Recording an album is often a special if not sacred process.
Folks explore many an avenue to get just the right sound, assemble just the right setting, and secure the right walls in which to create their art. For Jamie Bernstein, he found this to be on a sailboat in the Bahamas.
Produced by Mark Howard afloat his mighty vessel, the New Orleans Americana songwriter recorded his new acoustic album, ZEUS. The 10-track album hit streaming services on April 11th.
In June 2024, Bernstein joined Howard and Captain Johnny O'Brien on the ZEUS in the Bahamas, spending a week sailing the Sea of Abaco. Each night, they anchored in secluded coves to record, letting the sounds of wind, waves, and rain weave into his music. These raw, unfiltered takes capture the essence of what he was trying to accomplish with these songs, which are rooted in personal transformation and recovery.
We got to chat with Bernstein to learn more about his experience recording on the boat and much more.
So first things first: I see your new album, Zeus, was recorded with Mark Howard on a boat. What was that experience like and how did this all come together?
In May of 2024 I saw on social media that producer Mark Howard was looking for an artist to record on a sailboat. He had conceptualized the project and recruited his long time friend Johnny O'Brien as the boat side of the equation but his artist had backed out. When I saw the post I was in bed next to my wife waking up for the morning. I showed her the post and mentioned that it would be a cool thing to do, but I likely couldn't afford to pull it off.
Without hesitation she said. "You need to contact this guy." I had been writing some new material, and thinking of a more laid back approach to recording. My previous musical project, Future Cowboys, was heavily produced. I loved the songs and the project and still do, but Covid had largely spoiled the release of my second album with that group called 'Life On Mars'. I was exploring stripping my songs back down, digging into my songwriting roots and just doing performance centered recordings. In addition to that, with the help of a friend with a boat I was getting into Sailing on Lake Pontchartrain.
For 25 years before the pandemic, I had been a bartender and a pretty heavy drinker, but something about the whole Covid experience made that life no longer appealing for me. I was cast adrift a bit in terms of my identity. Sailing became a very safe place for me to heal and a wonderful inspiration for my alcohol-free journey.This opportunity seemed somehow perfectly tailored for me. If I could have dreamed up a perfect experience for the summer 2024 I likely could not have done any better for myself.
I have been a fan of Mark Howard's work for years. The album he recorded for the Neville Brothers, 'Yellow Moon', being one of the initial things that put New Orleans on my radar. Then Bob Dylan's, 'Time Out of Mind', being my favorite later Dylan release and making Dylan relevant again for a whole new generation. Mark's reputation proceeded him as they say. So, recording with a legend sailing on a 48-foot sloop around the islands of the Caribbean -- how could anything be better?
My wife actually saw all this while I was still trying to convince myself why I couldn't do it-- I had a tour and would have to cancel two dates to get to the boat in time, I had already planned on recording this group of songs with southern music legend Jimbo Mathus at the Cadillac Ranch (Jim Dickinson's Mississippi recording compound), I only had eight songs that were worth a shit. I was steady riffing on excuses as to why I had no business riding a boat around and playing the guitar. But, my wife was quite insistent I needed to contact Mark, and fast before I missed the opportunity. So, I did. Mark was responsive to the idea, but was not familiar with my songs.
I asked if he wanted to get together and hear the songs to see if they were something he might want to spend time recording. He happened to be in town mixing his artists for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He came by the studio and I played through the eight tunes I had been working up, and Mark started smiling. When I was done he said, "I can work with that." He said he had a vision for the project. He knew what he wanted to do with my voice and what guitar I should bring to suit the songs.
I flew into Marsh Harbor in early June of 2024 and stayed one night in the harbor hotel. The next day, Captain Johnny O'Brien came to pick me up in the dinghy. I had one bag and a guitar for the nine-day voyage.
The smell of fresh rain and salt water filled the air. O'brien fired up the little outboard and we sped across the harbor to where the vessel ZEUS was moored. She is really a beautiful boat. A 48 foot CSY (Caribbean sailing Yacht), ZEUS had enjoyed brief fame during Trump's first term as president. She was the boat that had Trump asking "Who's Boat is this boat?" during his Hurricane Florence relief tour. His boat comments were copied and lampooned by Stephen Colbert who compiled them into a children's book called 'Who's Boat Is This Boat'. Well that boat was Johnny O'Brien's boat, that boat was ZEUS.
There she was with her center cockpit, rear cabin windows and beautiful sweeping hull lines. Mark was sitting in the center of the boat when I boarded and we said our hellos. He was already fiddling with his recording gear and had a few pickups laid out on the table in the main cabin of the boat. I put my stuff up front in the V berth at the bow of the boat and brought my guitar up on deck as Mark had suggested. Captain O'Brien, readied the boat to leave the moorings of Marsh Harbor and sail into the clear blue waters, while Mark and I readied my guitar for recording. He had a special pickup that he used for Neil Young's sessions and Dylan's too I think. It is mounted in the soundhole of the guitar. My parlor guitar is a little small, so fitting the pickup was a bit of a hassle but we managed to get it together after a few tries. Mark immediately set up the microphone and plugged in the newly fitted guitar.
I asked if I should have headphones and he said he doesn't like to use them for the artist if he doesn't have to because it changes the quality of the performances he gets. He asked me to play a song for him, so I chose 'The Lake Pontchartrain Waltz'. It seemed so appropriate because I had written the song about sailing and here I was aboard the nicest boat I had ever set foot on. I sang into the microphone Mark had set up and played my little guitar. When I was done with the song, Mark said, "That was great, I got you." I was puzzled by what exactly he meant by that. I asked if he wanted me to do another take and he kind of shrugged and repeated, "I got you. That was the take." We sailed out of Marsh Harbor with one track in the can as they say.
That was how the experience was. Mark had me, he knew what he was looking to capture of me and when he had it. Not every track worked quite the same. Sometimes I would make mistakes, sometimes the wind would blow into the microphone or Mark would want to add more texture to the track by adding a little more guitar on the overdub, but for the most part it was fairly effortless. I sang and played. When Mark had what he wanted he let me know. I had to trust him. Honestly one of the hardest parts was just trusting myself and my songs. Trusting Mark made it easier to trust myself. I felt very naked without any other instruments or backing vocals. It turned out to be the good kind of naked. The kind that knows no shame.
When you look back on the making of this album in say ten years, what memory/story or two will stick out the most?
Mark Howard's 60th birthday was a pretty special moment. We were moored in Kidd's Cove recording the previous evening and after breakfast I wrote Mark a poem for his birthday and he liked it so much he insisted on doing a recording of me reciting it.
The recording turned out great, and Captain O'Brien took us out across the sea again to one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen. We swam in the crystal clear water most of the afternoon. That evening we ate one of our only meals off of the boat at a nice restaurant. It was great and while we ate they had a full-on deluge type rainstorm. We had to walk about a mile back to where we had moored the boat and Mark flagged down a local cat who said he would offer us a ride.
The kid had YouTube playing in his car on a little screen in his dash. I had him pull up a crazy roller-skating video I had released with Future Cowboys called 'PARTY.' His car sound system was banging, the video was playing and he had all these weird LED lights in his car. We were all jamming and having so much fun, grooving to the track and laughing about the video. It was the perfect cap to a perfect day. The poem inspired Mark to insist that he record an additional album of my spoken word poetry. We ended up doing that on the boat as well.
What can you tell us regarding the influence or inspiration behind this collection of songs?
These songs are largely about my identity beyond the life I had built for myself around alcohol. These are healing songs about the way we see ourselves and the world around us.
When I was a drinker I never thought drinking was a problem for me, but as I moved further from that life I began to question my relationship to alcohol and inturn my relationship to myself. Who was I if not a drinker, if not a bartender? How had this choice I made to make my living behind the bar played out for me? How do I interact with other people without alcohol as ever present bridge? What do I really value? Who do I really value and why? The process had me thinking a lot about where I came from and who I really was at this point in my life. These songs are the sonic embodiment of my healing journey and the struggle that accompanied it.
Did you find determining the order of songs on this album to be a challenge, and how important is that to you?
I still love to make albums. I grew up in the '70s and '80s when album rock was king. A collection of songs is nothing if not presented in the right order. For this record, Mark and I did the order together. Mark came back to New Orleans for a recording session and needed some shots for his documentary film, 'Recording Icons,' so one day I took him out to plantation country and we listened to the whole record and ordered the tracks.
Is there a song on the album that was the most difficult to write/record for one reason or another?
The song "Hillbilly Ways" was a difficult one for me. I grew up with the intense dichotomy of divorced parents. The lifestyles of my Mom and Dad were so vastly different that I spent years ashamed of one or the other. When I started digging around in my past, some people started to surface that I had forgotten about who had a tremendous effect on me. These folks were the locals who lived around the area where my Mom and stepfather chose to homestead in Southern West Virginia. They were the mountain people, decendents of early settlers and leftover Native Americans.
As a child in rural Appalachia, there weren't but a few kids around. It was the 1970's and we were pretty much left to our own devices. One of the adults, Benny Karate, was always very helpful to us kids, sometimes even shielding us from physical abuse. I heard at some point in my 20s that Benny had died. No one really did anything for him, like to honor him. So, I wrote this song for Benny Karate. It's about being from the country, but not being able to resist the lure of the city. Yet, having the city seem a little foreign to you, the customs kind of off-putting, the rules changed. I have felt this way many times in my life and I know Benny did too. He was my friend and this song might be the only eulogy he ever got. Sometimes I cry while playing this song, I cried when I wrote it because it comes from such a deep place.
What does success as a musician and songwriter mean to you?
Success means connection. If I can connect with people through my music then it is a success. I want people to know that they are not alone. I want people to hear my songs and think, 'Wow this guy understands something about life that makes sense to me. I am not alone. We are not alone.' That somehow, even though painful and frustrating, life is worth it.
What are one or two pinnacle moments for you as an artist?
1. I was asked to perform a set of all original songs as part of the 2025 French Quarter Festival. It was my first time being invited to this particular festival, and the first time I was asked to perform exclusively my own songs. The show went so great, it was a full room and they hung on every word, one of my favorite live performances ever.
2. Having Grammy-winner Jimbo Mathus record my song 'South of Laredo' was pretty special.
3. The first time I played the song 'Not a City a Star' off of ZEUS on our local radio station was pretty special. I had an on-air interview and then the DJ played the song. As the song played, a large cargo ship on the Mississippi river passed by the WWOZ studios and I could see it out the window. My song, a love letter to my home city of New Orleans, was playing on the most popular local music station in the city, and I was there in the studio watching this ship pass bound for who knows where. The moment was breathtaking.
What are some of your goals post-album release?
I would really love to tour as a solo act behind this release. I love the songs and the record so much, that I really want them to reach as many people as possible. Additionally, I need to save or raise money to record all of these songs with a whole band. They are some of the favorite songs I have written thus far, the more I listen to ZEUS the more I hear in the songs. I feel like they would continue to shine if I worked some of this added inspiration into them.
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