That's a Wrap!

Golden Nuggets Stew Songbook

At the end of April, I will be coming out with my tenth CD of original songs. One thing I enjoy almost as much as performing songs is recording them. The first time, I ever did that was back in the spring of 1990 when I made my first tape recording of original material. It was done by a man with the unlikely name of Armand French and was called Free Your Musical Spirit , after the name of one of the songs I had written around that time. I recorded

two other tapes, one of them at a tape release concert at Walker Church, and another at the basement studio of a man named Mark Buchanan whom I had gotten to know from a friend named Layah Geismar for whom he had produced a demo tape.

Mark had a fancy recording studio in his basement that contained a multiple-track mixing board, as well as all the latest fancy mikes and other equipment. For him, recording musicians was a hobby. I remember not only being in awe of all his equipment, but also somewhat intimidated by the entire recording process. My tape was called Atom Bomb Baby which derived its name because I was born on August 7, 1945, one day after the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. This recording also included the contributions of several friends of mine who added dulcimer, accordion, guitar, and dobro to the final mix. I was very happy with the final result and excited about getting it out there.

A friend named John Bennett, who had played guitar on Atom Bomb Baby, recorded my first CD of original songs in his own home studio. This CD, inspired by the events of 9/11, was called I Remember. Again, I was joined by a number of musician friends who added vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin, keyboards, and drums.

Since that time, I've recorded seven more CDs of original songs plus two CDs of instru-mental arrangements for the autoharp. On many of these, I was joined by my good friend and singing partner Mary Parker who adds so much to the mix with her vocals and drums. In fact, I recorded one CD of children's songs with her called Eerodynamic! It was dedicated to her then five-year old grandson Eero and was a lot of fun to produce.

Since making that first tape with Armand in 1990, I've grown a lot in confidence. I've found the recording process itself both exhilarating and exasperating in turns. Most of the time, it's somewhere in between. It takes a lot of single-minded concentration, as well as an ability to express a wide variety of feelings under pressure. Often, I've had to do multiple takes because of my own mistakes or because the recording engineer needed to make a correction or adjustment. However, the process isn't finished after the songs are recorded. Then there's the process of mixing them which needs to be done so that the resulting music is well-balanced. After that my job is done. The rest is up to the sound engineer who masters the final result. I've been very fortunate to find people with whom I feel compatible.

This has made the process so much more fun and rewarding.

My past three CDs have been recorded by a man named Bruce Hoff who has his own home studio and whom I met at a recording session at Walker Church. My new CD, Golden Nuggets Stew, is dedicated to a group of friends and support people I've gotten to know over the past six years who call themselves The Golden Nuggets. I've learned so much in recording my tapes and CDs over the past thirty-five years. For the most part, it's been a very exciting and rewarding process. I even pride myself on doing as few takes as possible. After all, as Bruce likes to remind me, I'm paying for the hours I spend in the recording studio.