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Listen
By Emily Botein
There was a specific moment when we thought: Bill Frisell.
Jay and I were listening to some tape from Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister, who had traveled to the Great Plains to talk to buffalo farmers and cattle ranchers, and we were listening to Sam Hurst talk — and suddenly, Bill Frisell just came to mind.
His music, which can capture big and open spaces in an indescribable way, seemed like it would fit with the stories that were coming in and the tape that producers were gathering.
On a whim, we called up his management company. We explained the project, and they were intrigued. In a matter of months, we found ourselves in a recording studio in Seattle with Bill Frisell and a trio of string instrumentalists — Hank Roberts on cello; Jenny Scheinman on violin and Eyvind Kang on viola.
I spent two days in the studio with them and came back with 106 different pieces of music — from string quartet arrangements to solo electric guitar. We had no idea what we would get in Seattle. In fact, the music wasn’t what we expected, but the music has made the series come alive and sound different in ways that we never ever planned.
We feel incredibly lucky that we were able to steal a little of Bill Frisell’s time — as well as that of the musicians he brought together.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Tad Nichols Collection/NAU-Cline Library (Campfire by the Colorado River, Arizona); Jimmy Katz (Bill Frisell)
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