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Prairie Sun News
- Summer Sun Rising -
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July 2008
- Vol 3, Issue 2
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Early this spring Prairie Sun was happy to
welcome the band Palo Colorado as they worked on an
album from the songwriting
catalog of Sy Miller and Jill Jackson. The
album will first be released with an
accompanying children's book, named for the
duo's best-known composition, "Let There Be
Peace On Earth And Let It Begin With Me." The
project was organized by the songwriters'
granddaughter, Jeannie Ford, and features new
takes on the songs produced and arranged by
Palo Colorado and engineered by Drew Fischer.
Having tracked the basics in their Brooklyn
studio, Palo Colorado came to Prairie Sun's
Studio
B to record various overdubs and mix on
the Flying Faders-equipped Neve.
Prairie Sun was also
happy to welcome
back Sonoma
County singer/songwriter Gale Mead,
recording and mixing her debut full-length
album with producer Terry
Bradford and engineer Oz
Fritz. Recorded in Studio B, the tracks
feature a host of session talent, including
drummer Celso
Alberti (Steve Winwood), bassist Steve
Evans, keyboardists Tim
Gorman (The Who) and John
Allair (Van Morrison), and guitarist Dave
Weeks. The album also features guest
appearances by guitarists Amos
Garret and Eric
McFadden. The star-studded affair is rounded
out by producer Bradford, a former Star
Search champion singer with an incredible
list of recording and performance credits,
including a number of world tours as Celine
Dion's duet singer.
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Chris Duarte Returns, Dan Simonis
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 A
new visitor to
Prairie Sun in recent months
was folk/country singer/ songwriter Dan
Simonis, who along with his West Texas
Millionaire bandmate Roger Thorenson trekked
to Prairie Sun from Bisbee, AZ to track
and mix four original songs. The tracks were
recorded to 2" tape in Studio B, with Mark
"Mooka" Rennick producing and playing bass,
Roger on guitar, recent Prairie Sun staff
addition Adam Weiss co-producing and playing
drums, and staff engineer Matt
Wright co-producing and manning the
board. With guest overdubs by keyboardists
Jack Jacobson, John Allair, and Marshall
Fassino, the songs were mixed by Mooka and
Matt in Studio A and mastered by Maor
Appelbaum.
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The Whiskey Thieves and more...
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Another new Prairie Sun client this spring,
Bay Area band The
Whiskey Thieves spent time at Prairie Sun
recording and mixing their
debut album with veteran producer/engineer Jimmy
Goings and staff engineer Timin
Murray. The record, titled "Almost Time,"
was tracked to 2" tape in Studio C and mixed
on the SSL in Studio A.
The other session news in
brief:- Producer/keyboardist Marc Paley
visited Prairie Sun towards the end of the winter
season, tracking in Studio C with Bay Area
veteran Matt
Kelley at
the board. Marc and Matt will be back this
summer to finish mixing in Studio A. The
album, titled "Distant Horizons," features a
myriad of acclaimed Bay Area musicians,
including Stef
Burns, Jimmy
DeGrasso, Tommy
Bradford, Nelson
Braxton, Lorn
Leber, Monet
Owens, Jim
Juhn, Doug
Doppler, Vincent
Lars,
Jason
Muscat, Steven Winter, Wally
Schnalle &
Pepe Jacobo.
- Camped out in Studio
A at
various points in recent months were artist
Ellsworth
Rosser, engineer Michael
Chavez,
and engineer/producer Tim
Stroh, mixing
Ellsworth's latest release.
- Mystic
Roots recorded
some new
basic tracks in Studio C with engineer Adam
Munoz. Adam was also in recently
finishing work on the new album for the band Lick.
- As
always, esteemed engineer Oz Fritz was a
regular visitor this season. Among other
projects, Oz remixed two Tin
Star albums in
Studio A, and mixed a live recording for Gary
Rinkerman.
- Prairie Sun alumnus engineer
John
Anaya was in this spring tracking How To
Win At Life.
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Prairie Sun Profile: Oz Fritz,
Freelance Producer/Engineer
Oz
Fritz has been a
professional studio and live sound engineer
for more than 25
years. He has
collaborated on over 60 projects with
producer Bill Laswell including Ginger Baker,
Iggy Pop,
The Ramones, Herbie Hancock, George Clinton,
Elvin Jones, William S. Burroughs, and Bob
Marley. Other
studio credits include John Cale, Digital
Underground,
Jungle Brothers, Meat Loaf, and Rick
Derringer. In the last few years Oz has
engineered
releases by Oysterhead
(Les Claypool, Stewart Copeland and Trey
Anastasio from Phish), legendary Cuban
pianist Pepecito Reyes, and "Antipop" by Primus.
For a number of years now Oz has been doing
a considerable amount of his studio work here
at Prairie Sun,
including the Grammy Award-winning "Mule
Variations" by Tom Waits and "Wicked Grin" by
John Hammond, Jr. (produced by Tom Waits),
two outstanding records that exhibit the
level of sonic artistry Oz is capable of
bringing to our rooms. Oz takes a unique
conceptual attitude towards mixing, and for
that reason has a discernible style,
which at Prairie Sun often involves heavy use
of our signature features, such as our live
echo chambers and vintage outboard gear.
As a member of our extended Prairie Sun
family, Oz has been a mentor and educator for
many of our interns and staff engineers. Oz
himself came up through the ranks in NY,
working in many iconic rooms featuring the
same boards and gear you
can now find at Prairie Sun. So needless to
say, he knows the SSL, he knows the Neves,
and he knows how to make distinctive records
with authentic character.
And, as a freelance
member of our extended family, Oz is
accessible and available to work on
your record.
Mooka's Notes:
As I've hinted in recent newsletters, and
discussed with many of you in person, Eugene
Productions, my personal production,
mastering, and live sound company, has
been gearing up this year for a serious move
into the live PA and remote recording
business. As we've continued this process
there have been some exciting developments in
live sound technology. Imagine having 48
world-class,
remote mic pres on stage piped straight to
your front-of-house. Imagine being able to take a
digital split directly off all 48 mic pres
to a Pro Tools HD rig for recording. Now
imagine that for tonight's sound check, you
can play back last night's multitrack through
your FOH board as if it were coming from
stage. Now imagine that all of your outboard,
including all of your favorite Pro Tools
plug-ins, lives in your console.
I am happy to announce that
Eugene Productions is now the proud owner of
just such a live mixing system: the Digidesign D-Show
Profile. I can't tell
you how excited I am by some of the new and
unique features offered by Digi's VENUE boards,
and as I and my engineers have been studying
the Profile we have been continually
re-impressed by the attention to detail and
forethought that went into the design of the
console and software. Already the board has
been pressed into service as the centerpiece
of our remote recording services, along with
our remote Pro Tools HD system, RADAR 24, DPA
microphones, and Millennia mic pres, for a
52-track symphonic recording (look for more
details in a future newsletter). And so
begins the launch of Eugene Productions'
sound reinforcement and remote recording
services!
On another note, as we have recently
celebrated the birth of our nation and the
transcription of some of her more lofty
ideals, I want to touch on the disturbing
trend for folks to believe their inalienable
rights include life, liberty, and the
pursuit
of free downloads ;-). Rather than simply
pontificate on the subject here, I invite you
to check out the discourse already in
progress thanks to Moses
Avalon and his "Moses
Supposes" email newsletter. I highly
recommend one of his recent pieces, "Da
Vinci
On A Necktie," and the follow-up collection
of responses (from which Moses has been
kind enough to let me excerpt while we wait
for the articles to be posted on his site).
What I find invaluable in his
newsletter is not simply what Moses himself
writes, but the incredible variety of
responses he's chosen to reprint from all
sides of the music industry. I think this is
a dialog we all need to take part in as it is
about the future of our industry, our
livelihood, and most importantly, our art. So
please, email me your thoughts, or talk to
your friends, colleagues, and
contemporaries, maybe your congressman.
In closing, I'll share this anonymous reflection
with you:
"I knew the
price
of everything,
the value of nothing".
With
that, I wish you Happy 1st Annual Prairie Sun
Mustache Day (June 30th), everyone!
Have a safe summer,
Mark "Mooka" Rennick
Prairie Sun Recording
phone:
(707) 795-7011
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