To this day, many consider Elliott Smith’s self-titled album to be the late singer-songwriter’s most intimate and revealing record. The album’s recording was divided between the home studios of Heatmiser’s drummer (Smith’s longtime high-school friend Tony Lash) and local audio engineer Leslie Uppinghouse, both of whom are credited on the album with “mixing assistance”. Lord introduced Smith to her boyfriend at the time, Slim Moon, owner of record label Kill Rock Stars, who would go on to release Elliott Smith and its follow-up, Either/Or, before Smith signed to DreamWorks in 1998. Electric guitar lines fly in and out, while Smith’s vocals are confessional whispers demanding that listeners show up for the music and participate. It was staggering.” A latter-day Nick DrakeĮlliott Smith creates an inverted sonic landscape where sparse, paper-thin drums eat away at the edges of layered, melodic down-tuned acoustic guitar reminiscent of Nick Drake, Bert Jansch and John Fahey. I knew there was something special in the production and the sonic capability of this very primitive way of recording. “It was lo-fi, sure, but you could tell there was a lot of thought that went into the texture of the way these songs were sounding. “I was so impressed with the sound,” she said in a 2015 interview with Consequence Of Sound. Lord was in awe of the recording’s quality, musical arrangements, and lyrical content.

During this time, Smith played Lord a new song, “Needle in the Hay,” which would become his self-titled album’s opening track. Lord was floored by Smith’s performance and asked him to join her on a month-long tour. He befriended singer-songwriter Mary Lou Lord, who had caught his set at the legendary Seattle venue Velvet Elvis. During the recording of the album, Smith pulled double-duty between his burgeoning solo career and his indie rock band, Heatmiser, scraping together a living working odd jobs.

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