First I laid down some guide vocals just so we have an idea where the holes are to fill – nothing fancy just one take all the way through which I’ll replace later!

We miked up the cabinet with a couple of Mercenary KM-69′s on the horn and got some screaming tones reminiscent of “Deep Purple”

BAM! Got three tracks finished in no time.  Next step is comping the B-3 tracks and then moving on to guitars – my personal favorite!

Check out Dan’s band Irontom when you have a chance!

First we got the drums rolling – Hampton explains: “We used a Yamaha(red kick drum). We used it on 3 of the tracks with my Mayer Bros. snare. On the other 2 we used my 50′s WFL kit and swapped the kick with a 26″ 1940′s Slingerland Rolling Bomber that I brought.”

Drums were recorded in the “farm house” in the living room.  With the super high ceilings we got some great tones!

Michael used his trusty Fender jazz bass (direct) on a few of the tunes then a 66 “P” Bass on two of the tracks.

My amp was located down in the studio so even though we were all in the same room I was monitoring guitar through the headphones.  I used my Blankenship “Carry on” head and cabinet – its basically a Marshall Plexie vibe – with my G&L Tele straight in no pedals.  We got some great tones – I’ll probably go back and replace some stuff when I record the guitar leads.

So there it is in a nutshell – 5 basic tracks done – now we fill in with guitar, some Hammond B-3 and of course vocals – stay tuned!

Quenby and Johnny in the studio

Quenby and the West of Wayland band is based out of Austin, TX. She has one CD out and has done extensive touring through the Southwest and Northwest areas of the country.  Last August I joined the band for a bunch of dates and had a great time.

Quenby and I also co-wrote a song together for the new CD and I think (although I’m admittedly biased) that its the best track of the lot!

Brian Dobbs in the studio

Brian Dobbs was engineering and producing and did a fantastic job of hooking up the guitar tones.

For guitars I used my trusted G&L Tele for all the tracks.  We  experimented with my Danoelectro Baritone but it didn’t fit with the song.  We also experimented with the Gold Tone lapsteel but I ended up using my 50′s Supro lapsteel.

Amp wise (and I know I’m going to get some grief for this!) we used a Line 6 POD XT.  Because of the limited space (home studio) I decided to try out the sounds of the POD and decided that the Matchless amp model was really good.  Now I have used POD’s before and ended up bringing out the real amp.  I have to say this unit was not bad and due to the circumstances fit the bill perfectly.

BAM! Whacked out a bunch of rhythms and solo’s and before you know it was done!  Hopefully we’ll see the CD released in the spring – stay tuned for details!

Where hitting the road together at the end of February for the Folk Alliance Festival in Nashville (Feb 23-25th) doing a few acoustic duo shows.

Check out Quenby and The West of Wayland Band information: https://www.facebook.com/westofwayland

So for those of you who saw the movie “The Rum Diary”  the sound track is now available.  I played guitar on a few of the tracks – one is called “Roll out the Roosters”

Based on Thompson’s first and only novel, written in the early sixties, when the then twenty-two year old future lord of the gonzo was more of an idealistic romantic – as many a young intellectual is – but not published until 1998.

The session was recorded at LA’s East West Studio’s which is full of recording history.  I used my Martin Eric Clapton OOO acoustic and my G&L Tele on the electric stuff.

Check it out for some cool music!

From 4pm to 8pm we’ll be tearing it up with Doug Mugg on bass and Mike Sauer on drums.  Not an offical JHB show but we do play some rocking covers!  Zep, Stones, SRV etc….

No cover – pub grub -beer and wine.

Blues this Sunday!

Almost Blues Brothers jamming it up!

I was playing a “loaner” strat which performed well – the pickups were Custom staggered SSL-5 and sounded great through a 65 amp.

Seymour Duncan Crew NAMM 2012

Sunday I got to check out some booths –  James Trussart guitars are one of my favorites and he introduced a really cool dobro this year AND also I ran into my old buddy Trace Ritter.  Trace is a great guitar player most notably from the band “Chalk Farm”

Trace Ritter at the James Trussart booth NAMM 2012

Another cool display was the Ibanez Tube Screamer 40 year display of all the pedals and their versions through the years.  Since I’m a big fan I really dug this!

All in all a great show – unfortunately because of my gigging schedule I didn’t catch any of the NAMM jams but I heard they were great!  T Rex had some great new pedals, Matchless amps and Carr amps had some new models worth checking out.   Lot’s of stuff! Sometimes overwhelming but the folks are always really cool!

“Hey baby” is one of the straight ahead blues shuffles I wrote for the first CD.  It has a certain “grinding” quality that I like and I remember having a great time recording it.  I used my G&L Tele and a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4×10 amp.  I also used my TS-10 Tube Screamer which is still one of my favorite overdrive pedals!

1st CD

• 8:00 pm
• Whisky A Go Go, 8901 West Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA

Joshua Paige website

Sonia Leigh website

We also played a new song “Seven Year Itch” which will be on the forth coming CD!

Our buddy Mark shot a few pics from the side of the bar – and incase you’re wondering – Yes – that is a disco ball light you see reflected in the pics!