans. The warmth of this rambling building where musicians could live and work is palpable on much of Acadie. Lanois’ gentle old-fashioned tunes, often with French lyrics, not only reflected life in Canada when he was growing up (Acadie is a area of Canada he knew well) but the songs linked the past to the present by invoking the folklore of the French population in the bayous of Louisiana. Many had a strong religious feel, especially “The Maker”, which has proved to be one of Lanois’ most enduring songs. Prior to recording the album, Lanois played a well-received set at the New Orleans’ Jazz Festival on 6th May 1989 with a scratch band consisting of Malcolm Burn and Mason Ruffner on guitars plus the rhythm section from Yellow Moon, Tony Hall and Willie Green. Satisfied with the response he began work in earnest on Acadie.
The songs took shape gradually, often during other artists’ sessions. “The Maker” was originally an uneasy mix of harmonica and ambient funk that Lanois was initially unhappy with. But the addition of an unwanted drum track from the Neville Brothers’ sessions transformed the song into a powerfully emotional prayer and Aaron Neville’s beautiful harmony vocal was just the icing on the cake. “Amazing Grace” was at one point intended for Yellow Moon but was left unfinished until Lanois visited Eno at his Suffolk Wilderness studio. Eno also added keyboards and treatments to a number of songs, including the cello effects on “St Ann’s Gold” and some haunting backing vocals for the opening song “Still Water”. Eno also recorded a rare lead vocal for “You Don’t Miss Your Water”, a song that was eventually dropped (though it did appear on b sides and the Married To The Mob film soundtrack). Lanois sent tapes to Dublin – there Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr added bass and drums to a couple of songs - whilst back in New Orleans Lanois set about finishing the album. Many of the simpler songs were recorded live, including “O Marie”, a delightful story of the traditional French Canadian tobacco pickers, and much of the similarly folksy “Under A Stormy Sky”, but other tracks took longer. Lanois comments that the powerful panoramic sweep of “Where The Hawkwind Kills” (the only song to approach the bombast of U2) ‘took forever to finish’, and the informative sleevenotes detail the number of mixes and overdubs required on tracks such as “Still Water.”
Despite the disparate sessions and disjointed recordings the end result was a remarkably cohesive record. The homespun nature of “O Marie” contrasts with the effects laden “Ice” but neither seems out of place. Lanois’ warm and smoky voice is expressive and inviting, his occasional diversions into French (sometimes in alternating lines) seem entirely natural and don’t detract from the songs at all. The strong spiritual vibe flowing through the album is balanced by an earthy honesty from superb musicians playing at the top of their game, contributing soulfully and imaginatively to a selection of inventive original songs.
In 2005 Daniel Lanois’ website (www.daniellanois.com) reissued Acadie and with fifteen years of hindsight he remarked, “Having had a chance to separate myself from this work I can now see how naïve and pure it really is. I stand by this work and I’m very proud of it.”
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