At long last, the day has finally come.

Presenting to you, Dear Irvington by Mama Magnolia. Recorded in Fort Worth, TX, at Niles City Sound from 11/26/21 to 12/5/21. Download the album with the button below or click on the album artwork. Scroll down and explore our Digital Treasure Trove, special for our Kickstarter supporters.

Howdy friend!

Thomas here, guitarist in Mama Magnolia. As a special gift, the band and I have collected images and videos of the entire album process and beyond. We’ll go all the way back to our baby-faced beginnings in 2014. But first, I’d love to tell you about our time in the studio making Dear Irvington.

Before recording this album, I had never been to Texas, let alone stepped foot inside a studio like Niles City Sound.

We were set up in one big tracking room with vintage gear in every direction. Maybe this will help paint a picture: There's an effects unit called Tape Echo that Pink Floyd (among others) used on many of their albums. I had never seen one in person before. At this studio there was not one, not two, but three different vintage tape echo units for me to play my guitar through (A kid-in-a-candy-store experience).

All the photos you’ve seen so far were taken by a professional photographer named Lauren Withrow. However, as the unofficial band archivist, I (Thomas) also had a camera and took some pictures of the process. Here are some behind the scenes shots from my perspective.

We decided to try writing over Zoom in a more intensive “writing retreat” format.

We all set aside a few weekends to focus entirely on being together virtually. Our new process needed to capitalize on everyone’s individual strengths as creative people and let us all lean on each other for support where we needed it. We structured our retreats by focusing on 2-3 person small group writing sessions with regular full-group check-in’s. We spent many long days recording parts individually in our homes and syncing them together to create demos for all the new songs.

Then began one of the largest projects we have ever undertaken as a band, the crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter.

We enlisted the help of our friend, multi-instrumentalist and Kickstarter consultant Travis McNamara, who helped us get across the finish line. Without Travis’s help, we never could have taken on a project like this with such success. His company is called Arthouse Consulting and we couldn’t recommend him highly enough.

With the funding secured, it was time to start assembling our team.

We made a big list of producers we might like to work with, but two Texans stood out amongst the rest. Robert Ellis and Josh Block, owners of Niles City Sound, are both long time touring musicians and experienced producers/engineers. Working with them was a dream come true. In early November 2021, Robert Ellis joined us in Steamboat Springs, CO while we ran some workshops with the high school band program. We worked with the students during the day in masterclasses and rehearsals, but at night we shifted gears and worked with Robert on all our original songs. He became a seventh member of the band and a trusted creative collaborator. The input from Robert during that trip was invaluable and helped us put together an album of songs that far exceeded our expectations.

In November 2021, the band met up in Denver and drove down to Fort Worth, TX to start recording the record.

Our travel day happened to be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The day before we got into the studio, we threw a little Friendsgiving in our wacky AirBnb and celebrated the beginning of a new chapter together as a band family.

Now that you have seen the process of making Dear Irvington, we would like to go into the vaults here at Mama Magnolia headquarters and show you some gems from the archives. Scroll down for a tour of our history together.

The Earliest Known Photos

Baby faced and green, here’s where things all started for us back in 2014.

Early Tours

We’ve had wonderful times together on the road. Come to think of it, I can think of some trying times too. But I cherish all the memories we’ve made on tour together, whether it’s playing the music of David Bowie in full costume (captured on video) or the final sputtering moments of our dear 1993 GMC Suburban, Bertha (also captured on video).

Sean, Alex, and the Saxophone Chair

Sean Culliton was a founding member of Mama Magnolia and continues to be a dear friend of ours (he was a groomsman at my wedding). We had countless shows, tours, writing sessions, and recording sessions together. One of my favorite memories with Sean was driving through the night together after a gig in Oregon. We both drank some coffee and swapped driving shifts until the sun came up. In 2017, Sean decided to leave Mama Magnolia to start his incredible synth-pop band Retrofette. That summer, we played shows with various sub saxophone players until we met Alex Cazet. He fit like a puzzle piece in every way: his tasteful and sophisticated playing, his boundless creativity, his sense of humor, and his dedication to the craft. Not to mention his willingness to sit in a van with all of us for twelve hours at a time (which is a big ask).

I’ll end this section with a confession. Don’t tell the rest of the band, ok? Well, you could tell Carrie I guess, our trumpet/flugelhorn player. Here it is: the horn section is my favorite part of Mama Magnolia. I believe the horns are a signature of our sound and help define who we are. Not just the presence of the horns, but how they interface with the other instruments and the lines they construct to highlight the vocals and support the bigger picture of the song. Sean and Alex, you guys rock. I’ll speak for the whole band and say: thanks for making music with us.

The Shows, Big and Little

Evolution of a Merch Booth

The Van

The Band

The Band Pets

Wow, we’ve made it.

You've seen the journey from our start in 2014 and all the ups and downs that lead to this moment now. These are special times for Mama Magnolia, and I can’t emphasize enough what a huge part you have played in it. We spent a week recording music we believe in with a pair of dedicated and thoughtful producers in Fort Worth, TX; It was the realization of a years-long dream and none of it would have been possible without your help. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

Oh, one more thing…

In putting this together I sorted through hundreds of images and videos from the history of our band. There were so many great ones, but not all of them could make the cut. Here are a few pictures that didn’t fit into a cohesive theme, but I simply couldn’t leave on the cutting room floor.