Creative Caffeine: Nashville Recording Studio

The Infamous Stringdusters are the new vanguard of acoustic music. Well crafted songs, vivid arrangements, instrumental virtuosity, stunning improvisation, unique individuality and complete harmony… Bluegrass, Rock, Country, Blues, Folk, and Jazz, the “IS” is American Acoustic Music.

Catch the band as they play for the Bluegrass Underground radio taping held down in the Cumberland Caverns Volcano Room, near Fall Creek Falls State Park, in Middle, Tennessee.

Visit BluegrassUnderground.com to purchase tickets.

Bluegrass Underground is taped live 333 feet below ground at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville Tn inside of what was named by the first people to behold the natural amphitheatre, The Volcano Room. Here water and time entwined 3.5 million years ago to create one of the most acoustically pure natural spaces on earth. No man-made sound reaches the Volcano Room and the living rock hued amid the eons is jagged and uneven, providing limited echo.

The primordial silence and perpetual darkness give way each month to the sounds of the finest music of the greatest bluegrass musicians on earth. Regardless of outside temperature, the Volcano Room is a constant 56 degrees.

Your experience at Bluegrass Underground begins at Cumberland Caverns in the light of day. Tour guides lead you through the cave entrance and into another world. Your subterranean descent takes you past underground pools and waterfalls and to the Volcano Chamber where you will enjoy music in a venue unlike any other you are likely to ever experience And don’t worry about silencing your cellphone…you won’t find any service here.

Buy tickets and view schedule:

Bluegrass Underground: Bluegrass music from Cumberland Caverns broadcast live on WSM 650: Venue

Our good friend Dave Shipley(Foxwood Mastering), brought us about 12 more John Hartford 2″ tapes today for transfer into pro tools.  These are more tapes from the Aereoplane sessions as well as some later 80s sessions.  I am blown away by the sheer quantity of all of these recordings… “just keep the tape rolling”  was definitely the idea.

Guns N’ Roses fans, the wait is over. After 17 years of polishing — or whatever it is that rock superstars do when they sequester themselves in studios that cost millions of dollars for a decade-plus — new GNR music has finally, officially made its way to the public.

“Chinese Democracy,” the title track from the band’s first studio album since 1991, was released Wednesday to radio stations. The track was also available on-line, where it was streaming on various Web sites.

Full Article:

Guns N’ Roses releases first ‘Chinese Democracy’ single: Was it worth the wait? | Turn It Up - A guided tour through the worlds of pop, rock and rap

above: “Recording The Price of Peace”

“For a girl to say goodbye to her daddy’s smile is rough — can’t cover it up.”That’s one of the lines in a song written by 12-year-old Alyssa Gaddis of Springfield after hearing her father talk about deployment ceremonies for National Guard troops being sent overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan.Alyssa’s father, Chief Warrant Officer Jim Gaddis, isn’t being deployed, but after hearing the stories and witnessing a ceremony firsthand, the Springfield Christian School seventh-grader sat down and composed the lyrics to “The Price of Peace,” a song about a girl saying goodbye to her father as he prepares for war.

“It’s very sad, seeing the little girls clutch to their dad’s neck and cry,” Alyssa said Monday of the deployment event she witnessed. “That was hard to just watch, knowing that they are leaving and they are not going to come back for a long time.”

Full Article:

Young songwriter honors ‘price of peace’ - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

We recently had The Gaddis Girls in the Studio with producer Hart Steen to record overdubs for the song “The Price of Peace,” a moving tribute to soldiers at war, from a daughters perspective.

(the following from ThePriceOfPeace.org)

The “Price of Peace” was written in early summer of 2008 by Alyssa Gaddis after a discussion she had with her father, CW5 Jim Gaddis. The discussion revolved around the large number of Soldiers that were deployed overseas while their families were left behind. Alyssa realized that it was probably as hard on the families as it was on the deployed Soldiers. Her dad gave her a pad of paper and told her to write down how she felt and the lyrics of The Price of Peace were born.

The family knew that the lyrics had merit so they enlisted the co-writing assistance of a Nashville writer, Hart Steen. Hart added the music and recorded a basic track to the lyrics. After a few discussions with some members of the IL Employee Support of the Guard and Reserves about the song, State Farm agreed to sponsor the recording. State Farm provided funding for the recording and production of the song.

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We were please to have Taylor Swift in the studio this week to record some voiceovers for an upcoming ad campaign.  Taylor is wonderful to work with in the studio and is very easy-going and focused.  She spoke into our Telefunken U47 and her speaking voice sounded beautiful.

Look for Taylor’s new album “Fearless” which will make it’s debut on Nov. 11.  For more info on Taylor visit her website at TaylorSwift.com.

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This article makes me feel much better for Chris and mandolin players everywhere… I’m sure he’ll never set that mando down again.  Thanks to the Bluegrass Blog and Sam Ash Music in Nashville!

From the Bluegrass Blog:

Those of us who work in and around the music business recognize instrument thieves as among the most degenerate scum prowling the earth. We share the frustration and anger that accompanies the story of a professional musician finding their instrument stolen, and can likewise experience the elation when it is recovered and returned to its owner.

Here’s a happy ending to a story we reported just after IBMA. Chris Harris, mandolinist with Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice, realized that someone had taken his Steffey model mandolin from the Renaissance Hotel in the wee hours of the morning following the IBMA Awards Show.

Brance posted information about the stolen instrument on October 6, and yesterday we received news that the mandolin had been identified by a Nashville music store, and will soon be back in Chris’ hands.

Here’s a note we received yesterday from Clay Rigdon:

“I am the store manager of Sam Ash Music in Nashville, TN. I came in contact with an item that was stolen from an individual at the recent IBMA convention. I wanted you to know that, because of a blog that was posted on your site, we were able to start the process of getting it back into the hands of it’s rightful owner.”

Great news all around, and hats off to Clay and Sam Ash Nashville for the due diligence. If you are a Nashville-based musician, please make a point to thank Clay for his work in returning Chris’ mandolin.

Sam Ash Nashville
1647 Gallatin Pike North
Madison, TN 37115-2151
615-860-7475

The Bluegrass Blog » Stolen mandolin recovered: bluegrass music news

Originally I was excited to attend the music production lecture given by Darrin Vincent, long time Ricky Skaggs bandmate and member of IBMA winning group Dailey and Vincent. I want to be clear that Darrin is extremely talented as producer, musician, and an artist. Dailey and Vincent are very deserving of their recent awards.

Darrin made alot of good points against basement and bedroom studio recording, but I quickly became disapointed when he began talking recording formats.  He talked about how important they are and proceeded to list them… pro tools, nuendo, radar, etc… everything was mentioned but analog tape.  This is very surprising in the bluegrass genre and I immediately spoke up… “what about analog?”  He dismissed the notion like it was a long gone thing of the past and quickly moved on. Very disapointing!

This is very puzzling to me, being that Darrin’s longtime former band leader Ricky Skaggs records to analog tape.  Ricky, unpleased with the sound of digital recording, quit using certain Nashville studios when they switched to digital in the 90’s.  Ricky’s own studio now records to a 16 track analog machine and trasnfers into iZ Radar.

Darrin then spoke of producing the Cherryholmes band.  He mentioned that at times Jere Cherryholmes was not satisfied with the sound, asking why it didn’t sound like Ricky Skaggs’ album he brought in as a reference. Darrin explained that without the expensive guitars and such, it simply could not sound the same… which I suspect is only partially true.

Obviously it’s going to be hard to sound anywhere near as good as Cody Kilby,  but… considering that Ricky’s album would have been tracked to tape, this may have been much more of a factor that an inferior guitar.  Although I have been unsuccessful at finding out what recorder was actually used and I regret not asking Darrin at the time, I would guess that Jere Cherryholmes was missing that extra magic tape can add to your tracks… especially acoustic bluegrass tracks.  He was missing the warm tone and smooth dynamics that properly driven tape can give… not to mention the overall blend of instruments.

Contrary to popular belief,  tape is still available and some studios are still using it frequently and understand the benefits.  Combined with the new tools digital has given us creates one of the most powerful set of tools engineers have ever had.  Track in analog and mix in Pro Tools… The best of both worlds!  The difference is worth it.  Shocking in the bluegrass world to find a bass player who dismisses analog in front of a room of bluegrass industry professionals.