Winter 2015 update

Lots going on this winter at MPM Studio, so much that I’m having trouble keeping the website up to date.  Snow is falling- a moment to catch up.  Here are just a few recent projects:

 

    •  A new ‘Trad’ Scottish CD project with Eric Macdonald and Will Woodson (Scottish small pipes, flute, guitar, mandolin and vocals).
    • Boston singer/songwriter Abbi White finishing up a new acoustic EP with Marty Ballou on upright bass and yours truly on acoustic guitar and mandolin.

  • Portsmouth merger & acquisitions guru Peter Worrell’s new audio book Enterprise Value.  We’re enterprising small businessmen, we musicians and songwriters, and there are a lot of insights from the seemingly distant world of business to be had from an inspirational man such as Peter.
  • Guitar tracks (again, JP) for former Warner Bros. Nashville A & R man Richard Helm in preparation for upcoming Nashville session.

Kieran O’Hare and John Skelton: New Irish flute CD: ‘Two-Tone’

Mill Pond Music Studio was thrilled to host the recording of this new Irish flute duet project by two of the finest practitioners of that art on either side of ‘the pond’.  This inspired collection of tunes was recorded essentially live, the two players facing each other in the ‘Live Room’, no baffles, a couple of Telefunken tube mics, feet tapping on the maple floor, no digital editing or ‘punching-in’.  Pretty amazing!

Most of the tracks feature the flutes or whistles unaccompanied, although I was very excited to have John Blake from Dublin show up to play guitar and piano on some.  John has long been my favorite DADGAD guitarist- delicate, subtle, nimble, interesting and a real studio pro.  This project is a major contribution to the body of traditional Irish music.

Thanks, Kieran, for bringing this my way and I look forward to some tunes together soon!

 

 

 

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Nashville Travelogue- July ’14

Just back from two production trips to Nashville, lots of great music and a chance to visit some of my many cherished colleagues!

Elizabeth Carrigan‘s story is dramatic and compelling (read more).  We’ve started work on finishing a project she began four years ago.  I took a few of her vocal tracks to Nashville, where I, Jeff Taylor, Chris Leuzinger, Wayne Killius and John Vogt overdubbed a blues-y groove to some traditional Celtic folk songs.  What a great, unusual sound! So, initial vocal recorded here on the Seacoast, band in Nashville, mixing at Mill Pond Music.  Attention New England artists and songwriters: sound intriguing?

Check out The Greenwood Laddie:

 

The Fireflies, in Nashville and Portsmouth

Harry and Luca are sounding better than ever, back in the U.S. from London.  This time we tracked a few songs with a Nashville rhythm section, followed by overdubs and mixing back here in Portsmouth.

Popular Illinois country artist Greg Schneider cut 4 new songs, sounding very good indeed-check out Man Cave:

And, one of my most prolific songwriter clients David Stewart came down from New York with a new collection of finely crafted contemporary country songs, including this unusual and touching piece with an outstanding Tim Buppert vocal:

And, a great time with The Boys of County Nashville at McCreary’s Pub in Franklin.  Jeff Taylor, Bill Verdier, Skip Cleavinger and I having more fun than we deserve!

 

 

 

 

The Press Gang!

Press Gang photoI’ve known these guys since the days when I was still living in Nashville.  On my frequent visits to NH, I always scurried up to Lebanon NH to join them in one of the best Irish sessions in New England.  Based in Portland ME, they’ve evolved into THE hottest young Irish Trad band in New England, and I’m honored that they’ve been recording their second CD with me at MPM Studio. Junior Stevens is unparalleled on button accordion and concertina, Owen is so good on guitar, zouk, tenor banjo and tenor guitar it kind of makes me mad, and Alden Robinson is emerging as one of New England’s finest traditional fiddlers.   A pleasure, gang!   (Their website)


 

 

 

Meg Devlin Irish

Meg is a highly accomplished singer-songwriter who has fairly recently moved to New Hampshire from Vermont, where she recorded four CDs, received with multiple accolades. Check out her website, where you can listen to some of the wonderful music we’ve been making lately at MPM Studio.  It’s been lots of fun for me building her tracks by layering acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin and bass along with York ME’s king of quiet, subtle drums, Robbie Kneeland.  It’s a folk-y, gentle, soulful country-ish style distinctly her own, and I’m very much looking forward to more of her music.

Abbi White’s new Nashville/Portsmouth CD

     An ambitious, sparkling new 14-song CD from Boston’s Abbi White, tracked in Nashville with a stellar cast of acoustic A-teamers, including Aubrey Haynie, Jeff Taylor, Matt Combs, John Gardner, Byron House, Robert Bowlin and yours truly. We recorded basic tracks at CTM in Nashville this summer, then did final vocals, additional guitar overdubs, editing and mixing here at Mill Pond Music.

A few sound clips included below reveal Abbi (who is just 18) to be a wonderful singer whose songs capture feelings and experiences of young love with a mature, poignant perspective. Listen!

Nashville Travelogue, continued.

Had a great time producing, arranging and playing on 4 new songs by NY songwriter Dave Stewart this past weekend. Tracking was done at Studio 19 with Jesse Poe engineering. Chris Leuzinger on electric guitar, Glen Duncan on fiddle, Wayne Killius on drums, John Vogt on bass , myself on acoustic guitar and my dear friend and long-time Irish music cohort Jeff Taylor on piano. Some of you may know Jeff as the accordion player in the best band in America, The Time Jumpers. Jeff and I then went down to McCreary’s Irish Pub in Franklin to join fiddler Bill Verdier for a Boys of County Nashville reunion. Great fun!

Check out two of Dave Stewart’s tracks:
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/countynashville/your-obsession[/soundcloud] [soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/countynashville/never-was[/soundcloud]

New Mic!!

I try not to get too excited about new equipment.  While the search for the utmost transparency between the heart of the music maker and the heart of the listener is a constant here at MPM Studio, the focus is always on the music.  But this new mic!!

6P9A8470The Neumann U 47 is the holy grail of microphones-every instrument and voice on every Beatles recording was captured with one, Frank Sinatra never worked without his.  But the good ones are all 50+ years old, often worn-out, unreliable and hard to find.  Nashville’s legendary mic guru and long-time restorer of old Neumanns Bill Bradley has lovingly recreated this beautiful tool using ‘new old stock’ parts and tubes, and sparing no effort or expense.  This is a singer’s dream mic, although it excels also on solo acoustic guitar, mandolin and fiddle. I had stunning results the other day with the hard-to-capture concertina.  Come try out the Mic Shop MS 47!

Cantrip

A couple of years ago I was performing with clawhammer banjoist Ken Perlman at the fabulous New World Festival in Randolph VT, and had the great fortune to wind up in a jam session with the members of Cantrip. They are a superb Scottish/American trio who play traditional Celtic instrumental music with a distinctly contemporary energy and drive, on fiddle, pipes, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, whistles and flute. Plus, they offer some fine song arrangements. Listen below to a few of a CD’s worth of tracks they recorded in just two very productive days in Mill Pond Music’s soon-to-be-legendary 🙂 Live Room.

 

 

 

 

Some updates at MPMS

-Local duo Captain Bob Griffin and Linda Wade, guitar, vocals and concertina, finishing up a charming collection of ‘Old Chestnuts’. Great songs from the 20s and 30s, augmented with some New England folk music favorites feature their warm vocal blend and Bob’s chiming 12-string guitar interwoven with Linda’s delicate and inventive concertina.

-Emery Hutchins has been working on a project featuring the music of Two Old Friends (full disclosure: the other ‘friend’ is your truly). I’m absolutely delighted with the sound I got on Hutch’s antique concertinas, and the new Peluso P-28 mic (which I’ve been using with great success on fiddle) shone on his clawhammer banjo. This new Peluso mic also brought the best out of my 1936 Larson Bros. Euphonon mandola, which always sounded a bit dry and overly percussive on standard small-diaphragm mics.

-Owen Marshall, in my estimation one of the finest Irish-style guitarists anywhere, has been laying down some beautiful tracks for an eventual solo project. He’s playing DADGAD guitar, tenor guitar, bouzouki, mandolin and banjo creating a dazzling tapestry of string-y Celtic delight. I’ll soon post his perfect tribute to Kevin Burke and Michael O’Domhnaill’s ‘Lucy’s Fling’ set from the iconic (there’s that word again) Portland album.

Brendan Tonra and his legendary fiddle at MPM Studio!

[youtube hd]http://youtu.be/84wW9KZDeeI[/youtube] Renowned Boston-based Sligo fiddler plays one of his recent compositions accompanied by the stellar Helen Kisiel on piano. Some of Brendan’s compositions have become standard repertoire in traditional Irish music, notably Tonra’s Jig (aka Tone Rows). An honor to have these two cornerstones of Boston’s Irish music scene recording at Mill Pond Music!

Read more about Brendan Tonra.

The Fireflies: from London to Portsmouth (again!)

Harry and Luca, from London, England, formerly known as The Pilgrims-now the Fireflies, were back at MPM Studio for their third time a few weeks ago. As usual it was an intensely creative week of tracking, vocals, guitar overdubs (ranging from beautiful acoustic to funky electric) and some last-minute songwriting. What to call their style? You tell me: check out a quick video Dave Hallowell shot in the live room. Delicate acoustic guitar, chiming electric, stunningly evocative vocals.

[youtube hd]http://youtu.be/u30C5OIXYRs[/youtube]

Just the audio for Rise and Fall (with Robbie Kneeland on drums and yours truly on bass):

Think you’ve got it? Check out their funky side:

 

Bob & Jen Strom ’round the bend

 

I met Bob & Jen Strom at The Landing in Manchester-by-the-Sea MA where they regularly host a song and tune session on alternate Sundays, along with singer Michael O’Leary. It’s one of the most pleasant sessions in which I’ve participated: attentive, engaged audience, good acoustics, hospitable staff and a welcoming crew of fine musicians and singers. This CD was one of the more organized, well-planned and rehearsed projects I’ve been a part of, demonstrating once again how economical and efficient the process can be when well thought out. One thing they did, which I encourage everyone to consider: they arrived at each session an hour or so early, and, ‘off the clock’ (while I was at work catching up on other things in the control room), used the Live Room to warm up and rehearse the day’s material.

This is very sweet traditional folk music indeed!

 

Summer re-cap: Natalie McMaster, Joan Osborne, Joe Deleault and more…

Finally getting around to a chronicle of some of this summer’s activities, one of which was my adventure into the musical world of Manchester NH’s composer/songwriter/pianist extraordinaire Joe Deleault. NH Screenwriter/director Ernest Thompson (‘On Golden Pond’, etc.) is just finishing a new film (headed for Sundance Film Festival) called Heavenly Angle, for which Joe has composed most of the music. Some of the music was recorded right here in Portsmouth at MPMS, then Joe and I headed up to the fabulous Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto to cut some of the featured songs and musical cues with renowned Cape Breton fiddler Natalie McMaster.  I had the pleasure of playing acoustic guitar, joined by NH bassist Brendan Dowd and claw hammer banjoist Chris Coole. Joan Osborne contributed vocals from her Brooklyn NY studio, and the whole thing was mixed here at Mill Pond Music Studio.Look for an upcoming CD from Joe featuring some of this material, and…his accordion!

Here’s one of the songs, with Natalie, Joan, Joe and myself:

The Nashville Years: singers and players

A lot of interesting artists and musicians recorded at my studio in Nashville during its twenty years of operation, giving me ample opportunities to make a lot of mistakes and to learn how to avoid them. Some of their names are well-known, others’ should be. Here are some of the names I remember off the top of my head. I owe them all a great deal:

Some of the singers: Gretchen Wilson, Dierks Bentley, David Ball, Jeff Carson, Dusty Drake, Joe Sun, Jo-El Sonnier, Butch Baker, Buddy Jewell, Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky), Tracy Nelson, Tim Buppert, John Foster, Ron Wallace, Julie Maners, Renee Lopez, Margot Smith, Allison Moorer, Kathy Chiavola, Doug Phelps (Kentucky Headhunters), Taylor Ware, and many more, not to mention the many songwriters with their unique, if unpolished, ways of delivering their songs.
Guitarists, steel guitarists, dobro and bass players: Chris Leuzinger, Harold Bradley, Kenny Vaughn, Larry Chaney, Russ Barenberg, Pete Huttlinger, Paul Worley, John Knowles, Lloyd Green, Sonny Garrish, Rob Ickes, Mike Cass, Danny Parks, Kerry Marx, Chas Williams, Dave Pomeroy, Byron House, John Vogt, David Hungate, Mark Powelson, John Pizzarelli, Robert Bowlin, Steve Sheehan, Andy Reiss, Bill Hullet, Red Volkert, and the list goes on…
Fiddlers: Jonathan Yudkin, Larry Franklin, Buddy Spicher, Matt Combs, Kenny Sears, Joe Spivey, Barbara Lamb, Craig Duncan, Bill Verdier, Buddy Spicher, David Coe, Tim Lorsch, Hoot Hester.
Drummers and percussionists: Milton Sledge, John Gardner, Owen Hale, Wayne Killius, Brian Barnett, Tommy Wells, Walter Hartman, Pat McInerney, Chris Brown, Glen Caruba, Dan Sherrill, Kenny Malone.
Multi-instrumentalists and others: Jeff Taylor (accordion, piano, whistle, etc.), Jim Hoke (everything), Jamey Whiting (piano), John Mock (whistle, concertina, mandolin, etc..), Sam Levine (sax), Jeff Lisenby (keys), Joey Miskulin (accordion-Riders in the Sky), Tom McBryde (piano, arranger- Dollywood, etc..), Dave Talbot (banjo), Fats Kaplin (everything), Buddy Greene (harmonica), Jo-el Sonnier (Cajun accordion).