Well – I know its been taking forever but we are chipping away at the stone that is “The next JHB CD”!

The track is called “Dusty Woman” and its really cool!  We tracked the basic’s a while back and its overdub time!

Opening the track I recorded some acoustic dobro – then I split the solo half electric lapsteel half electric guitar.  I used the G&L Tele,

Supro Lapsteel, a 60′s Martin OOO acoustic and my trusty Blankenship 21 watt amp.

This was one of those situations where I just brought my guitar and plugged in to the house studio rig.  I figured it was a “fun” session and I was also anxious to try out some different gear!

Notice the huge pedal to the left – that’s the pre-amp and speed control for the Leslie speaker.  Very cool sound!

(sorry about the blurry picture!)

The Bogner amp with the Leslie speaker created a great stereo sound.  I played the lapsteel through the set up and it sounded great!

Guitar wise I brought my Martin OOO acoustic, Manuel Rodriguez Nylon, Fender 57 Reissue strat (with noiseless pickup’s) and the Supro lapsteel.

Amp wise I brought the Carr Rambler which has been my “go to” amp for a few years.

This session required a bunch of reading charts ALTHOUGH I was free to interpret my on rhythm stylings.  Luckily I picked “good” ideas and the producer loved it.  We tracked from 10:00am to 9pm and that included guitar overdubs.

Style wise it was all over the place – 60′s style comping, bossa nova, funk (with wah pedal!) and Hendrix style solo’s – all in a days work!

Chart wise this was heavier then usual – nothing too intense but you have to keep on your toes!  The last song we tracked was around 7 minutes long!

The session was for Nicole Gordon – a great singer/songwriter that I’ve been working with for many years.  We’ve recorded, toured and done several gigs together through the years. This session was overdubs and re-records for the original session that took place back in November (2011).  We’re working on her new CD and its being produced and engineered by Kevin Jarvis.  Kevin is one of the nicest folks I’ve met in the music business and its been great hanging with him.

The original session I used my 57 reissue strat but for the “real” tracks I brought the G&L Tele.  Kevin also has a vast array of guitars that we tried and I ended up using a vintage Danelectro and Les Paul Jr.

AHHH – the trusty G&L comes through!

This is the Danelectro that I used on a rhythm track!

This session had some “lite” chart reading – nothing too heavy – more personality and coming up with ideas (which sometimes can be hard!).  We knocked out a bunch of tunes but alas we still have more to go.

Stay tuned!!!!

Since I’ve worked with Todd extensively I knew to bring my usual amp and guitar set up and we would lay down a few takes and usually he comps the track into one and “BAM!” its done.

I brought my usual G&L ASAT Tele, Supro lapsteel, Carr Rambler amp and two different pedal boards.

The small pedal board is mine – it was sporting a T-Rex “Yellow” Overdrive which is really great sounding.  The other pedal board was one that was in the studio but I ended up not using that one however I did use the Voodoo WAH pedal!

I always like to explore other guitar sounds and I tried a few different guitars that “lived” in the studio but the G&L won over (as usual!)

We mic’d up the amp and within an hour or so had the tracks done -

This session was really cool because I was improvising parts and it can be very exciting and fun since I can improv till the cows come home AND there was no reading necessary!

Onward to the next…….

Shot entirely on location in Culver City – well the band scenes anyway!

Check it out!

PHASE  1 – February 2010  - The project didn’t start out as a “new CD” but rather “let’s record a couple of songs” type of deal.  My friend (producer/engineer) Charlie Pollard has an amazing studio in the hills of Malibu(Creekside Studio’s).  I wrote a couple of songs and we tracked the basic instruments (Mike Sauer/drums, Steve Heidtmann/bass).  Since there was no rush (and I was busy on the road) it took a few months to finish the overdubs, vocals and mixes. The two songs “Real Thing” & “Find my way” sounded great and everyone was happy.

PHASE 2 – Fast forward to December 2010 Charlie asked me if I had anymore songs that I wanted to track (I had three songs I was working on) and I replied “Yes!”.  He mentioned that he was friends with drummer Greg Bissonette (David Lee Roth, Ringo Starr) and his bass playing brother Matt.  They were both available and could record the tracks so I jumped at the chance and we knocked out three more songs.  (Just can’t be your man, Gimmi a sign and Running a lie).  These tracks also turned out great.  However by the time we finished overdubbing and mixing it was 7 months later.  Like I said there was no rush because there was no “CD project”.  We were just having fun and cutting great songs.

PHASE 3 – December 2011 – After mixing the last three songs I said to Charlie “we might as well track another batch of songs and make a CD”.   By this time I had been playing with the current line up (Hampton Flanagan-drums & Michael Sunday -bass) for a while so we were rehearsed and ready to roll.  We spent a day recording 5 tracks and got some awesome drum sounds.  I also did a solo acoustic song called “Morning Song”  which brings the grand total up to 11!

PHASE 4 – Well, we gained some momentum but alas hit a snag!  Charlie has been tending to a huge home project which has put my project on hold for a while.  It’s a bit frustrating but I’ve come to the conclusion that good things are worth waiting! This bunch of songs is going to be sonically awesome and the best sounding CD ever for us!  We’re shooting for completion in June AND I have posted a few of the new songs on the player on the site so its not all doom and gloom!

We’ll get it done soon!

Johnny