Haunting and immediately memorable, Goffin’s luxurious vocal delivery is set in an equally luxurious location for “I’m Not Rich But I’m Not Poor.”
The song, co-written with her dad, Gerry Goffin, appears on her recent EP release Appleonfire, a collection of songs inspired by his passing.
Goffin shares, “I’m Not Rich But I’m Not Poor’ hung around quietly until I recently considered ‘what else shall I record on this EP?’ Gerry told me the title was a phrase his father used to say to him,” she says of the co-write with her dad, “which meant however humble your financial resources were, it wasn’t a reflection your quality of character.”
Within the song and video, you can feel her sense loss right to the bone. I actually felt a tear coming on. Watch now:
“For years I’ve been hearing the phrase, ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,’” says Goffin. Essentially bound by DNA to be a singer/songwriter, Louise is the first-born daughter of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, two of the most successful songwriters in American history (with more than 50 hit songs to their credit), so she was pretty much destined to hear the “apple/tree” comment from the instant she began playing piano at age six.
Hence the “apple” portion of the name of her new EP, Appleonfire (Majority Of One Records, February 3, 2015). “The choice of the word ‘fire’ is in reference to passing the torch, the creative fire, so to speak,” Louise notes, “which for me is an existential need to create in order to feel meaning in this world, and the drive and purpose that comes with honoring that need.”
With Appleonfire Louise invites the world to hear touchstones of her father’s lyrical inspiration, as she includes four songs for which he wrote the lyrics, including one song that she wrote with him, and two that she co-wrote with others. “His instrument was a spiral notebook” says Louise of her dad, “and he played it masterfully with his brilliant mind and an ordinary pen.”
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Appleonfire, in fact, got its genesis following Gerry Goffin’s June 19, 2014, passing—even before her recent full length album, Songs From The Mine was released. “Two days after his passing, I performed a song he wrote called ‘It’s Not The Spotlight.’ Singing his lyrics made me feel like he was still with me. When I saw Barry Goldberg, who wrote ‘It’s Not The Spotlight’ with Gerry, I told him I had just played it live,” Louise recounts. “His response was, ‘We should cut it.’ A few weeks later this EP began in a Santa Monica studio as a celebration to Gerry’s spirit.
Appleonfire EP is ripe with six mid-tempo songs that harken back to the deep, ’70s California-rock well of her youth, including four with lyrics by Gerry Goffin himself.
Four songs are produced by Louise and Barry Goldberg, “It’s Not The Spotlight”; the Goffin/King nugget “Take A Giant Step” rounded out by two new Louise tunes, “Higher Than Low” and “Everything You Need’, both co- written at Steelbridge Songfest last June, the week before Gerry’s passing.
Louise produced two additional songs for the EP, a long-lost Goffin/King tune called “If I’m Late”; and “I’m Not Rich But I’m Not Poor,” a heretofore unrecorded gem written by father and daughter.
A guest list of musicians appearing on the record are Jim Keltner, Bob Glaub, Val McCallum, Barry Goldberg, Wally Ingram, Stevie Blacke, Billy Harvey, Butch Norton, Johnny Lee Schell, Joseph Arthur and Jakob Dylan. Jackson Browne generously contributed a day of studio time which, serendipitously, was available the one day the tracking band musicians’ schedules aligned.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in LA’s Laurel Canyon during its music halcyon days, Louise Goffin released her first album at the age of 19. Along the way she’s released six well-received albums of her own; she produced a Grammy-nominated record for Carole King, “A Holiday Carole” and some who have recorded her songs include Paul Thorn, Shawn Colvin, Terry Reid, John Parish, Lindsay Lohan and Carole King herself.
For many who grew up with "The Gilmore Girls" hit TV show, Louise’s voice can be heard with Carole’s on the duet in the opening theme “Where You Lead”. Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller and the cast of "Beautiful - The Carole King Musical”, recorded a seasonal song Louise wrote with Guy Chambers, “New Year’s Day” for Carols For A Cure, originally written for "A Holiday Carole." A multi-instrumentalist, Louise has also toured the world on electric guitar in Tears For Fears, and played banjo with Bryan Ferry.
She's got a few tour dates coming up...see her live!
APRIL 11 Black Crystal Cafe | Ann Arbor, MI
APRIL 13-15 Chicago (school of rock) | Chicago, IL
APRIL 15 Athenaeum Theatre | Chicago, IL
APRIL 17 Union County Performing Arts Center | Rahway, NJ
APRIL 18 Amazing Things Arts Center | Framingham, MA
APRIL 19 The Kate - Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center | Saybrook, CT
Laura B. Whitmore is a music industry marketing veteran, music journalist and editor, writing for Parade.com,Guitar World, and others. She has interviewed hundreds of musicians and hosts the She Rocks Podcast. As the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, she advocates for women in the music industry and produces the annual She Rocks Awards. She is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, making the world safe for guitar exploration everywhere! A guitarist and singer/songwriter, Laura is currently co-writing an album of pop songs that empower and energize girls.
