 Van Zandt flew to Ireland's Xeric Studios to record the songs for "No Deeper Blue", which was produced and mixed by Philip Donnelly, who had played guitar on the singer's 1978 album "Flyin' Shoes".In 1994 Van Zandt explained to Aretha Sills, "I woke up in the middle of the night with a dream.You’ve got to go to Ireland and have Philip Donnelly produce your next record, and I walked out into the living room and turned on the lamp and found a piece of paper and it was Phillip’s phone number.