Studio News December 2011

Wow, it’s already December. Where did the year go? Well, lots of music has been recorded and some great things have happened. Here are the highlights.


I am now supplying original music for comedian Greg Fitzsimmon’s podcast! You can hear my stuff on regular bits like “Talk your way out of it (featuring the vocals of Kevin Meaney)” and “Male Bag”. So far these podcasts have been downloaded by millions of listeners! I’m proud to be a part of the new media revolution and am a true fan of Greg’s and the show.




Richard Burr’s latest music CD entitled “Avenue 256” just hit #1 on the Roots Music Report! This is our 3rd CD together of great alternative country style music. He sings and plays drums and I do most everything else (guitars, bass, keys, backing vocals, etc). It’s great fun as we really experiment with production ideas and sounds and try to break new ground with every CD we do.


The infamous Browne Sisters & George Cavanaugh have released a new CD. It’s been a long time since we did the last one (Ready for the Storm) and their fans have been very patient. I’m happy to report that the new album sounds fantastic! It’s called “Miles Through the Night” and features 16 tracks of mostly cover songs. Laura Browne has a beautiful original on there as well called “The Hanging Gale”. They came into the studio in July for 2 weeks to record their vocals along with one guitar track per song. Then it was up to me to supply the rest of the instrumentation and mix with the deadline being the first week of August. It was a lot of work but well worth it as the CD sounds fantastic. You can pick up a copy at Amazon.com just in time for the holidays!
Check out this fun behind the scenes video as well.

I’d like to welcome some very talented new clients to the studio.

Elinor Benhamo is a very talented singer/songwriter who has an amazing bluesy soulful voice. She does a one take scratch vocal and it sounds like a million bucks!







Former actor Clark Brolly was in doing some demos and sounded great. We breezed through 3 songs in about 4 hours. Clark has a cool edgy “Nivrannay” sound.



Destiny from the Christian group “Colorz of Heaven” (I recorded their first CD) was in working on some solo material. Destiny is a supper talented artist with a spectacular voice. She started working with me at the age of 5 and is now a veteran at 15!



Long time client Dave Wheeler is working on his very first solo EP with me. Dave is a drummer turned singer/songwriter. He has cuts features on a few Indy artist’s CDs and is now doing his own. I’m playing all the instruments and Dave is singing. He’s also enlisted the vocal talents of Rachel Lynn (pictured) and the monster percussion chops of Ronnie Gutierrez.


New Gear
In my (never ending) quest for sonic nirvanna I’ve added the cool UAD plugin which emulates a classic Ampex mixdown tape machine. I didn’t want to like it but I made the mistake of trying the demo and heard a nice improvement. This means that my mixes are continuing to improve. Now, I don’t want to give my gear all the credit as I think most of it is me just getting better but it’s nice to have tools that help the process. I’m also playing square neck dobro. This gives my country/folk productions a nice authenticity but I plan on using it everywhere (Chris Blake are you listening?). Last year I added harmonica and had also resurrected my clarinet skills. Finally, I’m playing more and more hand percussion and have worked hard at recording myself in my live room with help using my ipad as remote control for my computer. I’m getting great tambourine and shaker sounds as well some killer djembe (hand drum) sounds. I love it!

New Singles
In addition to my clients new releases I also have been putting out some singles available on Itunes. Some of the new songs include the guitar instrumentals: “Viva Renee“ and “Desert Wind”. I’m working on a full length CD worth of songs entitled “Pieces of Me” which I plan on releasing early next year. In the meantime, be sure to check out some of my current tunes.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season. I look forward to working with you guys more next year!

Studio News March 2011

I can’t believe it’s already March! I’m happy to report that I continue to be busy with both old and new clients. I welcome Andrew Kuhlman to DBW. Andrew did a self-produced rap song here and since then has shot an outstanding music video that should be out shortly on YouTube.

Speaking of YouTube, here’s a video I made of Paul McCallum and Paul Weitz as they were recording tracks for their new Jazz Duo CD. This was done completely live as I was recording them in Logic. “The 2 Pauls” will be coming in shortly to finish tracking for the CD and we should have something out within the next 2 months.

Why the huge graphic for the new smash hit, “Pizza Night?” Well, for one thing I wrote the song and for another I think it’s pretty funny looking! That’s my good friend, Walt Whitney on the cover. Walt’s also saying “Pizza Night” on the recording. Never had a lesson. I wrote the song at his house on his lap top and then rewrote it a year later in my studio with the inspired direction of his nephew, Connor. Then, Walt and I were talking a few days ago and he said, “why don’t you put Pizza Night on Itunes?” So....I did! It’s a dance/electronic/heavy rock/searing guitar solo song.

Long distance and long time client, Elisa Lynee, released another single (the 2nd in 4 months). Elisa lives in New Hampshire and sends me the rough song idea via email. I then flush out an arrangement that she records her vocals to back east. Through the wonders of the internet we wind up with a finished product! Like her first single, this song’s profits go towards bringing awareness to the Lupus foundation so make sure you buy it today and help out a good cause! It’s available on Itunes now.



Henri Valle is back in DBW for the 2nd time and just finished a second single called “Come Closer to Me” now available on Itunes proving once again DBW is one versatile music production house! This song is in the power pop/dance vein. I did much of the arranging and instrumentation on the track as well as mixing and mastering. We plan on doing an EP this year which should be a blast to do!



Cindy Lora-Renard and husband, Gary Renard’s new CD, “In The Beginning” is now out available via cindylora.com. The CD is a mixture of covers and originals and features some behind the scenes production work by yours truly. Gary plays guitar and sings and Cindy sings and plays keyboards. I mixed and mastered the CD here. On a side note, I’ve been recording Cindy for close to 20 years now!



I just saw an old friend/client this weekend who did a wonderful folk CD with me a few years ago and has since moved to a very small town in Scotland called Alberfiny (population 1900), Linda Dewar. We talked about doing some possible collaboration via the web on her upcoming project. Linda does authentic Celtic music and now lives in a place where many of her heros reside. I miss her but am happy she’s found her home and continues to thrive.

Long time client, Vince Raceanu, is back in the studio collaborating with Dave on a reggae song. Vince typically comes up with the melody and lyrics, emails me the idea after he records it on his iphone and then has me go to town creating a track around it. It’s a process I now have down to a T. The key is that Vince records with a drum loop and sings pretty well in pitch. This is harder to do if one sings it entirely a cappella  (but is still possible, just takes longer).

And yes, I have new gear (what else is new...)! I got a cool lap steel guitar for Christmas that I love and just picked up a killer little guitar amp made by Blackstar called the HT5. This amp is only 5 watts but it sounds BIG. It does a decent clean sound but really shines on the slightly broken up to nice crunchy Marshall and Vox sounds and is a nice addition to my collection. I also have been using a device called an “Ebow”. It allows me to sustain a note infinitely via it’s magnetic interaction with the guitar string and pickup. These are not new by any means and can be heard on many famous recordings (U2’s, “With or Without You” for example). I’ve also incorporated my Ipad into my studio setup. I mostly use it as a controller for Logic but am experimenting with it for the actual sounds it can produce with some of the instrument apps out there. It’s a very cool device and I highly recommend them.