blackbox Music Recordings
In the fall of 2024, I hung up black shipping blankets in the basement above the black carpet to form a sort of sound-deadening cube or black box for doing audio recordings. One basement light coincidentally is above that space. The intent was to create a quiet place to practice and record music with friends. I am currently using a Zoom H6 recorder with Shure SM-57 and SM-58 microphones. I set up a bunch of cameras, turn off the heat or air conditioning, hit record on all the devices, and hope all of the batteries last and the memory cards are not full. We capture a live recording, possibly add a couple overdubs, and then I edit all the pieces together, hopefully covering up a lot of the recording imperfections.
(Sometimes I remember to turn the heat or air conditioning back on. I feel that the success or failure of this venture hinges entirely on me remembering to turn it back on.)
I have branded the space “blackbox”, and I hope to record music here frequently and welcome many new collaborations.
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For the inaugural recording, Marty Purdy and Brad Vanover came over. Although I hav known them independently for years, this was the first time the two of them met, so this was a really special way to kick it off. This is a song that Brad wrote in the fall of 2024 called “Two Doves”.
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I played in a band in the 1990s in Louisville called The Uglies. Dan Kilian writes these fantastic songs constantly, and this is one of my favorites from when we played together. Dan is in New York City now, so I called up the perfect pairing of John Fauver on Guitar and Ian Thomas on the Dobro to accompany my Mandocello. You know it’s true that neither wind nor rain nor sleet nor snow is gonna stop the postman. He’s gonna track me down.
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This latest edition of the blackbox recordings features Marty Purdy and Brad Vanover with Marty singing the Steve Winwood tune”Can’t Find My Way Home”. On the day of the recording, it was just the three of us. Later, we got Amy Fitzgerald to sing some backing vocals, and our friend and 6th grade neighbor McKenna Kragel added a violin part, but neither of them recorded on camera.
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