Fitting I’m getting this up on this date…today the friend that I worked on this for is getting married to a super cool lady, but due to dumb life circumstances, I was unable to make it. Here’s to you pal.

Anyways, this all came about a few months back while talking to my old friend and college roommate Steve Arnold (not to be mistaken with the other Steve that sometimes is referenced here). I had just begun some of my adventures with Logic and home production and mentioned said to him. Unbeknownst to me, he and the bluegrass band Blackstrap that he plays banjo and sings in had just finished recording a bunch of tunes at home using a Mac and GarageBand. Advice and tossing stuff around ended up with him sending me some of the tracks, and ultimately in me mixing their album for them.

It turned out to be a pretty fun and educational experience since bluegrass is not one of my primary musical loves and I had no preconceived experience with how the production ought to sound. Moreover, the tracks were sort of limiting – one bass track, one track per lead/bkg vocal part, and all the rest of the instruments (5 in all) all on one other track recorded on a condenser mike. So that made mixing the instrumental breaks a little challenging, and the vocal tracks were really stark and “hot” so sweetening them up a bit was a challenge. Finally, the recording was all 16-bit and for stuff like this 24-bit really makes a difference (especially with bass tracks). And of course the whole mastering part where one endeavors to make everything sound somewhat the same, like making the bass an anchor point across the whole thing emerged as it’s own special hassle that I had not anticipated.

After some back and forth with Steve and the band, we settled on a sound that they were getting at. On a couple of points, what they wanted is not what I would have done, but I’m not a bluegrass fan and it’s not my CD, so they clearly win on those points. The main issue was how much they wanted the instruments cut back out of the mix during the vocal parts, but that’s how it’s done.

But all in all things came out pretty well. The CD came out, they used it to get a slot in a big music festival in Oregon, everyone was happy and our friendship is still intact. And hey, I got my name on a CD next to the words “Mixed & Engineered by”. Here are a couple of samples from the CD I liked. Consider it an example of the “best audio engineering that money didn’t buy”. Since they had never recorded anything before and I had never mixed an album before I would say we all did pretty well. I QA’ed it on all the speakers/systems/headphones at my disposal. I’m sure it will not pass the Phil “Wall Of Hair” Spector transistor radio test, and I’m sure it will suck on someone’s speakers, somewhere.

- Propane Heater

This song fucking cracks me up. My friend Steve wrote it and does the singing. I guess that it’s one of the samples originally sent to me to see what I could do that lead to the whole thing. Since it’s one of the first ones I did I hadn’t nailed the “process” yet but it still sounds pretty snappy.

[propane-heater.mp3]

- Cabin Door

I received a bit of a smackdown on this one by the dobro player who wrote and sings this tune. My psychedelic/prog instincts got the best of me on that really sweet dobro intro. I ended up getting a little expansive with that and was simply told, “Um, no”. So we went back to a somewhat more traditional sound.

[cabin-door.mp3]

- Lights Of Winnemucca

Another humorous track penned by Steve. I like everything about this little tune. How can you not like a song about a meth-addled weed dealer getting all existential while driving through the Black Rock Desert in Nevada? Pure Oregon goodness I tell you!

[i-see-the-lights-of-winnemucca.mp3]

- New Madrid

A classic Uncle Tupelo song. Funny, the music festival that this CD got them into is also hosting Jay Farrar. Steve expressed trepidation about the fact they will be selling CDs with an un-royalty-paid-for Tupelo song somewhere where Jay is. We’ll see I guess.

[new-madrid.mp3]

- PBR

Finally getting the mix right. Standard issue Beer ‘n’ Tears theme.

[pbr.mp3]

- Finding Ways (+Bonus Track)

Another song by the dobro player. I totally like this tune. The transition into the next song is really sweet. Too bad that the vocals on the “bonus track” were not tracked but sung extemporaneously “in the room” so it sounds a bit different. Not even sure what the hidden bonus track is actually.

[finding-ways-bonus-track.mp3]

So, that’s it. Feel shitty about not being able to make it up for the happy ceremony, but I’m thinking about you. Happiness to you Steve.