I have lots of recording projects going on, plus plenty of live performances. Recordings:

My good friend Koji Mabuchi and I are beginning work on a new Fred Gillen Jr. CD. Koji, as a producer, is the polar opposite of me as a producer. While I do live recordings with room mics, vintage equipment and cheap instruments, his specialty is computer stuff. He makes drum loops and really uses the computer as an instrument. This project will be a juxtaposition of really modern sounds and really rough, raw sounds. My raspy, tired voice with the Star Wars Cantina band... :) OK, that's still pretty old-school, but you get the idea I hope. We've done two songs together in the past, and one can be heard at my myspace page. Just click on "download MP3's" to your left and hit the link for "Censor The Wind."

HOPE MACHINE is about waist-deep in recording its first CD. It has been a long time coming, and now that the weight of negativity has been lifted with our line-up change, we are not messing around. So far we've got Steve's songs Great Mystery, Shining Star and Heart Of America, my song Black Hills, Woody Guthrie's songs Vigilante Man and Bound For Glory and Pete Seeger's song We Shall Overcome recorded. Five more to go!

I am re-recording the songs from my aborted CD Gone Gone Gone for release soon. I've got the working versions of all 10 songs now! This recording is much more sparse and intimate then the one I recently scrapped, and the self-production has been compared to John Levanthal and Daniel Lanois in Style. (two of my favorite producers, so hearing those comparisons is pretty flattering for me!) All 10 songs were done live/ acoustic in the studio, some solo and a few with Steve Kirkman. Then I added some stuff, but not too much. The live energy shines through big time...

I'm also producing a CD for singer/ songwriter Steve Chizmadia right now. Steve was a Kerrville New Song finalist a couple of years ago, is a great songwriter, and a heckuva nice guy! Three other recording projects are set to begin too, so Studio Fritz will be helping a lot of music get recorded in the near future.

The great band Work 'O The Weavers has recorded a few songs here recently too, along with some solo songs of James Durst, singer/ guitarist of the band. I am honored to work with them, and proud to be a small part of what they do in keeping The Weavers work alive.

The great Les Paul talks about how he needs to do both the writing/ performing and recording to keep both or all sides of his brain going, and I'm finding this to be a really stimulating time for me, getting the opportunity to use all of my talents and gifts...

Thursday, December 15th 2005