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Bible Belt (album)

Bible Belt is the debut release by soul singer-songwriter Diane Birch. The lead single is "Nothing But a Miracle". An acoustic version of the song "Rewind" appears on a season 3 episode of The Vampire Diaries.

Bible Belt

May 19, 2009[1]

55:01

Development[edit]

Birch developed her Seventies-style pop music while visiting London and Los Angeles. She recorded Bible Belt in New Orleans and her hometown New York. Several of the songs are autobiographical, such as "Don't Wait Up" which deals with sneaking out from her parents house before changing into Goth dress.[2] "Valentino" is dedicated to her imaginary friend, her muse, from her teenage period when she felt out of time and felt ties to the 18th century. Another song, "Fire Escape", grew out of conversation with a friend, when she learned that the friend's father had recently died.[3] The album has sounds of earlier musical times, with the feel of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Laura Nyro, and Carly Simon threaded throughout the 13 tracks. Birch employed an orchestra of violins, violas and cellos for "Fire Escape" and "Photograph", under the direction of concert master Sandy Park.[4] She preferred the sound of the Wurlitzer piano because it has a "richness that's hard to replicate on a modern instrument".[5][6]

Cole Williams, Sumyia Dabney, Eugene Pitt, Bobby Jay, Jose Moro, Joel Katz, Michael Longoria: additional vocals and/or doo-wop vocals

Betty Wright

(primary), Fionn O'Lachlainn: electric guitar

Lenny Kaye

Anna Wayland:

acoustic guitar

George Porter Jr.: bass guitar

Adam Blackstone

: drums

Cindy Blackman

: drums, percussion

Stanton Moore

: organ

Raymond Angry

Lenny Pickett: saxophone

Lou Marini

: trombone, flugelhorn

Tom Malone

Jim Hines (primary), Frank London:

trumpet

Eugene Briskin, Sumire Kudo, Jeanne LeBlanc, Eileen Moon, Sophie Shao, Mary Wooten, Wei Hong Yu:

cello

Eva Burmeister, Tomas K. Carney, Minyoung Chang, Shan Jiang, Lisa Kim, Juan Cheng Lu, Karen Marx, Sarah O'Boyle, Suzanne Ornstein, Sandra Park, Annaliesa Place, Jenny Strenger, Arnaud Sussmann, Jung Sun Yoo, Alicia Svigals, Maxim Moston:

violin

David Creswell, Dawn Hannay, Vivek Kamath, Daniel Panner, Michael Roth:

viola

Shannon Powell:

tambourine

Official website