Maiah Wynne Collaborates with Portland Cello Project and Rush's Alex Lifeson on "Fearless Girl"

Yesterday saw the release of the single "Fearless Girl" by Maiah Wynne featuring the Portland Cello Project and Alex Lifeson on guitar (available here).

“This song is about the battle to find inner strength in the aftermath of sexual assault,” versatile singer-songwriter Maiah Wynne reveals about her new single “Fearless Girl,” which features beautiful, symphonic instrumentation from the stellar Portland Cello Project and guitar from Alex Lifeson of Rush. It’s “a #MeToo-era song that encourages strength for survivors as they encounter triggers and vulnerability in their day-to-day lives.”

“I wrote ‘Fearless Girl’ a little over a year ago, after reconnecting with my best friend from middle school,” Wynne tells. “We had a long heart to heart about everything we had been going through during the time of our friendship, but didn't have the ability to express. This realization of the pain we had both been experiencing during that time was saddening and frustrating. It reflected many of the emotions I had been feeling: fear, distrust, and a strange connection with millions of women—and men—around the world who had experienced these same things. At one point during that conversation she asked, ‘What happened to those fearless girls we used to be?’ As I reflected on that conversation later that night, those words stuck in my brain and I began writing this song. This song was my story, her story, the stories we hear every day, and a call for inner strength in a world where sexual assault and domestic violence prevail.”

“This song is for anyone who needs a reminder to hold on to that inner spirit,” she continues. “For anyone that needs to reconnect with the strength inside of them after experiencing this specific kind of pain. This is for her, for him, for them, for you.” - Vortex, July 24, 2019

Don Felder Talks About Woodstock, Songwriting, Rush and New Solo Album – American Rock ‘N’ Roll

In a new interview with musiclifemagazine.net, Don Felder talks about Alex Lifeson's guest appearance on his new solo album, American Rock 'N' Roll, and how it came about through his friendship with Neil Peart:

“I actually met [Rush drummer] Neil Peart before I met Alex. Neil’s little girl and my little boy actually went to the same preschool together, so we became friends and went to dinner and he would come to birthday parties at my house and school events and just hang out. About two and a half years ago he came to a birthday party and I asked him to get up and play. I had my road band with me and Stephen Stills also came and did a set with me; it was just a fun jam at my house. But Neil said, ‘I’ve quit playing.’ I said, ‘what?’ He said, ‘I quit playing. It’s just too hard physically for me to do what I have to do to maintain the level of my performance at my age. I can’t do that, and I can’t go onstage and play at less than what I think is the best I can do.’ I had the ultimate amount of respect for that, but it just broke my heart to hear him telling me that he was done playing music,” said Felder.

“About a year or so later I was playing in this golf event for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and Alex was there and we ended up playing together. Afterwards, he jammed with me on some stuff and we played a soundcheck together and I think we played Pride and Joy as a matter of fact, where we traded off guitars. Backstage I took this goofy picture of the two of us playing my white double-neck with each of us playing one of the necks. He’s such a nice guy and I realized as I was making this record that since Alex is not working regularly – he is probably just playing a lot of golf – he probably would be very interested in jumping on this record if I reached out to him.

“And indeed, he was very excited. He was up in Canada and I sent him some stuff for him to play to and he got back to me asking what I wanted him to do. He went in and in a very tasteful way played acoustic guitar on the bridge of Charmed and did some great guitar solos on the end and sent it back and we did a little digital editing where I overdubbed on top of it so it sounds like we’re actually trading off lines at the very end of it. The very last line that he played was very cool, so I figured out the harmony for it and played harmony on top. It was a fun couple of days for him and a fun couple of days for me. I wish we could have been in the same room. And I loved the way he plays, I love his work, he is just a super sweet guy. I haven’t met a Canadian that I don’t like, basically.”

- Thanks to Rushfanforever for the headsup!