"When the River Meets the Sea" (titled after a Paul Williams song which appears on the album) is a sonic departure for Rose Polenzani: a collaboration with Boston Phenomenon Session Americana. The six members of Session Americana made their name playing music around a small table at the back of a tiny bar in the Porter Square neighborhood of Cambridge. The band, comprised of "the cream of the Somerville/Cambridge roots music community " (says No Depression magazine), would play just about any song that came into their heads, and they would also invite whoever might squeeze in through the front door (it was always packed) to sit down at the table and have a spin. One night it was Rose Polenzani.
From the first moment, it clicked between Rose and Session. They weren't just her backing band and she wasn't just sitting in. Out of the spontaneity (and joy!) they shared was born this CD.
To capture that feel Rose and the band turned to Hi n' Dry, (now defunct, but) a truly unique loft/recording studio established by Morphine founder Mark Sandman. The studio itself was structured towards live, one-room recording, with the "first take" often held up like a holy grail. With the help of that rich, red, history-soaked loft, Billy Conway as producer, Matt Malikowski as engineer, and about 20 microphones, they were able to recreate that live feel.
Not only was "When the River Meets the Sea" recorded live in the studio, but each of the songs captured on the album were introduced to the band and special guests no more than an hour before they were recorded. You can almost hear the arrangements' organic emergence as the songs rise out of the sonic dust. All those present were free to play any of the studio's instruments, from a grand piano to a toy piano to a vibraphone, and from over a dozen guitars. The resulting musical arrangements stand as unrepeatable works of chance, friendship, and artistry.