An acoustic evening with cellist Andrew "Scrap" Livingston

Mike Doughty’s new album, Golden Delicious, is a loose-limbed, freewheeling set that brings all the aspects of his singular muse together in one smart, humorous and eloquent package. Doughty’s last offering, 2005’s Haughty Melodic, was a sprawling, expansive set that took years to produce. On Golden Delicious, Doughty hewed close to his “dude theory”—the idea of making a relaxed record that sounds like a bunch of dudes playing music for the pure joy of playing. It was cut with his touring band: keyboardist John Kirby, drummer Pete McNeal, and bass player Andrew “Scrap” Livingston, who moved over to guitar for the recording process. Semisonic’s John Munson sat in on bass and recent GRAMMY winner Dan Wilson (Semisonic, Jewel, Dixie Chicks) returned as producer.

“With Haughty, [Dan and I] started with drum machine, piano and guitar,” Doughty recalls. “We kept bringing people in to lay down drums, pedal steel or whatever, layer on layer. This time the intention was to make everything live, spontaneous and of the moment. I’ve been playing with these guys for a couple of years and encouraged them to contribute to the process. They put their individual stamp on the music and had input into the arranging and development of the songs. I like guys who can surprise me and I was always smiling in the studio.” Doughty credits the album’s spacious, panoramic sound to Wilson’s knack for keeping things simple and his ability to make even the quietest songs sound “loud.”