Several months into 2020's Covid Lockdown, we began to feel a bit stifled and stagnant; the creative verve of Spring and Summer began to give way to Autumn/Winter blues. We had spent the Spring and Summer months creating weekly livestreams with music (both instrumental and song-driven), and with yoga. It resulted in a growing catalog of videos and new material to share.
We had started 2020 strong, playing and traveling a lot and feeling like we were getting really tight. By Winter 2020, we felt rusty and unsure of what the future would look like. 'These Confines' expresses that feeling of stagnation and frustration.
It started off as a set of lyrics that I (Melissa) wrote, and brought to Matthew; he quickly sketched out a melody and chord structure and we were off to the races. (He's really good at that - I always marvel at how effortless music appears for him).

In addition to recording all of the livestreams, we recorded several songs from our New Orleans home studio. After moving to the Shoals (from New Orleans) in 2021, many of those recordings got shelved/archived. Instead of releasing an album of new music in 2022, we ended up releasing a live album, highlighting some of our favorite covers plus a couple of originals.

In the meantime, we experimented with recording our originals at a few different studios, both in the Shoals and in Nashville; not finding exactly what we were looking for, we returned to our home studio, where we've always felt most comfortable. We invited our friend and local engineer, Grant Walden, to come over and engineer. This is where we completed the recording of These Confines. We took the finished song to mix with Jimmy Nutt at The Nutthouse in Sheffield, AL Jimmy and Grant are trusted friends and colleagues that we've grown close to and greatly appreciate having their trusted ears here in the Shoals. While the journey of bringing this song to life was years in the making, we appreciate having taken the long way around; the songs have grown and evolved over time and we're happy with the result.

These Confines - by The Dirty Rain Revelers (written by Melissa and Matthew DeOrazio/Los DeOrazis Music) Rusted Halo Records Recorded and Engineered by Matthew DeOrazio and Grant Walden Mixed and Mastered by Jimmy Nutt, Nutthouse Studio Drums, Bass and Electric Guitars - Matthew DeOrazio Vocals and Acoustic Guitars - Melissa DeOrazio