The Wages, An Illustrated Story | 11. Masterstroke | Crystal Woodshedding
When it came to the drums, Crystal persisted with Ben and the engineers at Genuine Oak by demonstrating her near-perfect metre and impeccable sight-reading. The carefully-practiced Motown fills she built into her standard country train-beats and shuffles made Ben say, “Crystal honey, your funky little touches are going to seal the deal on Brandy's pop crossover potential. It's something different, but it's never awkward or phony. It's just like you are, baby. I am impressed.”
Ben assigned me a vocal coach, and I struggled along by ear to refine my tone control and even out my endurance. She said my lows were solid but I had to work on making my highs airy instead of strained. On recording days, I spluttered away through vocal take six, then punched in fixes or started again. They tolerated multiple takes of my hack songwriter’s guitar playing and a little of my fledgling banjo.
When they had laid down the bed instruments, Crystal had cut her tracks with the same flawless efficiency as their veteran studio men. She only required three takes one time, and then it was Crystal who asserted, “I’m still not back on the beat after that fill.” The engineer played it back and thanked her for saving them a time-consuming and expensive headache later at overdub. It was a little intimidating.
When the engineers added more layers of music, they asked Crystal so many questions about the structure of rhythms, fills, breakdowns, and vamps that they suggested to Ben that she should be credited as an arranger.