Last week completed the first session of recordings with Shawn Snyder. For those who don’t know, Shawn is recording his next CD here at my studio and has honored me by requesting that I produce it. Humbled, I am.
Shawn is an amazing writer and his talents bring to mind some old school traditional folk artists like Dylan and Simon. But there’s something else in there: A dash of New Orleans’ soulful twang. I think that we’ve successfully brought that out in these early sessions, where the tracks we demoed as “scratch” tracks became keepers. The thin line between soul and phlegm was where we walked here, and hopefully we found more of the former than the latter.
Tom Gress and Aaron Leese joined Shawn and I on the recording, cutting various percussion and guitar tracks respectively. Aaron even added some sax to a couple of tracks that you’ll hear soon. Kylewilliam Campol from imadethismistake also dropped by and added a special beatnik touch to the studio rendering of “Plot Twist”, a live favorite that we brought to life here in the studio. Putting down the tonal foundation is Jerry Mascaro who played both bass guitar and stand-up and all of the tracks. His bass parts were perfect for the project…
So now Shawn is on the road and I’m here at the studio charged with making sense of the multiple takes and mixing it out to some semblance of normalcy before his Summer return to South Florida. We’re on the lookout for a fiddle player and anyone who can cut up a washboard Cajun style. If we can get those items in the studio, we’ll be in great shape.
I’m sure we’ll be posting some tracks to listen to here as we go, but nothing is ready for prime-time as of yet, Stay tuned…