Sam Russell booked his final tracking day yesterday at Egg Studio. His current project consists of recording two albums in the Blue Moon Bible series. The project will end at 8 albums of 8 songs each, all tied together through various themes. To fully explain this you would need something similar to Bob Dylan’s liner notes on Highway 61 Revisited.

Always exciting recording with Sam because you never know what you’re getting into. In 3 hours he had me lay down a lead vocal, mandolin, violin, banjo, acoustic/electric guitar, toy piano, and ‘jesus-juju’ percussion. That’s not going to help keep those liner notes under control…

Each time I go in the songs all have some extra layering and/or direction. Will be very interesting to hear how they’re all finally mixed together.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Session Work

Headed over to Sam Russell’s house to lay down some vocals on the track we’ve been working on. Schedules have been hard to coordinate and it was nice to finally get back to work on this tune. Sam and James Apollo did a few simultaneous vocal takes down in Sam’s bedroom. Always putting the vibe before the ‘technicals’, we kept tape rolling despite the furnace turning on. Good call as the take turned out great. Followed this up with a couple solo vocal takes by Sam and myself and finishing off with some high speed guitar arpeggiation – one of the few good things to come out of glam-rock, if you ask me ;)

Next stop bass and some final background vocals. Then mixing, wrapping paper, bow, and gift tag.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Recording Studio, Session Work

My family and I have been in Boston for the last week and a half. The trip was partially a family visit and partially a ‘mini-tour’ to celebrate the release of Kingsley Flood’s new CD, Dust Windows. I played with Kingsley Flood during our year in Boston and recorded the CD during the last week before our move back to Seattle.

Please check out the band and the music. Yes, I support the music because I played on the record and love the people in the band. But check their website for the non-biased reviews the album has been getting, and you’ll see that it’s a truly special album.

The last week has been a whirlwind of rehearsals, reunions, new faces, performances, and general awesomeness. In all it felt a lot like summer camp. You know the feeling when you have a week of intense interactions with old friends and new culminating in a final night of raucousness and short-term sentiment? That describes the week to a T.

In brief:

- rehearsals in space sure to be used as a future Saw movie set location

highlight: band from next door comes busting in and declares that our music and energy “made my life!”. Now that’s a strong recommendation
lowlight: billy bob’s roast beef turning George’s stomach into a 2 hour roller coaster ride.

- Boston Herald interview
– 91.5 WMFO radio show appearance

highlight: 45 minutes of performance time! First ’show’ with KF in almost a year. George’s 1940s announcer radio address.

- impromptu gig at Toad in Cambridge with “Green Monroe” (Chuck Melchin, Adam Cat, and Koopa Sawyer)

highlight: Hanging and playing with those boys.
lowlights: Forgetting to turn on the front of house speakers. Not counting off the songs before starting… sorry guys ;)

- sold-out CD release party @ Middle East in Cambridge. read more here

I could go on and on and tell plenty of stories here, but I’ll let the pictures finish off instead…

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Random Info, Session Work, Shows

Another session of tracking for Sam’s upcoming album – part IV of the Blue Moon Bible series. It was a hastened session as I was a little late and had to leave early. The thing with Sam’s quick takes is that it’s never easy to figure out if we’re moving on from a part because I nailed it or if it looks like it just isn’t going to happen. I think we hit about 50% yesterday. We’ll have to wait and see what makes the final mix – we should know by early 2015 ;)

One fun part was attempting a lead vocal on a cool new poppy tune. It’s definitely got my favorite ‘moment’ of Sam’s new song set. Its real straight-ahead pop-rock with this one line that just flows perfectly: “I need a girl like you…” sung in a descending line. Just like Frank Zappa liked Parallel Fourths, I’ve found all my favorite melodic lines are descending, including “it makes me feel better” [Hickory Wind, The Byrds] and “Shame, boat loads of shame, day after day, more of the same” [Shame, Avett Bros].

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Random Info, Session Work

Went to record some overdubs for Sam Russell’s upcoming album with Conrad Uno at Egg Studio.

For this session Sam gave me a heads up on which songs we were working on. A rare Harborrats session where I actually came prepared ;) This worked out well since we were in hurry up mode with lots of people being scheduled over the course of two days. The tracks are really coming together and Sam has definitely hit full stride as a producer; creating really unique musical landscapes and knowing how to paint them using the available musicians.

Highlight of the day: chocolate mint cake!!!

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Session Work