We’re in the final musical stages of the album, just finishing up the mastering this week over at Lurssen mastering with Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen. We were thrilled to work with Gavin (and his team) again, and he’s always thrilled to get an album that our engineer Ryan Freeland has recorded and mixed. We certainly do have plans to release the album as soon as we possibly can, and I will keep you posted!
In the meantime, we are finally playing our first real live show again since hitting the studio, happily, at the Hotel Cafe! Peter Adams will be bringing some keyboard magic to the set, and we’ll be sharing some new songs and doing a couple covers that you likely have not heard me do before. I can’t wait!
Tags: gavin lurssen, hotel cafe, Peter Adams, ryan freeland
I know that updates have been few and far between…what is it about the summer? Between the craziness that is actually recording an album, there have been lots of out-of-town visitors, lots of house-sitting, and generally the sorts of things that keep me away from my computer and make it impossible for me to keep track of time.
The album is chugging along all the while, however. After the lovely parts were added by both Peter Adams and Timothy Young, I went back into the studio and did some vocal overdubs, re-singing some songs and doubling or harmonizing with myself on others. Tim was there coming up with parts and generally cheering me on, as was Mike for some of the session. This album is challenging, vocally, to say the least. Both pitch and mood-wise, the highs are fairly high and the lows are low. Paradoxically, I find myself both fighting to ignore what I’ve learned through my classical training and also really relying a lot upon it. I think about Shirley Verrett, and my jaw, and my tongue, and about the soft palate, and breath control…singers will know what I mean. And yet what’s coming out is, well, rock ‘n roll! My musical life has been a pretty interesting journey so far.
Ryan will be getting to the mixing very soon, hopefully even in the next couple days, which means that the album will more or less be in its final form pretty shortly. The journey towards releasing it is, however, just beginning, as anxious as I might be for everyone to hear it NOW. I will certainly keep you posted.
Tags: Mike Chiaburu, Peter Adams, ryan freeland, Shirley Verrett, Timothy Young
Hey folks! Briefly, here’s what’s happening: Mike Chiaburu and I went into Ryan Freeland’s Stampede Origin studio with Aaron Sterling and Tim Young, and we(basically) made this album happen! We recorded everything live, and I even did live vocal takes while playing acoustic guitar (I may re-do and add some vocal parts here and there soon). I loved the energy that we had, playing as a band. Since those initial few days of tracking, Tim has added some killer guitar parts to fill out the whole thing, and as we speak, I am listening to some keyboard parts that Peter Adams added from his home studio. I feel like it’s Christmas, and this album is my favorite present. Or maybe…like I found a puppy…can we keep it, huh, can we? Hee hee. In other words, I can’t believe how well it’s going, and I’m very, very excited.
More news to come, as we move on to the next phase!
Tags: Mike Chiaburu, Peter Adams, ryan freeland, Stampede Origin, Timothy Young
Last night’s show at Cafe Muse was so much fun, and PACKED! A seriously standing-room only situation, which was great. Peter Adams, The Youngs/Tim Young and Haviland Stillwell all sounded great, and Mike and I had a blast. The new songs were really, really well-received (yay)!
My friend Lacey (shall I call her @LaceyH?) did the whole “live Tweet” thing from the show, and you can see a photo here. And if you want to follow me on Twitter – please do! http://twitter.com/kristyhanson I mostly keep my updates musical, but every now and again I will tell you what I had for breakfast, you know, just because.
I personally celebrate Easter next weekend, but for many of you, I know that this week is Passover/Easter week and weekend, so I hope that you are all having lovely holiday celebrations.
Tags: Cafe Muse, Haviland Stillwell, Peter Adams, Timothy Young, Twitter
The show tonight at Cafe Muse is going to be killer – Peter Adams starts off, will join us for a few songs, Haviland Stillwell sings a song I wrote for her, Tim and Eryn Young join Mike and me for an Emmylou Harris cover, and then The Youngs rock it out to finish. Whew! I don’t know what your idea of fun is…but tonight is mine… :) Info about the show is here.
The other day, when we were finished rehearsing at Tim Young’s and Eryn Young and John Schuller were headed into the studio to rehearse, Tim laughed at the way we had accidentally coordinated our black shirts, and took this “band photo” of us. Sadly, Mitchell the dog will not be appearing tonight. But he will be there in spirit.
black shirt band
Tags: Cafe Muse, Emmylou Harris, Eryn Young, Haviland Stillwell, John Schuller, Los Angeles live music, Peter Adams, the youngs, Timothy Young