God and the FBI, provisionally titled In Dog Years I'm Dead, is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Janis Ian, originally released in 2000 by Windham Hill Records. The album's ultimate title, and the theme of its opening title song, dates from a decade before its release when Ian requested that the FBI files of her parents, who were passionate black civil rights activists, be released to her.
At the time of God and the FBI'''s making, Ian thought this would be her final album because of poor record sales since her return to recording in the middle 1990s, and her realisation that she could not survive upon playing benefit concerts for causes like Zero Population Growth.
Consequently, Ian abandoned the commercial pretensions of previous releases, doing a large portion of the sessions in-house rather than in a studio, and doing ten songs with a single band. Ian did, however, return to working with co-producer John Jennings, who had produced her 1995 album Revenge''. "Memphis" was a duet with Willie Nelson, with lead guitar by Chet Atkins.
Track listing
Personnel
Tina Abato – photography
Larry Greenhill – engineer
Robert Haynes – engineer
John Jennings – producer
Glenn Meadows – mastering
Sonny Mediana – art direction
Dave Sinko – engineer
Musicians
Janis Ian – vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, upright bass, keyboards Philip Clark – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, backing vocals Jim Cregan – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals Marc Moreau – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, engineer Willie Weeks – bass guitar
Guest musicians on "Memphis" Willie Nelson – co-lead vocals Chet Atkins – lead guitar John Cowan – backing vocals Steve Gadd – drums Matt Rollings – piano