Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Been There, Done That... the Haps, Claps and Slaps

Hey there friends and fans of OTR...... from Cookie
It's been way too busy the last four months. We're taking an August breather to catch up on our database, make a few deals, plan out the next few months.

You can check out our specials at our new "button buys" on the special page. You get a discount for just PAYING on line..... and 5% if it's paid by august 31... 'nuff said...

HERE'S THE HAPS

Jean Claude Reynaud made his annual visit from France to help out co producing duties for Blue Coast Records. We are running a hidden page for discount pricing of the Blue Coast Collection. I won't ramble on about my label here, you can check out the blog at Blue Coast for that. Jean and I were working on mastering Art Lande on DSD for the second release. He also showed us how to wire up an ipod cable using the Goddess Labs silver cable designed by his father, Jean Marie Reynaud.

Last few months were spent producing and finishing up the Houston Jones project. It's an amazing combination of great songs, masterfully performed... and not OVER produced. It's just the band in all their glory with great take after great take... we finishing up mastering and hoping for September release.

Jeff Schmidt was in working with me on his solo bass project... i know, it sounds a little weird.. solo bass?
well, it's more like Michael Hedges on bass. Hard to describe, but really fun material. It's in my cd changer now on unlimited repeat! There's even a bit of BLU CUBE in there... crazy dude.

From Phoenix Videoediting Labs, comes Cathyann Stonehill, producing a recording with artist Kim Cladas. (I'll get links for you soon!) This project took Cathy over many years to produce and includes Kim on vocals (as well as songwriting), Bill Spooner, (from the legendary Tubes), Bonnie Hayes and a more talented sidefolk than you can imagine. Cathy brought the tracks to me for mixing from her pro tools files... She was a joy and pleasure to work with. Hope we get to do more! Due out in the fall.

Long time OTR guest, Gregory James has been working on his acoustic quartet record that has Jon Herrera (one of the editors of Bass Player magazine), Deszon Claiborne (drums) and Barry Shulman (szx and flute). I think this is the 5th recording I've made with Greg... always fun, always different and always great music. If you want a little history on Greg, check out his site on CDBaby. Not sure of the release date, but we'll keep you informed.

Jazz poet, Norman Woods, brought his tribute to Smiley Winters and Ed Kelley in for mastering and touch ups. Should be available soon. Norman mashed up elements of old recordings with his poetry to make an incredibly moving recording. This session was especially touching because I used to play with Smiley. He was an amazing drummer, but more than that, a beautiful human being. You'll be touched by his words as well. Thank you, Norman, for keeping Smiley and Ed alive for all of us. Check out Norman's previous recordings on Amazon.com.

THAT WAS THE HAPS AND CLAPS
NOW HERE'S THE SLAPS

SLAP
me silly for not ordering enough Blue Coast Collection CDs. We sold out in 6 weeks. and SLAP Sony silly for closing their plant in the USA so that we have to have them manufactured in Austria. MULTIPLE SLAPS for the shipping dudes in Austria for sending 2000 units packaged so badly we had to reject the order.. the replacement shipment wasn't much better.

But CLAPS to Patrick O'Connor for trying to keep it straight and to all our interns who checked 2000 discs for errors.. Andrew, Tim and Eric. CLAPS to Gus Skinas for trying to keep high def audio alive with the SACD program and DSD. STANDING OVATION CLAPS to all those audiophiles who took a chance on an unknown label charging 3x more per disc on a seemingly dead format while the headlines read disaster for record labels. No downloads here... till they sound incredible, at least.

AND IN CLOSING
There is just TOOOO much going on... and i really have to get to a session. Sorry, I've taken so long to get back to all of you and my apologies for those I may have not mentioned here. I'll try to get back more often and keep you updated. And to my friends and family, you KNOW who you are.... where ever you are on the planet...

miss you all,
good health, good love and good fortune
peace to all,

many hugs and kisses

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