An Interview With Caroline Bowles

You’ve been singing contemporary worship songs for some time - why would you want to make a CD of early American and Celtic hymns?

I’ve always loved these tunes - it isn’t just a sudden thing - you hear them and they stay with you, they’re very haunting.

But isn’t this kind of a new twist? Sounds to me like a new-age, ‘Enya goes to church’ feel.

Thanks - I’m a huge Enya fan, and love that musical style, but I wouldn’t say “Wondrous Love” is as atmospheric as most new-age recordings. We avoided the heavy layering of vocal tracks that is one of Enya’s hallmarks, and used acoustic instruments for the most part.

But the way you recorded the songs isn’t exactly authentic, is it?

No, not at all. Most of the songs were drawn from an early hymn book called The Sacred Harp, but if you stepped into a time machine and listened to the way they were sung two hundred years ago, you probably wouldn’t even recognize the tunes - they were sung in 4 part harmony similar to the style performed by “Shape Note” singers today.

So, you found them in a really old hymn book?

They were published in The Sacred Harp originally, and yes, I did look at the harmonic structure and the original lyrics, but these songs have found their way into modern church hymn books, too - the musical arrangements are just different.

This sounds pretty technical. Did you have help with the arrangements?

Oh, yeah, I had a lot of help. “Wondrous Love” was my first project, and it took me eight years to finish recording it, doing one song at a time or bits and pieces of songs as we had the money to go forward. I depended heavily on friends to help with the arranging, and on some of the incredibly talented musicians who played with me - Max Dyer, who played cello on 6 of the tracks, Ray Dillard, who played percussion...Jeff Nelson, who played keyboard. More than anyone else I’m indebted to Andy Bradley, the studio engineer at Sugar Hill Recording Studios who was very sensitive to the music and was able to bring out the performances and feel I was after. On “Christmas Carols,” I had not only Andy Bradley, but by an amazing stroke of providence, I had Paul English as a producer, arranger and keyboardist.

What was that like, having someone else direct your project?

Sometimes it was hard, and we didn’t always agree, but Paul is a prince, and I’m forever indebted to him. He did a fantastic job, and believed in the project from beginning to end.