After several months of tackling one song at a time, I'm happy to say that Javier Mendoza's new record 'You' is drawing to a close. Working on this record with Javi has been a rewarding experience - the most significant take-away of which has been the building of a creative closeness and friendship with Javier.
If you have followed this project at all, you'd know that in early March, I joined Javier on a quick performance trip to Kentucky after which we set up a small demo studio in an ridiculously quaint cottage just outside Cincinnati courtesy of Rick Cobourn and Janine Hooverman. And course, I cannot forget great indie music advocate Jay Brandt for his help in orchestrating such a great trip.
The goal in making 'You' was to really take Javier's music in a different direction while offering the record in two versions; Spanish and English. I feel that this record offers a new level of songwriting for Javier and directionally offers truly amazing supporting roles by the usual cast of characters: Joe Meyer and Dennis Stringfield on drums, Eric Grossman and Logan Detering on Bass, R. Scott Bryan playing percussion and nearly everything on the track entitled 'You', Jim Stevens and Dawn Weber offered great horn work, Jim Peters on guitar and of course, Javier on guitar and vocals. As I have said before - I am so thrilled with pianist David Aholt's contribution to this record. Great, great work.
Although I contributed significantly to the arrangement and direction of 'You' - I actually played very little on this record. Instead my role has been more engineer and over arching captain of the creative ship. In this regard - this record has been a shift for me in that it's required a more indirect influence on the creative space. Mixes are nearly done and we're scheduled to hit mastering first part of next week with guru Brad Sarno - I can't wait to hear Brad's work.
The release show is already booked and tickets are on sale. The first three hundred tickets sold will receive a free copy of the new record. Get your tickets today by clicking, here!
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It's been a busy, busy few weeks. Beyond pushing ahead full on with Javier Mendoza's new record, I've also started working with brilliant singer/songwriter Caleb Travers. I started receiving demos from Caleb several months ago. After working thru material, writing and re-writing, we decided to move forward with a handful of tunes. We've spent one evening in pre-production thus far with one more evening scheduled before we begin tracking. Most times, beyond getting MP3's emailed to me, I have very little time to do pre-production on material; it was nice to sit with Caleb, drummer Joe Meyer and bassist Eric Grossman and hash out tempos, feels and parts.
I also had the pleasure of mixing a song for my good friend Taylor Mesple'. Hailing from Portland, Maine - Taylor is a great, great songwriter and amazing pianist/multi-instrumentalist. In addition to being a great songwriter and performer, Taylor owns two Portland mainstays - The Maple Room and Old Port Records.
I've also continued to work on Nashville pianist Chris Walter's new record. My last session with Chris included drummer Jim White and was completely amazing. Chris recorded saw player Natalia Paruz for one of the tunes - video of that session is amazing and can be seen, here.
Best,
J.
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Just this last weekend, I started work on a record with pianist and songwriter Chris Walters. Chris has a long, long pedigree playing for all sorts of music greats which reads something like this :
New Orleans born pianist Chris Walters has resided in Nashville since 1989, moving from New York to serve as music director for country music legend Barbara Mandrell until her retirement in 1997. He then joined the group Alabama, touring and recording with them through 2004. When not touring with his own band, Chris performs and records as the keyboardist with various artists, including the Jeff Coffin Mu’tet and Peter Mayer. He's performed with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and recorded the soundtrack for a documentary film scored by Bela Fleck. #
Also involved with this record in the producer role is my dear friend R. Scott Bryan. Our first day yielded great results with more to come soon. I'll will get some audio up as it's available - for now visit Chris, here.
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Best,
J.
So - for several, several months I have been working on a new record for songwriter / artist Kirk Ward. For those of you not familiar with being locked in a studio with an artist, charged with helping with the safe delivery of their creative work - it can overwhelming and sometimes downright difficult.
While some artists are very phobic about dissecting material in front of other people and instead prefer to have their material mapped out prior to coming into the studio, from the word go I could tell that Kirk was comfortable working out ideas with and in front of me.
As session drummer Joe Meyer started to bang out material, I could tell that Kirk was very comfortable outside the box - letting Joe explore different feels, approaches and textures. From our first overdub session - Kirk and I were handing guitars back and forth - and in some instances, Kirk was truly producing me as a player.
The record features brilliant pop songs with a faith based message and brilliant playing by the usual cast of characters. Kirk is currently interviewing for fans - and would most likely love to have you -- visit him on facebook or on myspace. The record should be wrapping up shortly - look for release dates sometime in early fall, 2009.
I don’t want to go too in depth on this one - as I have been posting quite a few blogs lately - but I did want to take a second and introduce you all to songwriter/vocalist Brian Owens. Several months ago I did a chunk of session work with Brian and his band working on what would grow into and EP format release entitled
"The Cole Sessions". At the time of tracking - Brian’s wife was in the last stages of pregnancy with their first born son, Cole. I’ll tell you - the two best things about the "The Cole Sessions’ were listening to Brian sing -- and likewise witnessing Brian’s excitement about the pregnancy, fatherhood and getting to finally meet Cole.
Of all the tunes we worked on, I was most touched by the track entitled ‘Cole’s Song". A sort of Lanois-ish tune, ‘Cole Song’ is more or less, and open letter from Brian to his unborn son, Cole. The song is beautifully touching and features Brian on vocals, Eric Warren on stand-up bass, Mark Colenberg and me on guitars. I've added 'Cole's Song' to my player -- please give a listen and let me know what you think. Brian is a truly gifted writer and vocalist - please visit his page for information on point of sale. Thanks for reading, all. Have a good weekend.
J.
