| Salvation Street turns
out to be one of the more popular CD's on Vision Company Records. It was recorded in the
small home my wife and I were remodeling in 2000. We put Tom Ratelle at the engineer's
station in the living room along with David Lang or Matt Neibels on the drums behind panels of hockey
glass. French doors with glass panels separated Kurt Meyer (bass), Mike Barrette (guitar, with amp around the corner
in the bathroom), and me and my vocal and guitar mics for the sake of mic bleed-through. Mike Fischman
(acoustic guitar), Vinnie Pasternak (violin, viola), and Matt (assorted percussion) were
scattered in the hall or up the stairway as needed. Everything was recorded live to hard
disc. "Salvation Street" itself was the exception, recorded by Lloyd Salisbury
at Flat Rock Recording Studio. Lloyd also played piano on this track. |
painting: Kerstin Zettmar
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| Barb Schloff-Arietta
("Nefertiti Smiling," "Salvation Street," Dante's Highway") and Les Sampou ("Long
Blue Train," "That's Right," "Po Man") over-dubbed their vocal
tracks. Les wanted to record a new (solo) CD at the time (Borrowed & Blue) so
she stopped in mornings and we recorded her songs live as well, including bird chirps
outside the window or the occasional passing car. Dave
Lang, Matt Neibels, Kurt Meyer, Vinnie Pasternak, and Mike Barrette also contributed vocal
overdubs. I get the credit for "producing" the CD but the truth is that everyone
involved gave their everything. Brother Andy Jones made this CD happen from three
thousand miles away -- |
| Andy is the executive producer
behind this CD and all the others since Voluntown. One criticism that I sometimes hear about this record is that there are simply
too many songs here. For those of us with a short attention span, I get it. I'd like
to think that there's a payoff for hanging in through the variety of formats represented
on this disc. It wasn't thoughtless or just because we had the songs available.
I was turned down by a "major music business"
manager once who remarked in somewhat bewildered tones that I was a musical
"chameleon." I chose to take it as a compliment, but the other side of a comment
like that is that the writer/performer has no original voice but only adapts to the
background. |
photo: JP Jones
|
| You get to decide for
yourself. I'll let other writers confine themselves more or less to a single genre. |
Music and
performances © 2012 JP Jones. Site Design, Publishing © 2012 Vision Company Records. All
Rights reserved. |
