Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
So, we've moved to the overdub stage of the recording process. What in the Sam Hill are overdubs?
We cut the basic instruments during the first week of recording and now we're adding instruments that are extra's. Things that may or may not work out, but that we want to try out with the tracks. Things like fiddle, piano, sax, and some backing vocals.
Because you record these items one at a time, you can generally work in smaller rooms. We started with Baritone and Tenor sax. Now, you normally don't hear sax on country records, and that's why we're doing it. Well, I'm a firm believer that the song tells you what it needs. You don't decide, "Dammit, this song needs horns by hook or by crook." You listen and the music sorta talks to you. You kind of hear the parts that aren't there, and so you go and find people to create them.
Dave Woodford was recommended by Rich McCulley who is engineering these sessions, and who owns the studio. He is a legendary player. This is one of the big benefits of working in Los Angeles. You can pick up the phone and get the guy who played every major recorded sax part since 1975 to come down and play on your song. The video tells you alot about Dave.
The next day we had Nicole Gordon come in to start working on the backing vocals. I've known her for years, and she sang a duet with me back on the Koreatown record, "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man", which was originally recorded by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. We had a great time singing that, even though I did need to give her a couple lessons on singing southern. (She's from Philly) Nicole has one of those voices, she can sing almost anything, and when the time calls for it...she can wail. What a joy. Nicole is one of those people that has her own career singing, songwriting, as well as doing session-work. An amazingly talented person.
Day 8 was fiddle and we got Aubrey Richmond. I had never met her before, but she's played a lot around town and the world (including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba!) and once we started comparing notes it's hard to believe we've never played together. Typically, you like to give a player an easier song first, but she started with "Along for the Ride", which is turning out to be a barn-burner. Again, I didn't envision it that way, but the song is telling me what it wants. More Horns! More Fiddle! I'm starting to feel like that guy in The Shining. Drummer Tony Horkins makes a guest appearance. Here she is working on the easier track, "Working Until I Die"
Someone has commented on this post... click here to read more! »
