Red Letter Days

Red Letter Days (2002) is the fourth album from American rock band The Wallflowers. The album had a much more aggressive sound than any of their prior releases. When You’re On Top was the first single from the record, which became a hit on Adult Top 40 radio and reached #1 on the Triple A Billboard charts in November 2002.

About the Recording
“I kind of stumbled upon writing a record this time,” says Wallflowers singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jakob Dylan, explaining the origins of Red Letter Days. For the dual Grammy Award-winning band, their fourth album gradually took shape…in the midst of an extensive tour schedule in support of 2000’s Breach.

“I kind of needed a distraction from the road so I naturally started writing,”, says Dylan. “I really took advantage of the schedule and by the time I looked down there were a bunch of songs. I just woke up one day and realized we had a record.”

As the itinerary rolled on, the bank likewise seized the opportunity to document fresh-from-the-oven material. Along with original member, keyboardist Rami Jaffee, bassist Greg Richling, and drummer Mario Claire, Dylan recorded a series of free-flowing demos in backstage dressing rooms, closets, and arena loading docks – “pretty much anywhere there was a power source. It got to be pretty entertaining. We even set up microphones in a shower.”

When it came time to bring his dozen new originals into the studio, Dylan turned to an old friend, original Wallflowers guitarists turned producer Tobias Miller and his partner Bill Appleberry. “The key was brining those guys into the project,” says Dylan. “I just wanted to work with someone who understood me and Tobi is somebody I’ve known since I was 10-years-old. He and Bill believed in the songs and thought we were really on to something. It allowed us the freedom to make the kind of record you always thought you were going to make when you were a kid.”

Recorded in a series of LA studios and mixed by the renowned Tom Lord-Alge, Red Letter Days also found Dylan taking on more guitar duties than he had in the past. The space in the line-up provided further instrumental inspiration in the form of such guest guitarists as Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready.

“Mike just happened to be in town when we were working,” says Jakob. “I’ve met him a few times over the years, but when it came to playing on the record he really showed how much he understands the dynamics of being in a group. He brought a lot to the table.”

The liberated spirit that dominated the writing and recording sessions shines through in the album’s overall bright tone, its variety of moods, and urgent performances. Making itself dramatically known, Red Letter Days moves easily from the warm, melodic “When You’re On Top” to the cool, piano-centered “Closer To You,” the riff-powered “Everybody Out Of The Water” to the haunting “Health and Happiness,” the driving declaration of independence of “Everything I Need” to the rich, organically textured “Here In Pleasantville.”

Along the way, Dylan brings alternatively raw, gritty, and soothing vocal turns to his songs, defined by expressions of discovery, silver-lining reflection, hard truths and overarching optimism…”While it hasn’t always been true in the way I’ve written in the past, on these songs I really tried to be hopeful – because I needed to be hopeful. With any kind of music or art, you have an opportunity to put an energy out there that’s going to be positive, or you can state the obvious, that things are not good. Every time you walk that line, you make a choice. And on this record, I needed to believe that things will be better.

That same sanguine sense of purpose, according to Dylan, has carried directly over into the band itself. “I think I’ve having a better time being in this group since the very first line-up, which was when I was 19-years-old and we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. We got very far off track from that for a long time,” he continues. “Now the priorities are there and we’re all here because we believe in what we’re doing. Recording Red Letter Days became a huge lesson for us – that records do not have to be torture to make. I think we’ve got a really healthy situation. I’m not very Zen about these things, but now there’s definitely a good vibe.”