The Girl in the Other Room

Background

Krall wrote some of the songs for the album with her husband, English musician Elvis Costello. Krall told USA Today that she had wanted to try songwriting before but lacked the confidence. "I started writing when I was a student but didn't really have the confidence to [pursue] lyric-writing in great depth. I've never done anything so personal."

On the Verve Records website, Krall explains the songwriting for the album in more detail: "I wrote the music and then Elvis and I talked about what we wanted to say. I told him stories and wrote pages and pages of reminiscences, descriptions and images, and he put them into tighter lyrical form. For 'Departure Bay,' I wrote down a list of things that I love about home, things I realized were different, even exotic, now that I've been away."

"Departure Bay" is written about her hometown Nanaimo, British Columbia on Vancouver Island and the first Christmas without her mother and finishes the album. The penultimate song on the album, "I'm Coming Through", is also about the death of her mother.

As well as the songs she co-wrote with Costello, Krall departs from the standards she has sung on previous albums by performing songs by contemporary performers such as Costello, Tom Waits, and Joni Mitchell, as well as a Chris Smither song previously performed by Bonnie Raitt. She also covered Mose Allison's "Stop This World".

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Girl in the Other Room.