grantlangston.com

First Video from Working Until I Die - Trouble Knows

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:31:47 +0000

I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000

We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000

We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass

Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000

Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000

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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000

We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000

KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:31:47 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for $8,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

grantlangston.com

Grant Langston — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000
I just wanted to share the new and first video from the new record, Working Until I Die. It's called Trouble Knows and we had a great time playing dress-up and taking a tour through 50 years of country music. If you like the video, you can really help us out by sharing this in social media and even telling your friends to check it out. THANKS!

Photo Shoot for the New Record…and a Big Change

Grant Langston — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:35:21 +0000
We just completed the cover shot photo session for the new record. It was a blast. For any of that session to make sense I need to tell you that we're changing the title of the record to "Working Until I Die" Why is Royal Monaco on the trash heap (for now)? We spent a great deal of time talking about the concept for the album design. Royal Monaco is a car, in fact the first car I learned to drive, but I liked the title because it could be anything. When we started working on exactly what the cover should be it was difficult to nail it down. We talked about shooting a car, but i did that on the 2004 record, Road Side Service. Not interested in a cover that comes to close to that one. So, that pretty much ruled out a car image. We also began to look at the songs that made the record and how they might be related. Royal Monaco was conceived as a title before I had even written some of the songs that will make up the playlist. When I looked at the 13 tracks that will make up the record I started to see a through-line. I saw a smart article the other day that examined which 10 year span in the history of the country has been the worst. The civil war years were, if I remember, the worst. WWII, The Depression, are all up there...and the last ten years - from Sept 2001 to Sept 2011 are in the top five. Not to bring the room down, but it just seems that whatever safety net we ever had...rising home prices, a pension...those things are gone. Perhaps never to return and so like I say in the song, "I'll be working until I die." So, when I look at the song list I see titles like, Little Less Fun, I Ain't That Kind of Cowboy, Coming For You, and the mentioned, Working Until I Die I saw aggressive subjects....fighting, insisting, mourning....working hard and refusing to give up. I still couldn't quite nail it down. One night over many beers Tony Horkins said, I've got it. This about is about working until you die and it should be called, Working Until I Die. Damn he was right. So WUID it is. That fed right into our cover photo, which we shot in the most bland and soulless corporate office we could find. Here are some behind the scene's snapshots. I felt so fortunate to have British mega talent photog John Chappel on the job. His work is amazing and although I haven't seen the final images I'm confident it's going to be great. ----- WHAT'S NEXT? We're deep in the post-production stage of this record. The songs are being mixed in Boston. We're getting email tracks every day - making notes and rushing around to listen in different sound environments. Some people say to me, "Who cares if it sounds good? Everybody just dumbs it down to MP3's and listens with ear buds. It doesn't need to sound good!" I just can't do that. I still have my fingers crossed that someday we'll be back to the high fidelity world, and I want the record to sound as good as it can. Even if most people won't notice. I'LL NOTICE! So there's mixing, mastering (more on that when it happens) album art design, and manufacturing. I'm projecting a January 15 completion date...keep your fingers crossed.

Recording Blog - Day 9 - Clear Lake Audio

Grant Langston — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:28:51 +0000
We've moved to a larger studio for a very special day of recording. When we pre-sold the new record one of the more expensive packages included an opportunity to sing on the new record. I had no idea if anyone would want to spent that much money supporting this project, but it turns out 14 people we're kind enough to participate at this level of higher. They are: Pam Slate, Paulette and Daren Hawkins, David and Jan Langston, Michael and Glenda Sartain, Linda and Joe Armijo, Denese Petrillo, Jonathan Reid, Rob and Kathleen Shine, and Jeanette Martin-Williams. On Oct 1st we invited everyone to LA to work as a choir and sing some stuff for the new recording. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the trip. As it was we had folks from Bakersfield, Ventura, Alabama, and Portland. We brought in some drinks, and a fine time was had by all. We even had some limited edition, "I'm with the band" T-Shirts made. What great fun...

Four Things I Learned Today From Dave Alvin

Grant Langston — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:58:40 +0000

I just had the extreme good fortune today to attend an intimate acoustic "show" with Dave playing solo in someone’s home. As I drove away on my scooter, I started thinking about the lessons I had just absorbed from this master songwriter and performer.

If age ever mattered, It doesn’t now

There is this notion out there that an artist’s best work is done in his younger years, and by the time he’s past 50, certainly, he’s done as a creative force. The press loves to take a legendary artist and then compare a new song they’ve heard twice to a song they’ve been living with for 30 years. This happens daily. But to my ears, Dave’s powers of melody, story and songcraft are increasing. And the signs of age, only add to the personae and gravitas of his work. He doesn’t need to dye his beard or wear a wig or pretend to be 25.

Respect the New Material

Dave will play an old song, but he plays the new stuff and he stands up next to it and says, “This is as good as anything I’ve ever done.” He doesn’t beg you to sit through the new material as payment to hear an old favorite. He treats his new material with love and dignity.

Give The Audience Some Help…

Dave talks about his songs. He sometimes gives you a sentence, and sometimes a whole story. But whichever way he goes, he gives you just enough to be in the world of the song. You’re hungry for every word. You’ve been completely primed for the experience.

…But Don’t Kiss Their Ass
Dave exhibits great dignity even in a humble surrounding playing for 25 people. He doesn’t glad hand and kiss ass. He’s there on business, and he means business. He stands apart, warming up and getting ready. He’s not taking himself too seriously, but he takes the work seriously.

Blog in Action - The Making of The New Record

Grant Langston — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:45:20 +0000
Hey, Were in the middle of the new record and we're documenting the entire process on my blog. Video, Photos and the play by play. See it HERE. grantlangston.com/category/blog

Recording Blog - Day 6, 7, and 8 - Red Hill Studios

Grant Langston — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:44:13 +0000
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"

Recording Blog - Day 3, 4 and 5 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:04:04 +0000
We've rapped up our time at Kingsize Soundlabs. Let me give you a rundown of what happened. 5 days of all day long studio work is a little disorienting, but at the end of the day the majority of the 11 tracks we recorded went down between 2pm Monday and 4pm Tuesday. The band played and played and played. I have to hand it to Tony Horkins, Josh Fleeger, and Larry Marciano. I was not sure if these guys could record live as a unit. It's pressure-filled and you've got to have you A game working. They all kicked ass. After 4pm tuesday we started thinking about fixing the little mistakes we made but keeping the basic tracks. So, for instance, 98% of Josh's bass track would be fine. Josh would either punch in and fix his mistake or Producer Paul would find a note somewhere in the song that was the same as the flub and cut and paste the fix in. This is an amazing and terrible tool. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much computer magic to get things where they should be. Then Larry and I began playing around with different guitars to create some interesting tones on top of what we already had. The details of all this may bore some readers, but I brought two amps into the session. A 1965 Fender Deluxe reissue and a 1964 Fender VibroVerb reissue. The idea behind re-issued amps is that a company will pull the old original schematic for a very popular amplifier and make a new version. It let's you get your hands on the old fashioned sound without paying thousands and thousands of dollars. It's also important if you're a traveling band because things had a tendency to get stolen. Losing an original 1965 deluxe on the road would put me in the frame of mind to slash my wrists. So, this is a good option. The deluxe was too noisy, so we used the big 'un, the vibroverb to cut my guitar parts with my Gretsch 6120 guitar. Once we had that tone down we went back with my beloved 1976 Les Paul and THE studio amp, an actual late 60's Fender Princeton. It's a small amp, but it just sounds perfect. Then Larry came in and did some additional parts, mixing tones and parts. We've got some video of Larry sitting with Paul and working on guitar parts. Then I cut some mandolin, some B3, (very basic B3), and a little Farfeeza organ, which you may never hear in the final product. Just experimenting. Along the way tony jumped in when someone had to have a smoke break and cut tambourine, shaker, and other percussion. Because a man can only sing so much in a day, I tried to cut vocals a little each day. But of course, we're doing all this in 5 days and that doesn't leave as much luxury for 11 songs as you might like. By Thursday night I had knocked out most everything. Friday morning, I was patching up a few parts and leaned in too close to the mic, causing it to distort. When it comes to guitars distortion is a good thing, and a slight distortion on a vocal is also pretty charming. If you listen to the old Otis Redding records he drives that microphone so hard. It distorts at every turn, and man, he sounds great. I've never done it before, but Paul liked what he heard and so...I basically RE-SANG in the entire album on Friday. One right after the next...Bam, Bam, Bam. I was a mess when it was over. In fact I had to go be on a radio show...hosted by my friend Shark. 103.1 is the station and I've got some photos here from that as well. WHAT A DAY! I even met Donald Duck at the radio station! So, by the time we got to the end of the evening on Friday we had 11 tunes, lacking only some overdubs. It was hard work and an amazing experience. I'll keep you in the loop as we continue forward with ROYAL MONACO! [caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paul manning the board..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1289" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The team after a week of hard work..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1290" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The man in the booth..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1293" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Fleeger lays down his massive and imposing licks on the ugliest ovation bass..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1294" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dont ask..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1295" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I bump into Donald Duck at the radio station..."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1297" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The Indie 103.1 studio and DJ Shark..."][/caption]

Recording Blog - Day 1 and 2 - Kingsize Sound

Grant Langston — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:20:17 +0000
KINGSIZE SOUND Glassell Park, CA So, here we are at 5pm on the 2nd day of our work together. All 6 of us...band, producer, and engineer packed into a smallish studio. We've cut some of all the tunes we want to record. It's been a new and interesting process for us. I was talking during lunch today how in the 14 years that I've been recording professional records in studios not one time have I ever tracked the entire band playing at the same time. That may come as a shock to many of you, but it's just not the typical way bands work anymore. Scheduling can be hard. Getting 4 guys in a room together is a challenge. You need a studio that can accommodate four or five players in such a way that isolates their instruments. These kinds of studios are typically more expensive. In fact, many of the places I've worked would not even allow for the tracking of a full drum set. These tiny studios are perfectly good for recording vocals, guitars, etc...but you're usually in there all by yourself. The recordings are built one instrument at a time, like a brick wall. The bass player never sees the drummer. The lead guitars never sees the singer. It's an odd way to do things, if you think about it, but economics and convenience win out time and time again. This is a different animal. All four guys are playing together. I'm singing, although the vocals are just for a reference. We'll re-do them when the band isn't playing. AND as if that's not all enough, we're doing this without a click track. A click track is a metronome that the drummer listens to while he plays. It keeps him strictly on tempo and makes it easy to overdub at a later time. We're going bareback. No click. Au Natural. It makes us subject to the whims of drummer Tony Horkins. If he speeds up, we speed up. So far, it's been fine, but you never really notice that stuff until you start to record things over it. Then the changes in tempo that happen during a tune hit you in the face. Typically, we're arriving at 10am and playing together until 6 or 7pm. Sending out for lunch. Fixing odds and ends when when need a break. It's focused work, with a dash of pressure...and exactly where we want to be. So, here's some photos, a little video documenting the last couple of days. We're working on the following tunes... Along For the Ride, She Don't Have a Clue, Try Me, Everyone Loves Me When I Am Drunk, Coming For You, Scene of The Crime, The Honky Tonk Special, Sweet Little Girl, I Fall For It Every Time, Working Until I Die, and Trouble Knows

You Did It! ROYAL MONACO pre-sell reaches goal!

Grant Langston — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:08:20 +0000
I have very good news to announce. I think it even falls into the GREAT category. Thanks to so many of you fine people, we've reached the pre-sell goal for the new record! As of this moment, 134 people have purchased one of the ROYAL MONACO packages accounting for ,051! I'm so blown away by the generosity and interest in this recording. It's really gone better than my wildest imagination and I can't thank you all enough. Truly, I cannot. One person that deserves immediate and copious thanks is my wife, Catie. Her assistance has been monumental. Some very talent people came over last night and sat in my backyard. We made this little video demo of a song that is going to be on the new record, "Working Until I Die". The cast of contributors includes Supermodel Bassist, Josh Fleeger. Songwriter and Singer Extraordinare, Sarah Stanley, Hot Shot Guitarist and Leader of his own blues band, Johnny Hawthorn, and guitarist of the fab band Last American Buffalo, Josh Grolemund. (Here on drums) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBitH3XDg You can still buy pre-sell packages until the project closes on June 26th, so if you know someone who would like to buy one of the packages, tell them to go for it. If you haven't yet and want to participate in this pre-sell, feel free to go ahead. We would love you to. Click Here. Lastly, if you have contributed. On July 1, we'll be sending a request for your mailing address and the name as you'd like it printing within the liner notes of the record. We will also be documenting each and every part of the recording process so you can keep track. I'll be updating my blog as often as possible, so bookmark this page. http://grantlangston.com/category/blog This is going to be a fantastic ride, I'm certain of that. Thanks for your vote of support and I look forward to sharing the final recording with you all. Love! G

Announcing Pre-Sell/Fundraiser for New Record - ROYAL MONACO

Grant Langston — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:09:53 +0000
Hi everyone, We're announcing the pre-sell for the new Grant Langston record, ROYAL MONACO. We're asking everyone to pre-buy a copy of the new record to help fund the recording. We're trying to raise $8,000 between now and June 29th. We NEED your help. Please click the widget below to contribute...and THANKS!