News! Fall 2018

What can I say? Sometimes you get too busy to step back and reflect on all you’ve done. It’s been a ride. I have more to say, but I’ll start with this:

Last spring, I had the pleasure of restoring a cassette (thank you Dolby B!) of mesmerizing minimalist synth recordings made by Michele Mercure in the 1980s. Now out on RNVG, Beside Herself is a career retrospective worth diving into.

Matthew McNeal put out a beautiful record called Good Luck last year, which he followed up with a pair of singles “Change” and “All For Nothing.” I always love hearing the evolutions in songwriting, and this pair expresses some deep emotion. Matt has been touring with Israel Nash, whose song Rolling On was just nominated for International Song of the Year for the UK Americana Awards. (I mastered Israels’s album Lifted last year - total knockout!) Shoutout to Ted Young for his incredible work on these recordings!

Double shoutout to newlyweds Ted Young and Lucy Horton! May your lives always be filled with music.

From the always awesome label Awesome Tapes From Africa, please check out a new release of a very rare cassette of Ethiopian singer, krar player and cultural icon Asnekech Worku, recorded in the 1970s with Hailu Mergia accompanying.

Another cassette unearthed after many years - this unhinged and sweaty recording made by Bill Frisell with Julian Summerhill in a downtown Manhattan loft in 1981. The End of the Word Sessions are an unfiltered snapshot of experimental jam sessions.

My pals The Tins have two new singles, and they will make your day and probably make you dance. Mixed by Ted Young, check out Saksaywoman and Open Minded and then go back and listen to their whole album.

Bay Area rapper Rocky Rivera dropped her album Rocky’s Revenge. Check out the official video for Best Shot. It was a real treat to join a talented team of women producers and engineers, including Kelley Coyne, on this record!

On top of all this, I’ve been doing lots of digitizing with my new-to-me ATR 102 tape machine. Gracing its tape heads this summer and fall: recordings of John Steinbeck reading his works, a whole collection of punk recordings by a seminal Bay Area band, and stacks of field recordings made by folklorist and ethnomusicologist Harry Oster. This last project, in partnership with the Arhoolie Foundation, is ongoing, funded by grants from the GRAMMY Museum Grants Program and the National Recording Preservation Fund. I am honored to be the engineer responsible for digitizing these unique records of vernacular music.