In the eleventh episode of Live from Abbey Road (Sundance Channel, Thursday, August 28th at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific), Bryan Adams talks about his love for studios—he rescued and renovated a gold-rush-era building in Vancouver, BC for his own state of the art studio—and how much the sound of a room can influence the sounds of songs. He performs songs from the very beginning of his career, as well as one from his 2008 release 11 in a set that, at one point, he refers to as “Busking at Abbey Road”. First up is a beautiful acoustic version of “Heaven”, with gorgeous violin accompaniment. Next, “She’s Got a Way”, a product of the instantaneous chemistry that can often come into play with creative partnerships and another lovely love song made more so by the violin. Lastly, Adams goes solo for his first big hit, “Cuts Like a Knife”.

Ben Harper, of course, is accompanied by the Innocent Criminals. His musical influences include not just genres, but every sound and conversation he has ever had. He also believes that the live music experience is of great importance and the performances in this segment support that belief, especially “Better Way” from 2006. That song’s performance expresses all the freedom and energy you might find at an outdoor festival, and is one song that he considers “an accomplishment, musically”. Harper describes his impression of studio two in Abbey Road as, “Sonically, it gives right back to you in the clearest, most honest way.” Harper and the room are kindred, then. As his closer, Harper treats viewers to his own sexy, wicked version of Bill Withers’ “Use Me”, and the note he holds near the end of the song will convince you that you can feel the room giving back to him.

Justin Currie, perhaps best known as lead singer/songwriter for Del Amitri, only performs one song during his Abbey Road session, which is a bit unusual for this program, but it’s a great song. Currie lets us in on why you must be superstitious about writing songs, or any writing really: “Because no matter how hard you work on it, it doesn’t make it any better… and the songs that you consider to be good, just come along—in a highly mysterious fashion.” His performance of “Still in Love” from 2007’s What Is Love For is a deep and haunting. It’s a ballad for piano and strings, which showcases not only Currie’s ability to write a stunner, but his talent for elevating a great song even further on the strength of his voice. You can just imagine what the room gave back to him.

Upcoming Line-ups:

Episode 12 - September 4
Teddy Thompson, Martha Wainwright, Brian Wilson

—Christel Loar