Spain Live on KCRW

Spain + Ariana Morgenstern by Larry Hirshowitz

From Morning Becomes Eclectic producer Ariana Morgenstern:

I’m sitting here at KCRW listening to our session with Spain and am flooded with images from the past.

In the 80’s, master jazz bassist Charlie Haden was a regular on our show.

I knew it was a big deal back then to have this legend come to our studios and share music with us, as he was a fan of ours. He listened to KCRW all the time, so it wasn’t a surprise when his kids started volunteering in our library.

Josh Haden, his son and one of his triplet daughters Rachel both came in on a weekly basis and helped out while exploring the shelves as they worked. They were teenagers at the time and they both played the bass.

Soon after, they started making music their professions. Josh started Spain and Rachel was part of That Dog. Petra and Tanya were also making music, but when the triplet got together, their harmonies were sublime and their sisterly banter was hilarious (they all have rye senses of humor).

Fast forward a couple of decades. Omnivore Records recently issued Spain’s catalog on vinyl and, after a long hiatus, Josh reformed the band and recorded a new album.

I’d been hearing about it since I’m close to Randy Kirk, the band’s keyboardist, and my sister Andrea did the album artwork.

Then, on a beautiful morning in September, we had a family reunion right here at KCRW. After a lot of coordination we were able to have the triplets join the band for Morning Becomes Eclectic and the resulting session aired today.

It was a proud and moving moment to have longtime friends return and you can hear it in the archives right here.

— Ariana Morgenstern