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Monday, December 8
Time: 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.
Project: Song demos--Buck Jones and Tom Shapiro
Location: Tree Studios
Band: Ron Oates, piano; Michael Rhodes, bass;
Clay Caire, drums.
I Always Cry at Weddings: This is a piano-oriented
tune. I used my '57 Strat and EQ settings to get what I call
a "transparent" or "silk" sound. By cutting
a lot of the middle and focusing on the highs, I achieved the sound
I wanted. Then I overdubbed my Daion acoustic on playback.
There's A Phone On Every Corner: This called for
a funky, swamp-type electric rhythm with a harmony solo that had
a funky, distorted feel. I used my '57 Strat and an old Ibanez
Tube Screamer to get what I'd describe as "Jerry Reed meets
Lynyrd Skynyrd."
Only When I Love: Holly Dunn co-wrote and sang this.
I played Joe Glaser's Pull-String bender to get steel effects.
This is kind of like the Eagles' Tequila Sunrise sound
with volume pedal swells. There's a lot of Albert Lee's guitar
feel in this tune.
Time: 2:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M., 6:00 P.M. to
9:00 P.M.
Project: Alabama album (for Oct. '87 release)
Producer: Harold Shedd
Location: Music Mill Studios
Band: Mark Casstevens, acoustic guitar; Larry
Paxton, bass; David Briggs, pianos; Costo Davis, electric keyboards;
Eddie Bayers, drums.
Fallin' Again: We ran through this tune several
times, trying different arrangement ideas. This was something
of a Southern rock tune that I'd describe as "Lynyrd Skynyrd
meets Black Oak Arkansas." I put three parts on this
with my '57 Strat. If I have a trademark, it's probably that
I really like to do solos in harmony parts. That probably
comes from early gospel influences. You may not use three
parts all the way through, but perhaps break into them halfway through
the solo. After we came back from dinner, Randy Owen, Alabama's
lead vocalist, said that he felt the recent albums and singles had
been a little too slick, and they wanted to get back to more of
a band feel. So I just tried to play without worrying if everything
was perfect--just like a band would play onstage. When you
do studio work for so long without any other way of thinking, your
playing might become perfect, but it can become emotionless.
It's something you have to fight all the time. Your taste
for perfection gets higher, yet you want to maintain a good feel.
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Tuesday, December 9
Time: 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.
Project: Famous Music demos
Producer: Nelson Larkin
Location: Woodland Sound Studio
Band: Mark Casstevens, acoustic guitar; Jack
Williams, bass; Ron Oates, piano; Lloyd Green, steel guitar; Jerry
Carrigan, drums.
We did five songs on this session, with sounds ranging from Joe
Walsh to funk distortion. I used my '57 Strat, Glaser Pull-String,
and '65 Strat. One tune was a Fleetwood Mac-type tune in E,
where I droned on the E and B strings while playing
a melody on the G. Something like you might hear
David Lindley do.
Time: 2:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M., 6:00 P.M. to
9:00 P.M.
Project: Alabama
Producer: Harold Shedd
Location: Music Mill
Band: Mark Casstevens, acoustic guitar; Larry
Paxton, bass; David Briggs, keyboards; Eddie Bayers, drums.
Jeff Cook was just trying to figure out what he might want to sing
on the album. Some of it was old Beatles and Temptations
stuff.
Dixie's Fire: This song reminds me of Lionel Ritchie's
Running With The Night, where Steve Lukather did a real
great solo on the end. I approached it from a "Mark Knopfler
meets Steve Lukather" standpoint, and used my '65 Strat running
through a Roland Dimension D, a Roland DEP-5, a Lexicon PCM70, and
a Lexicon 200 reverb.
If I Could Just See you Now: Again I used the '65
Strat and a Dimension D to get a tender R&B chorused
sound like Lionel Ritchie's Deep River Woman.
You Can't Do That: This is the old Beatles tune
off their second album. I used my Rickenbacker electric 12-string.
Ain't Too Proud To Beg: A great Temptations standard.
All I did was play "chinks" on the off beat.
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Wednesday, December 10
Time: 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M., 2:00
P.M. to 5:00 P.M.
Project: Angie Rainey
Producer: Fred Foster
Location: 1111 Sound
Band: Mark Casstevens, acoustic guitar; Kenny
Ball, acoustic guitar; Bobby Ogdin, keyboards; James Stroud, drums.
Angie's a fine young singer, and this was an independent custom
project. Fred Foster is a legendary producer and the
founder of Monument Records. At one time he had Willie Nelson,
Dolly Parton, Brenda Lee, and Kris Kristofferson on his label.
He also produced all of Roy Orbison's great hits.
Ask Me: I played my fretted Dobro using a 3/4"
Sears Craftsman sparkplug wrench as a slide to get my impression
of "Ry Cooder meets the Judds." The solo was done
on the '57 Strat in three parts.
Sea Of Tears: The title was kind of graphic to me,
and I wanted kind of a hypnotic feel. The key to that is to
lay the distorted eighth-notes way back and let it feel like the
drums lead the guitar instead of the guitar pushing the drums.
Waddy Wachtel is a real master of that. He's a great rhythm
guitarist and knows exactly where to put it in the pocket.
The further I lay them back, the more hypnotic the sound.
Again I used the '57 Strat.
Doesn't Anybody Want Love: This was the '65 Strat,
and I was again going for a silky, transparent feel by using EQ
and chorus with long alternating echoes from the PCM 70.
You Gotta Get To My Heart: To me this had kind of
a Memphis R&B feel, so I used the '57 Strat
and played a Steve Cropper-like chunk rhythm on all fours.
I overdubbed my ES335 dot-neck for the B.B. King soul licks.
Run For Cover: Kind of a Linda Ronstadt/Juice Newton-type
song. I used the '65 Strat for a three-part thing reminiscent
of what Andrew Gold did on When Will I Be Loved.
I've always loved Andrew's playing. He's real precise, and
his solos are usually in parts.
Time: 6:00 P.M.
Project: Kix Brooks rehearsal
Location: S.I.R. Nashville
Kix is a writer for Tree Publishing who penned Modern Day Romance
for the Dirt Band and co-wrote John Conlee's I'm Only In It
For The Love. I've been playing with a Louisiana swamp-rock
band he fronts, to help him get a record deal.
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