Electric Wilburland Studio
The thoughts and activities of Grammy winning producer and engineer Will Russell
Sunday, November 14, 2010
The secret
Friday, October 22, 2010
Joe Crookston!
Doing rough mixes after 2 days of tracking with Joe Crookston and band. I'm smiling. A lot!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
WILBURLAND NEWS FALL 2010
Want to know what Wilburland can do for you? Send me a song to mix or master and I will send you a sample of it back so you can hear for yourself. You’ll love the results!
Hmm, now, where were we? Oh, that's right, more Wilburland news!
Foghat bassist Jeff Howell has been in to spice up and rework some older recordings he did and they sound even better than they did originally, and that's saying something!
My new band crush, The Blind Spots had me master their latest CD “El Camino Dream” and I fell in love instantly. Good songwriting played by a good band and topped by the amazing vocal talents of Maddy Walsh. Go buy this one!
Alan Rose's CD "American Hands" was released with a multi-band extravaganza this summer, including Nick Bullock of Revision, The Fall Creek Brass Band, The Weeping Willards and ending with a new local band called Blow. What a night it was! Alan was smiling a lot that night…
I was asked to go to the Sonic Art Center at the City College of NY to give a talk on recording, owning a recording studio and winning a Grammy. Opportunities to talk with students always reminds me of how much I love what I do!
Dave Davies has been making music in this town for a long time and recently released a 30 year retrospective called “Downstream Where the River Meets The Sea” and wow, what a collection of songs and what a list of players! Thanks Dave!
Blues guitarist Steven Grills had me master a new collection of tunes for him and it was totally easy to polish up the great sounding tracks! Recorded by my friend Bob Potter, you should go find this CD!
Elmira's Gary Lash has been coming to Wilburland for a long time, and I love it. Gary spends way too much time in his room with a 4 track cassette recorder and brings me really weird but wonderful stuff to overdub and mix. Keep them coming Gary!
The Sim Redmond Band brought me new tracks to master, and yes, it was a piece of cake because the songs and mixes are awesome! The CD is called “Open The Door “and it should be on your IPod right now!
Laurie Hart and Stefhan Ohlström have been in a lot working on a cool CD of Swedish fiddle tunes called Scandinavian Fiddle Tradition. I love projects with super talent and interesting instruments and foreign music. Traditional regional tunes with fiddle, viola, and nyckelharpa, and oh yes, hurdy gurdy!
Wilburland was taken over by a film mix for the independent film Vito Bonofacci. 6 days later it looks and sounds awesome! Music for film is totally different than music for listening because no matter what, it's all about the picture and dialog. An interesting and wonderful challenge for sure!
Syracuse's 2 Hour Delay rocked their way through Wilburland and left quite an imprint! Led by singer/acoustic guitarist Tim Burns these guys have become one of my favorite projects this year. Really good songs, passionate vocals and some awesome electric guitar work. We're almost done!
Elmira College's Chiclettes came in for more a cappella madness! Big fun!
Also from Elmira College, the, uh, gentlemen of A1 and The Sauce made a 4 song demo recording!
George Mann will soon earn a plaque on the wall in the front bedroom for practically living here this past year. He released not only a benefit CD for veterans but also his own solo release “Songs For Jules and Bruce”. Check it out. It's good!
My other band crush this year is Mignarda. What can I say? Ron Andrico and Donna Stewart have captured my heart. They play early music for voice and lute and the depth and emotion in their playing is nearly overwhelming. I have learned a lot from them and we've made some stunning recordings together, most recently the incredible CD “harmonia caelestis”. You need to hear this. It will change you...
Regina O' Brien is proud to announce that she has finally released her second CD “Switchyard Lullabye”! Hooray!
Jimkata came in with producer Matt Saccuccimorano for recording and mixing their terrific new CD “Ghosts & Killers”. Don't be scared, just go buy it!
Mortal Combine are working slowly on finishing touches for their really good new CD of excellent roots rock tunes. I love this CD already and can't wait to finish it up!
Contradance mother/daughter team Confluence finished up mixing a bunch of kickin' dance tunes with the playful piano of mother, Barbara Dyskant and the amazing flute of daughter Nadine! Super nice stuff for your listening and dancing pleasure!
I've totally loved working with Mary Lorson on past projects but when I heard about her new band Mary Brett Lorson and The Soubrettes I wanted them in here! Well we have basic tracks down for a bunch of songs and me, Mary, Amelia and Leah had a blast! This will be good…
Laurie Hart came back in to record more Scandinavian fiddle tunes with Andrew Van Norstrand on guitar and bouzouki. Two of my favorite players in the same room! Um, wow!
IC trumpet professor Frank Campos dropped in to start work on an interesting recording where he plays single line versions of songs we all know, on trumpet! Cool, for sure!
Who knew that former Donna The Buffalo drummer Tom Gilbert was also a rocking guitarist? Well I know now because he came in to record some music for his upcoming web based fishing show. Way too much fun!
Horse Flies percussionist Taki Masuko brought longtime musical partner/jazz pianist Claire Ritter to Wilburland to overdub banjo and accordion tracks with fellow Horse Flies Richie Stearns and Rick Hansen. Do I need to tell you how it went?
I hooked classically trained vocalist Rebecca Leistikow up with multi-instrumentalist genius Dana Billings and the three of us recorded and mixed 3 awesome quirly pop songs of hers in a single afternoon. Think early Kate Bush/Joanna Newsome. Super fun! Real talent makes for awesome music!
Krystal City Crackdown spent the weekend rocking the heck outta the place and left with a sweet sounding demo!
Award winning and just generally amazing Joe Crookston will return to Wilburland soon to begin tracking for a new CD! This time he's bringing a band!
And last but certainly not least the fine gentlemen of the Delaney Brothers Bluegrass will return to Wilburland to record their third CD with me and I can't wait!
Whew!
If I may quote my friend Patti Witten again, Thanks for reading all the way down to HERE!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Tom Gilbert
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I leave 2 drummers alone for 5 min... Amazing day with Tom Gilbert today at Wilburland! What fun, and what good music! Who knew Tom played guitar? |
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Eric Harvey in the studio!
Eric Harvey in the studio today with Matt Saccuccimorano at the helm, Dana Billings on drums, Mike Stark on keys and Brian Dozoretz on bass!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Polskas at Wilburland
Spent the day editing and mixing great Swedish Polskas with Laurie Hart! Nickelharpa and fiddle, awesome!
Check out Laurie's site here
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
WilburNews Winter 2010
Hi everyone!
We’ve been slammin’ busy here and of course I’m way behind on sending out the news!
The big amazing news in case you missed my plastering it everywhere I could think of is that the solo kora cd “Douga Mansa” that I recorded with kora master Mamadou Diabate WON A GRAMMY for best traditional world music recording! Mamadou was nominated for the first cd “Behmanka” which we recorded together in 2006 but winning this year is over the top!
The Weeping Willards will be releasing their awesome new album “Where There’s A Willard...” for free on June 18 from their Bandcamp site! Be sure to check it out!
Dave Davies has been writing, arranging and performing for several decades. He is almost done with a retrospective of original songs and arrangements called “Downstream” and you’ve just gotta hear it! My biggest problem with getting the mixes done is that I keep singing along...
Andrew and Noah VanNorstrand. Wow, what can I say? These 2 young men have quite simply blown me away! Awesome new songs, stunning performances and quite frankly, we all hit this one out of the ballpark! The new CD is titled “All The Good Summers” and trust me you want to get this!
Lutesong Duo Mignarda have made their home here and I couldn’t be happier! Wrist slitting ballads and medieval music played on lute and sung in French and Latin. I don’t understand a word of it and it doesn’t seem to matter. The emotion translates clearly and it’s hard not to be affected by this music. If you want to hear what these two are up to go buy their latest release “Au pres de Vous” and a box of tissues!
On her website it says that “Robin Blair has spent the last 20 years inviting children and their families to explore the arts as an expression of beauty and faith.” I’ve spent a lot of time with Robin, working both on her Common Good Radio and on a storytelling project with Ralph Singh, and I’m here to tell you that this description is totally right on. If faith and family are important to you you owe it to yourself to check her radio station on Live365.
Well, it seems that you simply can’t take 80s arena rock out of Kris Hadlock. We tried, but darn it he writes such awesome hooky 80s style songs that you can’t help smiling, pulling your lighter out and raising it high when each chorus comes around as you sing along! Check out his new cd “Your Wife’s Rock Band”
The lovely acoustic duo Littlewheel have finished their new cd “Honest Labor” and they should be proud! It sounds great and I hope you get a chance to hear it when they release it this spring!
Modern NYC Folksinger George Mann released a compilation of songs for Veterans called “Until You Come Home” and is just about done with his new CD “Songs For Jules and Bruce”. George has crafted a fine collection of songs here about topic we all hold dear to our hearts. This project started out good and has really grown on me!
Black Belt Blues came to spend the day kickin out some straight ahead old school blues. Nothing like the real thing!
Contra dance band Tunescape are ready to put the finishing touches on a great new cd of quirky and of course totally danceable tunes, featuring piano, flute, an accordion named Alfredo, fiddle and Nickelharpa! Produced by Andrew VanNorstrand, this CD should be in your collection whether you dance or not.
Another contradance band called The Contradictions have been playing together forever but don’t have a CD! So we are gonna fix that situation and mandolin player Rick Manning is finishing up some overdubs. Who knows, this CD might actually come out sometime!
A sweet duo named Hot Koko came in to record a holiday gift for their friends and family, including a mother/daughter version of the Cat Stevens classic “Father and Son”. What a nice present!
Brian Turner came in to sing and play trombone on a tune he recorded at home and I might as well have taken a spin in the musical time machine back to the day when The Tower Of Power ruled the airway! Wow! “I’ve got the Lube Room Blues, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh...”
Music doesn’t get much more “Ithaca” than the songs of Alan Rose. Alan has been supporting and studying the Ithaca music scene for over a decade and his upcoming CD is the delightful result of that research. With a band that consists of members of Kites In Space (formerly Seth Feldman), The Weeping Willards, The Hot Foot Club and The Sim Redmond band Alan weaves his way through stories of fun and everyday life and the results are sweet! I’m just about to start final mixing so look for a late spring release!
The Fall Creek Brass Band rocked Wilburland HARD when they dropped in with, well, a lot of BRASS! Really cool and fun arrangements and the chops to play them! I look forward to the next stage of this project that should involve some overdubs, and I imagine some surprises.
Laurie Hart and Stefhan Ohlström came in for round two of a project of region specific Swedish fiddle tunes. It’s been fun hearing the subtle yet significant difference in tunes from these different parts of the country. Now If I could only figure out where the one is...
The Destination wrote new lyrics for the old Beach Boys tune Kokomo and came up with Corkomo to promote the finger lakes wine industry. The hook is firmly set in my skull and no amount of listening to Megadeath seems to help!
Kevin Kinsella has teamed up with no other than Harry and Eric Aceto for a new CD of Kevin’s awesome songs! Watch out for this one folks! I’m not kidding!
Mike Callahan and Mortal Combine were in laying down some great basic tracks for a wonderful collection of songs. All of these songs sound like roots rock classics, really well written and played by a kickin band. I’m pretty psyched to continue work on this CD especially since the rough mixes sounded kinda like a finished album!
And then there was Funishment. What can I tell you? Blazing speed metal with some of the most provocative and offensive lyrics I’ve ever heard screamed, yet these 4 guys were perfect gentlemen at Wilburland and we had a blast. Oh yes, Phil, Beaner, Pookie and Oops will be back. You have been warned!
I had intended to finish this newsletter before Two Hour Delay came in but, oh well, I might as well tell you about the great weekend we just had recording 14 new songs and wow, what great tunes! Singer and acoustic guitarist Tim Burns sang his heart out and the band rallied, with a rock solid rhythm section and ripping electric guitar licks! Plus, it was Bob’s birthday...
From what I can see on the calendar, I’m not gonna get a break anytime soon...
If I may quote songwriter Patti Witten, “thanks for reading all the way down to here!”
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