J.P. Kallio: ‘Tell My Darling’

By J.P. Kallio

Earlier on I was asked to write something about my latest album “Tell My Darling”. It is a hard thing to write about your own album. I mean, I’ll gladly talk about my music for hours if someone has some questions. But to write about it? That’s tough.

It’s like your baby, and at the same time it’s your latest creation. So to say it is my best work so far feels like I am cheating on my earlier work  But at the same time with every album in my journey I seem to discover more about myself. I seem to define what I would call my voice. And while I look out in the world and write songs about things I see around me, I seem to learn more about myself, dig a little bit deeper into myself.

“Tell My Darling” is a definite progression in production from the past two albums “Northern Boy “and “Read Between The Lines“. I had the help of some wonderful people. An experienced multi-instrumentalist and producer Matthew Gillian in Tennessee literally took a few of the album tracks with just my bare vocals and acoustic guitar and delivered full production back to me. Barra McAllister on the Irish wooden flute and Brian O’Shea on tenor banjo, both old friends of mine contributed some fantastic work as well. But also I added electric guitar and percussion in the mix myself. Still the basics rely on my acoustic guitar tuned into DADGAD and my vocals.