Friday, December 2, 2011

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.

Fitzdog Greg Fitzsimmons Podcast
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 Avenue 256
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 Browne Sisters Miles Through The Night
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
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!






Clark Brolly
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
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!


Dave Wheeler and Rachel Lynn
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!