The Lead Guitar is a Crazy Thing....

That's right, two blogs in one day!!

Today we were at the awesome Turtle Studios in Philadelphia to record the amazing Ross Bellenoit on lead guitar...slide guitar...and all of the fancy schmancy stuff he does (not to mention the tambourine action...)

Ross went to UArts with Nate and me but somehow this was the first time we worked together! He can generally jam out to every style of music on the guitar - listening was half the fun. :)
Thank you for all that you've added to the project!!

Our engineer today was Rob Shaffer, a seasoned musician in his own right! Thanks for your hard work today Rob!

Turtle Studios has a really great new space in South Philly and it was a ton of fun to record there!

www.rossbellenoit.com
www.turtlestudios.com

The Cello I Love the Most...

Last Tuesday Nate and I went out to Silvertone Studios in Ardmore, PA to work with the ever fabulous Alfred James of the Alfred James Band.



Silvertone is an awesome setup - they just added a new live room which is amazing - we didn't use it but it looked kick-a.

Here's Alfred adding cello tracks to the title track, "Water Rising."



As I told him, he and Nate seem to speak "Mary Scholz" - bringing to life all of these ideas I had that I couldn't seem to articulate. It's amazing to hear what others can bring to the table.

I am so grateful to have all of these talented musicians in my life!

www.silvertonestudios.com
www.alfredjamesband.com

To those who saved the day...

An additional thank you to two gentlemen who saved the day this weekend...

First, Tim Lappin, for sending files from Brooklyn after technical difficulties in Syracuse...

Second to Andrew Greacen for the use of his beautiful guitar after issues with mine!

Thank you both so so so much!!

Studio Day 2 and 3

Day 2 and 3 consisted largely of rhythm guitar and vocals (me) with some added percussion and piano. Thanks to all of your prayers, crossed fingers and a large consistent amount of tea with lemon my cold behaved and I was able to sing with relative ease.

Saturday:

Control Room Setup



Me getting set to record guitar parts



Me filming some video



Nathan and Shaun enjoying some fine seltzer water



Nathan's seltzer water ad



The fabulous Shaun Sutkus - our fearless engineer. He has been putting in ridiculous hours on the project - thank you Shaun!



Tracking




Sunday:

Some alternate percussion....?



Getting silly



It's 10:44pm and we're still working - these have been LONG days. Thank you so much to Nathan Terry and Shaun Sutkus for sticking it out, and to More Sound Studio for having us!

Tomorrow Nate and I hit the road to work in another studio with the strings on Tuesday.....


www.moresound315.com

Studio time - New EP!

My 27th was my last post? Shame on me!

Well, this summer has been busy and great. I had a few gigs here and there, both in NYC, Harrisburg, Philly and Jersey. Most of my time (musically) has been spent traveling between Philly and Brookly for pre-production for the new EP.

That brings us to today - our first day of actual production! We are in Syracuse, NY for three days of recording sessions, then we head back to Philadelphia for two more days in two more studios. This sounds like my life in general - always moving, always in a different place!

Today is drum and percussion day, so I have a lot of time to sit and listen...and write this blog :)

Who is "we," you ask? I am here with my friend/producer/drummer Nathan Terry, our sound engineer Shaun and his assistant (and engineer in his own right) Andrew.

Here are some photos of the studio!

Upright Grand Piano - it sounds awesome - and was made in Philadelphia!

What's behind this wall of sound, you wonder....?

Shaun at the board, Nathan watching and Andrew looking on in the background.
This is where I am - relaxing cross-legged on the couch with my computer and my cup of tea. If I had thought about it I would have taken a photo of my view of the soundboard from the couch. Well, I did, but it didn't make the cut. :)

Stay tuned for more photos and perhaps a video or two as well...
(and say some prayers that this sniffle issue I woke up with yesterday corrects itself before tomorrow's day of singing!!)