Whatever you might expect the first solo album by a member of the Smashing Pumpkins to sound like, it probably wouldn't be like the music on James Iha's Let It Come Down. With the help of producer Jim Scott (whose credits include Tom Petty, Robbie Robertson and Whiskeytown) and a tasty studio ensemble made up of old and new friends, Iha has created an album of earnest, engaging songs that are refreshingly free of trendiness and irony.

The laid-back feel of this solo effort "has a lot to do with the band I'm in," Iha explains. "The Pumpkins tour a lot and when we're not on the road we're in the studio. I play electric, saturated, distorted guitar every night. When I go back to the hotel or home on a break I don't want to play through a Marshall stack. I'm sure a lot of these songs are reactions to that sound."

Iha's own music has evolved gradually and naturally during the last several years. "I'd always written instrumentals, like to make up my own chords," he says. "Then I started learning how to sing and eventually began wanting to do my own songs, sing them and arrange them the way I heard them in my head.

"On my album I tried to make the songs believable and able to stand up with just my voice and acoustic guitar."

The album was recorded in Iha's home studio in Chicago. "It would have been no different recording in a real studio than in my basement," Iha says. "I have all the same equipment, old mics, weird guitars, old amps - fairly retro, but not entirely."

Scott's sonic approach, James says, is "immediate, honest and doesn't hide anything. Jim's really musical even though he doesn't play an instrument. He knows what he likes and what doesn't work. He really helped me shape the record in the right direction The songs are like a marriage of electric and acoustic, all tight and felling good, and very organic."

For contributors, James asked his Scratchie Records partner Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne, Ivy) to play piano, and tapped Matt Walker (former Pumpkins touring drummer, now in the band Cupcakes) and Matt's bass playing brother, Solomon Snyder, as the rhythm section. Scott, meanwhile, called on the pedal steel and lap steel specialist Greg Leisz (Matthew Sweet, k.d. lang), along with Neal Casal (harmony vocals, electric guitar) and John Ginty (Hammond B-#, melodica).

This talented ensemble, whose members shared an understated virtuosity and dedication to the song rather than flash, functioned as the contemporary equivalent of the now-legendary early-'70s units that played on those timeless singer/songwriter albums by the likes of Jackson Browne and James Taylor. The tight and nuanced performances of his studio band delighted Iha, who reverses the recordings of such '702 icons as Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, Gram Parsons and the Band.

"Those artists really inspire me," he says. "I love the sound and feeling of their records. But at the same time, I didn't want my album to sound retro or stylized, and I don't think my songs sound like those people. I don't try to write Neil Young songs or Robbie Robertson songs because I can't - my voice, my limited vocabulary of acoustic guitar chords or chord voicings are kind of odd.

"I just wanted all the songs to be upfront, melodic, honest and direct."

"Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt sang on one of the tracks called 'Beauty,'" he adds. "when I hear some of the other songs, she said, 'I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but this sounds like a record my parents listened to.'" James' soft laugh suggests that he was pleased by Gordon's remark.

Indeed, Iha has nimbly sidestepped trendiness on Let It Come Down. Although the music has a rootsy feel, he didn't make an alt.-country album by any means. And while the tracks are filled with the sounds of vintage instruments, it's quite obvious that this record is about timeless emotion, not fashionable gear.

written by the staff at the official James Iha site. (now down)