Sunday 8 May 2016

GOOD GUYS IN WELL FILLED SHOES

Following on from mention of cut feet in empty ones

One of the good guys
Some of the selections of songs which have been released are those I had recorded in a 'oner' Since working on the released material I can now appreciate and accept just how many times that is the way I approach the writing and recording of songs

And as will be apparent, from those which are now appearing in these posts, this has resulted in numerous repeats of songs - although most of these are not exact copies They are of different recordings of the same song: different in the performance, in the times they were recorded and in the quality of the tape and the recorder being used

For example, for a while I used a Revox B77 Stero Reel to Reel Recorder and this undoubtedly produced some of the better quality tracks Also I am assuming my technique has improved with growing experience and an improvement in my recording equipment but I consider the benefits to have been marginal

What I can say without equivocation is that the credit for the best of what is out there belongs with several professional musicians and sound engineers who have been superb at enhancing what I brought to their door

John and Mags of Wild Biscuit Music have been mentioned - and will be again In some respects it could be argued that only two main albums have been released - MORE LIKE A RIVER THAN A ROAD and CUT FEET AND EMPTY SHOES 

And for the second album (although they have also been involved to varying degrees in other tracks) those who deserve both the credit and much gratitude are Brian Young, owner of the CaVa studios at www.cavasound.com in Glasgow, his pal Fraser Spiers (the incomparable blues harp player), CaVa's top dog engineer and genius Geoff Allan and someone I rate very highly, a guy who no longer works at the studio but who was there at the time I made my first approach for some assistance That guy is Brian McNeill, perhaps better known as the keyboard player and arranger for China Crisis