lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: blindsided by love

2004-02-04: on 'the road': grammy nominee cathy richardson, the windy city times:

singer, songwriter, and most recently, actress, cathy richardson is a grammy nominee in the best recording package category. externally, her cd the road to bliss (cash rich) is stunning. from the road photos on the triple gatefold cover, including the authentic hawaiian rainbow, to the interior rendering of a vintage car dashboard in which the disc itself is depicted as the steering wheel and the glove box opens to reveal the ingenious lyric sheet and liner notes rendered as a map. one look at it and you will agree with the grammy nominating committee. internally, the road to bliss is richardson's finest work. every song, written between 1998 and 2003, ranks among her best, with highlights such as the cautious jubilance of "miracle," the defiant "this town," the radiant "blindsided by love" (a duet with indigo girl emily saliers), the lucinda williams-like country blues of "i can't forgive you" (with harmony vocals by nicholas tremulis), and the exhilarating "over your shoulder," to name a few.

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gs: emily saliers provides the duet vocal on the lovely "blindsided by love."

cr: kristen hall and i wrote that song. it was the first song that we wrote together. we met on a gig in florida. she was like, "hey, you're really good! i want to write with you." i was like, "holy shit! cool! because she's kristen hall" (laughs). she came up to chicago and stayed at our house. we went downstairs and i started playing her all these unfinished song ideas. i played her the chorus of "blindsided by love" and i said, "i've got this chorus that i love, but i cannot write a verse to save my life." she was like boom, "give me a guitar!" then all of a sudden we had this great song. the way the lines in the chorus go, i had visions of emmylou harris and linda ronstadt. kristen suggested that if emily sang the demo it might help to get them to listen to it. i had opened for indigo girls and sung with them a couple times and kristen is an old friend so she convinced emily to do it. of course, it turned out so beautifully and emily was supportive of putting our version on my record. ... we cut the song and then she asked me come up (during their concert) to sing "closer to fine" with them and lisa loeb. what an awesome day that was.

gs: that was one of those miracles.

cr: exactly! (laughs)