Really great night at Pies and Pints.

I forgot my fiddle and no other fiddlers had been confirmed as coming out. I asked Johnny and Tom about a fiddler I’ve been seeing around town the last couple weeks. He looks a lot like Charlie Beck, from the Tall Boys, and I had recently seen him walking around our neighborhood, so I thought he may be close by. Turns out they both know him and within 10 minutes Tom had phoned him and confirmed he was on his way down. Avi ended up sitting in with us for the first set and lighting it up. He’s in town for a couple weeks while deciding where to move. Seattle is in the running…

The remainder of the night held multiple lineups, including Robert Fulwiler on upright bass, Tim Wetmueller and Milly “Racoon” on fiddle, and Dizzy on various instruments. Pat, Tom, Johnny, and myself held down the core. Lots of good tunes, harmonies that continue to tighten up, and some rowdiness from the crowd. An overall nice combo for a Sunday night.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Shows

Dave Forrester, Creeping Time’s drummer, took his turn at producing the latest song for the upcoming album. His main idea was to record a bluegrass style song without drums. And therefore he didn’t have to come to the session, either. Was that some sort of trick to get out of it, or is it a purely genius move to improve the overall sounds of the album? You be the judge.

Anyway, for the session we brought in a few extras to help out. Matt Heron sacrificed his health and volunteered to add a double-fiddle while Johnny Fitzpatrick supplied some banjo. With Ken unable to attend, we still ended up getting a nice set of base-tracks. Though bluegrassy in instrumentation, any track where Kjell cuts loose on the fiddle will always have a signature that is undefineable.

We tried standing around an omni-pattern condenser supplemented with two small diaphragm condensers to get a stereo image. But it ended up sounding better having the large diaphragm condenser focus on guitar, mandolin and vocals while the small condensers captured the details on the banjo and fiddles.

Nice work, boys! I hope you’re feeling better, Matt.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Recording Studio

I was expecting a big night at Pies and Pints. Martin Luther King Jr weekend was big due to the Monday holiday and I was expecting the same. When I showed up for setup, there were not a lot of people and it was looking like a slow one. However, as the sun went down and the music started, people started steadily rolling in until the place eventually filled up. Nettle Honey started things out with about an hour of tunes. I thought they sounded great and caught myself singing along (after hearing the tunes from their latest record about 150 times each). They may have been tired from a long weekend of busking at Folklife, but it didn’t show. Ken Nottingham came down with his upright bass and him, Tom,and myself played a Creeping Time-esque second set, sharing Ken and my tunes and wrangling Matt Heron and Johnny Fitzpatrick along for the ride. Ended the night with some ‘hot bluegrass’ with the standard lineup. Overall a really great night, even though Tom was admittedly drunk before playing a note ;)

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Shows

After a little hiatus from the recording project, due to holidays/sicknesses/etc…, Creeping Time was back on the wagon (or is it off the wagon?) and laying tracks for yet another tune. Kjell Anderson took control of the most recent song and the latest arrangement has a lot of really nice pieces that were never thought of previously. As those dumpster-diving kids would say, “another check in the bag”.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Recording Studio

Good friend and multi-talented music man, Scott Andrew, just announced an album release by one of his bands, Explone. I remember hearing Scott talking years ago about how much he enjoyed Explone’s sound. And now he’s their bassist.

Scott is always ahead of the game in field-testing new ways of DIY marketing. Whenever the subject of ‘how to market an independently released album’ comes up, the first thing I think is WWSAD. Anyway, Explone has a new record called Dreamers/Lovers. In promoting the release, they are offering a free download of the first single, Michigan, in exchange for a tweet. For those of us without Twitter accounts, this is pretty meaningless. But, alas, you can also just listen to the song on the Explone home page.

As for the single… I was born and raised in Michigan. One of the most stand-out musical experiences from my childhood remains being at the public beaches near the sleeping bear dunes. From all directions people had their boom boxes tuned to the same station, creating the effect that that radio station was just as much an ambient certainty as the waves and seagulls. In my day Asia, Toto, post-Garfunkel Simon, and The Cars ruled the pop airwaves. Patrick Porter, in Explone’s Michigan, recreates that vibe with the chorusey/double-vocals, ultra-clean production, and heavy choruses. Later this summer I’ll be back in northern Michigan and I’ll get to do my own field-testing to see if that tune can transport me back to the days before the national parks took over.

0 Comments | Posted by Michael Spaly in Random Info