LISTEN: On ‘Flowers (Party Version)’ Liv Greene Shows Us the Meaning of Self-Love
If your Valentine’s Day looked a little more like Singles Awareness Day this year, never fear. Liv Greene’s new Party Version of her song, “Flowers,” is here to give you the shot of self-love you need.
Tracked live-to-tape at Woodland Sound Studios during the sessions for Greene’s most recent album, Deep Feeler, the Party Version of “Flowers” was actually the first version cut for the record. That was before Greene and company re-imagined the song to fit the record’s more solemn tone.
“‘Flowers’ is one of the oldest songs on Deep Feeler, and was without a doubt the hardest to capture, requiring three tries in total. This outtake, ‘Flowers (Party Version)’ was our first attempt, and sort of my ode to country queens like Emmylou and Linda Ronstadt, with a Silver Threads-type intro and shuffly fiddle-heavy rhythm throughout,” Greene noted. “This original version, while undoubtedly the most fun to capture, never quite settled in with the rest of the record. The boisterous intro felt out of step and it slowly became clear there was a certain arc of grief and sadness to the song that felt under-emphasized as it stood.”
Described as “a vulnerable snapshot of hard-won self-acceptance,” Deep Feeler was produced by Greene alongside GRAMMY-Award winning engineer Matt Andrews (Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings, Trisha Yearwood). Coming on the heels of the full-length record, “Flowers (Party Version)” gives us another snapshot into Greene’s creative process — and perhaps, a feeling of triumph over heartbreak and self-doubt.
“The last lines of ‘Flowers’ have always felt a little aspirational,” Greene said. “‘I am giving myself space, a little love, a little grace, I am buying myself flowers these days,’ so it only felt right to give this song the amount of time and space that it took to get it right, and to love on myself through it all, except maybe instead of flowers, it was studio time. Worth it.”
