FAT O's And RECORDING, Part the Second

Didn't write anything after our show at Fat O'Harry's on Sept. 7. But the show went very well--the crowd gradually got into it and by the end of the night, people were begging us to continue.

We played lots of originals, even mixing them in after we played party rock tunes. There was lots o' Celtic shin-swinging during "Copperhead Road," probably more than this laddie's ever seen, don't you know...

The staff and management of Fat O's was very nice and helpful and treated us very well--better than a lot of clubs, that's for damn sure.

We also recorded the show and may put up an mp3 or two on myspace or something...it came out fairly decent...

Recording

We all went to Plowhandle studios in Jackson today to work on our upcoming album (which might end up being called "Liberty Road"). What we worked on was mostly for show, though, because we were being filmed by a crew from Mississippi ETV for a future segment on their "Mississippi Roads" show. Key Ivey was the producer, Jeremy was the cameraman (who'd jammed with us before at Todd and Katie's wedding a few years back), and I didn't catch the sound guy's name, but he was good.

But it was really cool, they were very professional and easy to work with. We may end up keeping some of the parts we recorded while our every movement was being filmed--or we may not. Either way, the show should be interesting--they plan on recording some live shows, doing interview segments, and what not.

Molly Thomas, artist in her own right as well as session/road musician for Todd Snider and others, came in to lay down some fiddle on a few tunes--"Sorry About That," "Carolina Divorce Song," "Just To Be Free," and--I think there was another one...she sounded really good and was also very easy to work with.

Chris and Steve are working on Chris' bass parts and vocals tonight and tomorrow, and will probably finish by tomorrow night, when the rest of us will go back up that way for a show at the illustrious Ribeye's in Yazoo City...then it's everybody else's turn to lay down their tracks...

Buffalo Nickel Recording New CD

Here's a rundown of the first of many sessions for the next Buffalo Nickel CD for anyone interested.

THE SESSION:
The session was at Plowhandle Studios on Friday Sept. 1, 2006. Steve Deaton was producing, and I (Elliott) was drumming with my trusty Pearl Rhythm Travelers, and an assortment of snare drums, and cymbals. We started recording at 9AM, and took a lunch break around 11:30AM. We started again a little after 12PM, and continued recording to about 3:30PM. When the day was done we tracked drums for 11 songs in six hours. The room at Plowhandle was great for doing drums! Something about the size of it, the walls, etc etc. gave the drums a punchy sound. The raw tracks pre-eq, and effects sound great.

THE PROCESS:
For certain songs I "doubled" my Rhythm Traveler tom-toms by inverting a second 12" tom, and a second 14" under my main (single headed) toms to simulate a double headed drum sound. Snare drums used were a vintage 6.5"x14" Gretsch wood shell, and a 6.5"x14" Tama Grandstar metal-shell snare drum. For certain tunes the drums were slightly muffled, for others they were wide open. The small 8"x20" RT double headed bass drum (with a small hole cut out in the front head for the mic) gave a gut-thumping punch with an AKG D112 mic.! Other mics included Shure SM57s for the snare and toms, and SM81s for overheads. I believe there was an A.T. room mic also...not sure on that one.

There will likely be more than 11 songs on the new CD. This was just the first of many more sessions to come, but the recording process for the next Buffalo Nickel CD has started. YAY!
EC