Savannah, GA

Posted on September 15, 2008 by Zach

Savannah! When General James Oglethorpe came to this location in 1733, he had no idea that this city would eventually be the home of KD Blues, Joy Hougnon, and Scooter. But today it is home to those very people.

Also, Savannah is dangerous.

“Why, because of the high crime rate?” you ask, logically, since you are smart.

Nope. Consider this street:

A very nice looking street. Savannah has many of these beautiful, pleasant-looking streets. It appears perfectly safe. But they are videotaping your every move! I got a letter in the mail from them with pictures of me caught in the act of being lost and making a last-minute decision to turn left!

You can see them too because the government of Savannah puts them online. I can’t link you directly, but if you enter in my violation number ( R068374 ) and my licence plate ( PNG685 ) you can see the results of their snooping. I must say, the Lovemobile looks quite nice from above like that.

When I arrived in Savannah, however, I had no idea the town was waiting for me to make a wrong move so they could photograph me and mail me tickets. Quite the contrary — the town seemed pleasant and charming, even welcoming. I met up with KD Blues, a singer and all-around awesome dude.

“Let’s see a picture!” says Attractive Girl, who is always interested in musicians.

Sorry, AG. Not only did I forget to take any pictures, but he is happily married to an awesome girl named Elizabeth, who has a fondness for words, such as ‘petrichor.’ But you can check out his myspace.

KD put in some nice vocals for a tune. Then I was off to rendezvous with Joy Hougnon, a happening peep I knew from WU. She is in the Army and is currently stationed in Savannah. Her job is to videotape unsuspecting tourists to make them never want to visit again! Haha, just kidding, she is not that type of person. She is, instead, cool.

Joy and I popped over to a coffee shop, where we imbibed some beverages (I had bubble tea!!1!) and caught up with each other. It was a pleasant time. Also, she is doing language stuff, and is a self-proclaimed lover of language, so I taught her Korean in about 10 minutes. I even gave her some homework and by the end she was getting it right without even looking at the guide. 조이, 잘 했어!

Joy is also very mysterious. I tried to get a picture of her, but this is best I could manage due to her amazing stealth skills, which no doubt she learned in the Army, because I don’t remember her being that stealthy at WU.

Then it was back to KD’s where I spent a lovely evening hanging out with KD and Elizabeth.

The next morning I was off to get a secret moving violation and record a fellow that contacted me by the name of Scooter. Scooter’s super power is the ability to play the guitar so fast that his arm gets blurry.

He also writes and records his own songs in his room there. I had a listen and he has recorded some great stuff.

Scooter put down some guitar for a tune and then he had to be off for work. But we had a very pleasant time chatting about music and recording stuff. What do you think, Scooter?

Yep.

NEXT: The nation of Florida!

South Carolina

Posted on September 15, 2008 by Zach

I spent two days in Greer, SC recording with my friend and musical co-conspirator-in-crime Brad Tretola. You may remember Brad from such posts as: the previous two posts.

I drove with Brad from Atlanta to his parents’ house in SC, where we spent a pleasant if busy two days recording. Brad is a technically brilliant, emotional player and was an absolute pleasure to work with. We spent a good two days laying down parts for probably 10 songs or so, before the time was up.

It’s amazing to me how fast the time went. It felt like we were just getting into it and then the day was over and it was time to sleep, and then it was the same thing the next day. Brad probably felt the opposite since I kept him in the “studio” all day long, violently whipping him if he tried to take a break. (Ask him sometime about those scars on his back.)

“You know,” points out AG, “there may be lawyers reading this.”

Oh, you’re right. For the record, I did not whip, flog, or otherwise cause any physical harm to any people or animals during the duration of this tour. I do not endorse or otherwise condone violence, unless it is in movies and is therefore perfectly OK, even for impressionable children.

“What about that beetle you stepped on accidentally? I remember you felt bad about that.”

Oh, let’s just add “intentionally” in there. Good?

“I think you’re safe from the lawyers now.”

So, Brad’s phenomenal guitar playing is now all over the project! We hadn’t seen each other in years and I really wish we could have had more downtime to just hang out, but I would have felt like I was letting the project down.

Before you say anything about improper personification, I might add that the moment I had this idea, I was its slave. That’s the problem with the creative spirit and incredibly good ideas. They must be brought to fruition, through whatever means necessary. Even if it means going into debt. Even if it means not hanging out with a good friend. Creative people are driven by ideas, by visions of completed projects which only they can see until they make them real in the physical world. But the idea is very much real to the creator. I’m not really making this project happen — the project is using me to make itself happen. I am a creator driven by my creation.

So Brad, next time I hope we can have more time for just chillin’ like the villains we are.

Speaking of chillin’, the Tretolas had the most amazing inflatable bed I have ever seen in my entire life:

Looks like an actual bed, right? Even feels like an actual bed. But it’s really just a glorified air mattress. Remember earlier when I mentioned that amazing air mattress (see Indianapolis, IN)? This is made by the same people. Aero Bed. I support and respect Aero Bed, and would gladly accept a sponsorship from them, in return for regularly using and endorsing their fine products.

NEXT: I get recorded on video by the city of Savannah!

Nashville, TN

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Zach

Nashville! One of the three biggest music cities in the US, Nashville is positively brimming with musicians. I expected a great response from the playaz here.

But life is full of surprises. I only got three people interested in the project, and one of them decided he wasn’t interested when I couldn’t pay his full fee. Another one didn’t work out schedule-wise, so I was down to one person. That person was Don ‘DC’ Chamberlin, bassist.

I spent a pleasant morning/afternoon with Don laying down bass parts for several tunes. Don in particular was all over one of my older jazz/blues tunes, playing a part far better than the part I’d imagined. He also gave me a banana for breakfast. Thanks Don!

And that was that. Nashville.

“Why do you think the big cities seem to give you the littlest response, Zach?” asks Attractive Girl inquisitively.

My theory is that in the big music cities, most of the players are busy working, so they’re not out hunting for more work. Thus, they miss my ads and never even know I was there. I have no proof of that, but it seems to make sense in my head.

“Do you have any other interesting observations about Nashville?” she continues inquiring.

Why, yes. One other thing. Everywhere I’ve gone, the response from musicians has been one of excitement, mixed with a little bit of awe. They think the project is unusual and awesome and they are usually happy to be a part of it. Some pro players who usually play for money even donate their time. Nashville players, on the other hand, responded differently.

“How much does this gig pay?” asked one of them.

“Does this thing pay?” asked another. In fact, that was the entire text message. No introduction, just that.

This is not a judgement — I don’t think ill of musicians trying to make a living, in fact I rather think ill of people abusing musicians by asking them to pay for free since it’s just “having fun.” If I had backing for this project I would pay all the players. But since I’m paying for this project myself and I’m already going broke buying gas, I have to rely on the awesomeness of the project, involvement with lots of other great musicians nationwide, convenience of participation, and the publicity the project will generate to draw in the musicians. And that was not enough for some of the Nashville peeps.

“Hmmm, interesting,” muses Attractive Girl. “Will you pay me for being Attractive?”

NEXT: The ham is birming!

“Hey, you didn’t answer me.”

Knoxville, TN

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Zach

Before we commence with the text-only Knoxville section, I would like to describe a happening peep I chanced to rendezvous with en the route to Knoxville — Jeremiah Nave, owner of East Coast Mobile Recording. He has the coolest truck I have ever seen in my life:

Movie Preview Man: It looked like an ordinary truck…

But inside are all kinds of goodies, including a complete recording studio. Definitely check it out in more detail on his website, linked above. It’s kind of like the Lovemobile times 10. Or, squared. Or times ten and then squared. Yes.

(Lovemobile * 10)^2

They both look nondescript, but inside are some serious technological goodies. I was pretty awestruck.

Jeremiah contacted me because he thought my project was awesome, and since he was kind of on the way for me, I made a bit of a jaunt through the Tennessee mountains to pay him a visit. He was showing me around his place when we came across a pretty amazing organ in his garage. He has one of the rarest leslies around for it too, which sounds appropriately trashy, as a good leslie should. He told me about a recording artist who denied that Jeremiah actually had this leslie, since he thought he had the only one left. Ha. Look at this picture, recording artist!

When he turned it up to a nice garage-floor-vibrating level, the tubes got nice and warm.

Of course, once we had dialed in some great sounds, I had to get this organ recorded, so Jeremiah let me include his organ on my project.

From there it was off to Knoxville, where due to my forgetting to take pictures the world was text-only. Let’s begin now.

Knoxville! Oddly enough, sometimes referred to by locals as Knoxvegas. Actually, some people in Nashville said that too -- Nashvegas. Can you just add "vegas" to placenames like that? I guess I'm from Omavegas, NE. Anyway, I arrived in Knoxville in time to meet my host for a late dinner.

"Who was your host?" asks AG. "And hey -- why does everything look funny? And why aren't there any pictures??"


Calm down, Girl.  The funny-looking-ness is temporary.  Everything will be back to normal after Knoxville.  And my host was my buddy since high school, Paul Coker.  We haven't actually seen each other in a number of years, so it was great to reconnect with him and his snappy wife Kris.  (Snappy in the "quick perceptive skills" sense, of course.)  Paul and I had good times over some fine tex-mex before joining forces with fellow Couchsurfer Julia Zagaya.  She and her friend were over at a bar to listen to one of their friends play some music.
Paul and I continued the tradition of great times by also having great times with Julia and her friend.  Do you like how I keep talking about this person as a "friend"?  That's because I can't remember her name.  I'll just come right out and say it.
After a pleasant night's sleep on Paul's couch, I met up with Neel, a guy with a long Indian name that I can't remember so I'll just write Neel.
"Dang," says AG, shaking her head.  "You can't remember pictures, Julia's friend's name, Neel's name... I bet you can't even remember the capital of Poland!"
Hey!  That should be capitol with an 'o'!  HA!  Gotcha!
"sigh"
Is it Krakow?
"No, but it used to be.  It's Warsaw."
Dang.  Anyway, I met up with Neel, a reasearcher at UT who is also a multi-instrumentalist who plays awesome music with a very sensitive, meditative bent.  He recorded some guitar, voice, and hand drums for me.  I learned a bit about Indian music as well, in particular some interesting things about modes -- which modes apply to which emotions and topics, which is not the same feeling or sense that Western ears have for those modes.
This topic came up because, of course, I wanted him to do a "romantic longing" introduction to a song in Mixo b2 b6, which he didn't feel as easily as he would have if the song were in regular old major.  Super interesting.
After that, Neel recommended an excellent Turkish restaurant, where Paul joined up with us again, and where I had an absolutely fantastic beef kabob!  Mmmmm.

NEXT: Normalcy returns to the blog, as we re-enter the world of words accompanied by pictures.

North Carolina

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Zach

North Carolina! The state of a mysteriously disappearing English settlement, the Calabash cooking style, and the Wright Brothers. Also the state of many missed connections (and I’m not talking about the “missed connections” category on Craigslist, although that would be hilarious). I had about seven people to contact in North Carolina, but I ended up meeting only two of them. Some people never got back to me in time, and some people I didn’t get to in time. Alas.

Let’s start with my host, fellow Couchsurfer and antique car owner Paul MaGee.

Paul had offered the services of his 1970 Plymouth Fury for recording a good engine sound, so when I arrived in the Raleigh area I headed over there to meet him. Unfortunately on the way there it started raining, and his rule was that the car, being an old convertible, does not go out in the rain, a rule which I understand completely.

So, without a sweet old car to record, we instead spent a pleasant evening chatting about this and that. A few interesting things about Paul:

He has many house plan books. When the books were not taunting me themselves, wanting me to waste many hours looking at them, Paul was taunting me with them himself.
His car is named Fluffy. He has a “Friends of Fluffy” group on Facebook. I am a member.

Next morning, I was off to nearby Durham to record with Ken Ray Wilemon, a percussionist and all-around cool musical dude.

We spent a highly enjoyable afternoon putting down various percussion goodies on a handful of songs. One trick in his bag is that he sometimes runs some of his hand drums through a delay pedal for all kinds of strange and interesting effects, so we got some of that bizarre loopy-sounding goodness on the project as well.

From there, it was off to Knoxville, TN, which was to prove both productive and text-only.

NEXT: Knoxville in letters.

Virginia

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Zach

The next day I had Virginia on my mind!

“Not Georgia?” you wonder, while also wondering how you came to be one of my narrative devices.

No, not Georgia. She will be on my mind later. On this day, it was Virginia. I drove down to Bristow, VA (not far at all from DC) and met up with my old college friend Brandon West.

He recorded a healthy smattering of things for me, because oh my goodness — look at that room. He has a room in his house which is full of odd instruments. His father is military and always brought back unusual instruments from his travels abroad, eventually accumulating a significant pile of instruments. Look at this:

That, my friends, is called “hours of fun for everyone.” Check out Brandon breaking it down on the dulciflangitar:

Brandon also does an absolutely amazing cricket impression. So I also recorded that.

Then, foolishly leaving behind my favorite hat, I headed south to Williamsburg, sometimes called “colonial Williamsburg” due to its historically colonial nature. It was indeed quite historic.

But I didn’t go there for the history. I went there to meet a cool dude named Christian Amonson, who is an organ student and has access to several pipe organs around the city. He is a sound engineer as well as a multi-instrumentalist.

I got there in time to hang out with him and some of his friends, then, after sleeping at his place, we arose determined to record a bunch of stuff. We first recorded a smattering of drums, then headed off to a church with a large pipe organ:

Oh yeah.

So we set up all the stuff and then some other guy came in to use the organ so we instead went off to see an amazing concert by a guy who plays the glass armonica, an instrument invented by Beethoven.

“I’m pretty sure Beethoven didn’t invent any instruments,” you say, because you are smart. “It was probably Da Vinci. He invented a lot.”

(Sweet new technique — flatter my readers by making them appear as super smart narrative devices.)

Okay, so it was invented by Leonardo da Vinci, or “Vince” as I like to call him. Anyway, it’s a long cork dowel attached to a spinning wheel, with all kinds of glass bowls of different sizes attached to it. Once you get it spinning, you can moisten your finger and touch it to the edge of the spinning bowl to get a nice ringing sound.

“Um, guys?” says Attractive Girl. “The glass armonica was invented by Benjamin Franklin.”

Well, I guess that’s why her first name is Attractive. Franklin it is. Anyway, this guy’s concert was awesome, he also played a handful of other amazing instruments that use ringing glass as the primary sound generator. Check him out! The crystal bachet in particular is an amazing instrument.

I asked him if he had time that day to record any of his glass instruments for my project, but alas, he was unable to make time in his busy day on short notice. I do hope to encounter another glass armonica player somewhere though; the sound was definitely unique.

Then we were back here:

Christian had a ridiculously nice Shoeps mic which we used to record the organ in a mid-side configuration. It was my first time learning about this micing technique and it seemed pretty conceptually awesome. The results were pretty aurally awesome too.

We spent a while coming up with a contrapuntal Bach-esque part for a song, then recorded it, in four parts: melody, harmony, chords, pedals. Each part had its own huge sound with the natural reverb of the sanctuary. It was huge and awesome.

I just noticed that Christian is really getting into that organ playing. Let’s zoom in for a closer look:

NEXT: Carolina gets on my mind, pushing off Virginia to become king of the mindhill!

Hit the Road, Zach

Being a recounting of Zach's Recording Tour of Love

Category Archives: Recording Sessions

Savannah, GA

South Carolina

Nashville, TN

Knoxville, TN

North Carolina

Virginia