To Be Still

Diane penned the songs for To Be Still in a small, remote cabin in North California, with only her cat, Bramble Rose (immortalized in the song "My Brambles") for company. The album was completed after she moved to Portland, Oregon, where her boyfriend, Tom Bevitori, lives. She explained to The Sunday Times January 11, 2009: "The songs shifted to being about love, living in a little house, re-creating home. Home is such an important thing for me."

The album was produced by Diane's father Tom Menig, together with Dan Elkan formerly of math rock band Hella. Her father's friend Pete Grant, (the man who taught Jerry Garcia pedal steel), Diane's child-hood violin teacher, Rondi Soule, Nina Gerber, who started out with Kate Wolf in the 1970s and Tom Bevitori are all featured on the recording. Diane explained to The Sunday Times: "When I recorded my previous album, I didn't know if anyone would hear it, so it was just my dad and me and a few friends I invited over to sing or play. We invited more people this time, but everyone that's on the record is there because they're a friend of my dad or me, so it's still very much in the family. And it's not a studio record. We worked on it mostly in my dad's studio between tours over a long time."