Forgotten Genre Productions

So I get an email from Al Kooper this morning. Yea I realize it is obnoxious to open a blog post with that sentence but it actually happened. Al is mixing an album that a friend of mine is producing for the Legend Charlie Gracie. I have been preparing the files for Al to mix. Al is very particular about his workflow. First off, He hates Protools. Don’t even bring it up. Al works in Digital Performer (MOTU). The next thing is, Al has to have files in Aiff, not Broadcast wave which is the industry standard but Aiff. Al also likes everything on a disc. He did not like the idea of ftp’ing files or using a dropbox. They had to be on a disc. We sent him the album on 2 DVD’s, 10 songs in all, 5 on each disc. The second disc we sent him, he could not find the files on, so I rushed him out another disc the next day that I, of course, checked on a second computer to verify that files were on it. Today I get an email from Al Kooper addressing me as Anthony Boy. It seems that the second disc was “blank” but he was able to find all the songs exept one on the first “blank” disc I sent him. Now I need to send him the one song so he can complete the project. So here I am burning another DVD for 1 song and another 25 dollars to fed ex the songs to Al to make it right. The moral of the story is….. Don’t argue with Al Kooper. The guy mixed Freebird people. I don’t care if he likes his files with a ribbon attached to it. It is pointless to argue or defend yourself or explain that you checked it and it must be on his end or any other excuses that come to mind. Just make it right. Does Al care about me or my resume’? Of course not. Just make it right. So today I will be checking the files on 2 computers, Mac and PC to make sure Al gets his files.

Oh yea, and Al Kooper called me boy.

I came across this video in a typical meandering social media progression. My old acquaintance Charlie Peacock has a blog that I suggest you check out, that he referenced on his facebook page which showed up on my news feed. From there I watched this video and discovered That the female here is Joy Williams who I did a show with years ago when I was touring with Waterdeep. They loved Joy and already had prior knowledge of her work but I heard her for the first time that night. She has a beautiful voice and has teamed up with this gent, John Paul White. This song is hauntingly beautiful and gets me in the way much of the Deadman music gets me. Also to note is the use of the Heil PR20 mic on Joy’s voice. As some of you may know I am a big fan of the Heil mics and have and use quite a few of them in the studio myself. Actually we used the same mic on Jennifer Lewis’ voice for the Trash & Glory project. Of course we used the gold grill and refered to it as the “Diva” mic.I will have to do more research on the Civil Wars but for now enjoy this video and check out Charlie’s post of the background of  it here.