album art

                                        click on image for enlarged view
The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard
The final package was printed on recycled paper and came in two versions; a standard package with a 16-page book, and a special edition
that featured an expanded book, and an additional panel to house the DVD with 50 minutes of behind-the-scenes video shot in high-definition.
A 5.1 surround mix, high-fidelity MP3s, and an SACD mix were also included in the special edition, released by New West Records.
Click on this link to view more of the album art: www.thewordstoday.com/exposition
  
   
My career as an album cover artist and photographer began in 1995 when I did the Naked Songs design and photos for Rickie Lee Jones. We actually used gold ink
for the collage on the cover. I had an idea to press the image between glass and use blood for the red, with a cut-out of the photograph I took of Rickie against a
gold background. Reprise Records were great to work with, and only slightly wondered about using gold ink. A printer friend of mine found an economic solution,
and the result (if I can say so) was really elegant and rich. New Beginning was an interesting project, although the record company (Elektra) wouldn't let me put
dried flower seeds, and/or a stem in the clear spine of the CD jewel case. They said that they could have done it a month earlier, but they had changed packaging
companies, so it was out of the question. Too bad. It would have added to the design. I made up a few with the seeds and stem added to give to friends. To compensate,
I had some dried flowers printed on the paper insert visible in the spine. Almost got the point across, but not great. It's Like This, an album cover photo and design that
was met with modest reaction, was later included in a coffee table book, The One Hundred Greatest Album Covers of All Time (published in 2005). Life is full of
odd twists like that. I took the photograph for the cover at the Grunenwald Guild in Plain, Washington, an amazing retreat for artists. The rest of the interior photographs,
all black and white, showed private moments and empty rooms in houses, part of Rickie's life at the time. Some thought, then, that it was too plain or austere a design.
Rickie chose the cover photo from the Grunenwald Guild, and her artistic sense proved correct. At times, art directors get credit of the final results of their work, when,
in fact, it is just good listening, picking up on a reaction or idea that is very different from what you may be planning to do.

    
Live at Red Rocks featured a child's drawing superimposed over desert mountains that I photographed in California. The cover was printed in a very deep red,
with a full color version of the child's drawing inside. Duchess of Coolsville, released by Rhino in 2005, gave me an opportunity to work on an anthology that
spanned Rickie's music from 1979 (with some earlier demos, from 1978) to 2004. The art department at Rhino were lovely to work with, especially Maria
McKenna, and my assistant during the project, Lisa Glines. Lastly, I have to thank my brother, Paul Cantelon, for getting me started. He recorded a solo
piano album at Capitol Records (In the Morning Early) and asked me to do the cover. That was in 1978. Many years later, I had the joy of art directing a
project for his band, Wild Colonials, This Can't Be Life, released by DGC.

Photography and design have been a doorway, bringing me into contact with many wonderful people, the artists, as well as those who make their music
accessible, managers, A&R people, and the team of people that work behind the scenes at the various labels. They have made my life's journey richer.

   
Duchess from Coolsville was a rewarding project, a three-CD anthology of Rickie's music released in 2005
by Rhino Records. Click on any above image to see a sample page from the 32-page book. From left to right:
a collage I made with a photo of Rickie and some notes from her journal. She asked me to add the stripes, and
make it more like a flag. Rickie picked out the intriguing colors. Next is a page from her spiral-bound notebook,
her original notes as to the song sequence for the anthology. I used this as a surface for one of the three CDs, but
changed it to red and black. The next image is a sample of one of the page layouts in the book, without text, a
collage that shows Rickie and Tom Waits, and Rickie and Sal Bernardi, as well as a sketch Rickie did on a
napkin once, and that I kept. All elements in the package were scanned from photos, scraps of paper, and
other things I found at Rickie's house, so that nothing was created for the package that didn't come from her
notebooks, photo albums, and collections of letters, faxes, and paper.

 
My liner notes that were included in the anthology. Click on either page to enlarge and read.


...and then there was Ghostyhead, a Polaroid photograph of a red piece of cloth with a thumbprint squashed
on it that looked like a little face. It was a photo, I believe, of John Nelson (the engineer at Conway who
worked on the album). His assistant drew on it, and somehow, it turned into the Ghostyhead "mascot."
Again, Rickie chose this image for the cover of this incredible record. It remains one of the most
progressive and prophetic albums from the 90's.

- Lee Cantelon, Hollywood, California-

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© Copyright 2006 photographs and designs by Lee Cantelon