Bluegrass & Baseball

So I’m at my kid’s baseball game tonight, and by chance I’m introduced to Diane Bouska, sister-in-law of a friend of mine, and the wife of the legendary Roland White.  Yes, THE Roland White (if you’re a mando picker, I need say no more) of Kentucky Colonels, the Bluegrass Boys (Bill Monroe’s band), and The Nashville Bluegrass Band fame.  Many will know Diane in her own right as the guitar/banjo player in The Roland White Band.  We talked bluegrass, about our upcoming CD, about what they were doing in Nashville these days, about their music, about different styles, etc.  It was quite a thrill!   I love Roland’s style and have been a big fan for many years ever since I bought an old Kentucky Colonels album, a live recording with Jerry Garcia introducing the band. 

Watched my kid play ball, and talked bluegrass with Diane Bouska.  Yep….I’d say it was a good day!

Mastering, we hardly knew ye’

One of the best things about making a CD is all the cool stuff you learn in between the notes.  Mastering is one of those things.   I didn’t even know what it was until now, but after you record and mix all the instruments and vocals, the CD goes through a mastering process.  This encodes all kinda stuff so that the songs show up in order, that the titles are synch with the songs, that the copyrights are all correct and trackable, etc, but the most fascinating part is that there is a real art to song separation, timing and grouping.  The mastering process also helps the music sound consistent from device to device, player to player, format to format.  A good mastering engineer is like a good artist in that they know some things intuitively that others must learn by left-brain formulaic means.  He brings out the crispness in the music, and clears up some of the muddiness in the mix. When you hear the CD, (you ARE going to buy a CD, aren’t you??  ;-P ) you’ll notice be a couple of places that the songs run right into one another, and then there are places to “cleanse the musical palate” so to speak.   It makes it all the more interesting and Broca surprising experience.  It’s really coming together nicely and we should be shipped to press this week.   

Interesting side note…turns out one of the tunes we recorded “Swim That River of Jordan” that what we thought MUST have been a traditional gospel song because it is so rich in heritage and “oletiminess” was actually written fairly recently, in 2000, by a guy named Michael Andes with a band called “Nothin’ Fancy” , a group out of Virginia.  Shame on me for not knowing them. They’ve won several award and have been recording for over a decade.  Mark talked to him on the phone.  I’m definitely going to be ordering some of their stuff.  He was flattered that we were recording his tune.  It just amazes me how good some song writers are.  Pretty cool…and if that one song is any indication,  I want to find more of his stuff to record!!

Tropical Grass

Getting ready for a busy bluegrass season, visiting South Florida…that’s my toe tapping the sunset from the sublime supine of my hammock.  ‘Bout 74°, breezy, the sweet sounds Cherryholmes “Black and White” humming from my iPod, my ice cold cocktail peeking under my sunglasses…wonder what the poor folks are doing.

One thing I learned this week: tell someone down here you play bluegrass music and you get a bemused look much like when you put a steaming bowl of buttery grits in front of a yankee for the first time. Believe it or not though,  they do have a very active bluegrass association down here.  In  May, Ricky Skaggs is playing at a thing they call “Red, White, and Bluegrass” down in Hollywood. I still feel like Jethro Bodine when I get this far south, but damn the weather sure is nice.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya’ll at the Redlight Cafe on May 22nd. Did I mention we’re playing May 22nd at the Redlight for our CD Release?  Maybe you’ve heard, but tell your friends and come join us May 22nd at the Redlight.   And hey, before you go, whacha doin’ on May 22nd?

 

Peach Blossom ‘08 review

We debuted “Bucket Full Of Rain” last night, and the crowd enjoyed our set.  It’s always good to play the PeachBlossom because we get our set list in order for the spring, and it’s a good barometer of where we are as a band at the beginning of “bluegrass season”.  It was an interesting night at the 32nd Annual PeachBlossom Festival.  It’s such a worthy cause and we are big fans of WRFG, and the festival has a very solid line-up of bands, but the festival itself is in serious need of a marketing plan.  I felt bad for the crew, because the main attraction, the headline act, Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain, were not able to make it due to weather.  (They’ve graciously offered to do a show at a future date, so I’m looking forward to seeing them.)  There couldn’t have been more than 150 people there.  Marc and all the hosts are great people, were very gracious and kind to us, and we had a good time, but every year we’ve been there it has dwindled.   The Atlanta Bluegrass community needs to get behind this thing or it will die.  We got a lot of nice comments on our music, and it was good to see some familiar faces, but it is sad to see this event struggle, and I really hope the festival survives. It can be fixed with the right tweaks, but right now, it’s got one foot in the grave.  We need to support this cause! Thanks to Judi, Mo, Kyle, Kat, Kacy, Kali, Kyler, Drew, Bruce, and our families for making the trek and coming out. 

One highlight for me was hearing Johnny Roquemore and the Apostles of Bluegrass.  I had never seen or heard them before, but it won’t be the last time I do.  They were fabulous!  Three guys that really put on a show, and Johnny has a great lead-vocals voice. Very nice harmonies and song selection, too. I’m looking forward to seeing them again, and I hope you’ll check them out too, if you haven’t already. 

“Bucket Full of Rain”…

…Is gonna be the title! We collectively decided to name it after the song Joey wrote with a buddy (which, of course, is on the album). All of us have been going back and forth via email on song selection, placement, grouping, order, etc. and chiming in on what should go where and why. We’ve hired Larry Anthony to master it. Our Producer, Buckethead, (no relation) is pleased with Larry’s assessment of our work and is looking forward to working with him. He’s made some excellent suggestions on spacing, grouping, etc. that will really make a difference in the sound and presentation. We have all listened to the final mixdown umpteen times and are all getting excited about the finished product. Won’t be long before it’s off to the production house to be wrapped. Susan is putting the final touches on the artwork, and once we have a final song order,(which is almost done, save a couple tweaks) she’ll be able to finish laying in the font choice and text, etc.

The full band will rehearse again on Friday night in preparation for the 32nd Annual PeachBlossom Festival this Saturday. We go on at 7pm, followed by Cedar Hill, and then the fabulous Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain. Come join us!