Lafayette

Information released on Mellencamp’s recording sessions for “No Better Than This.” The press release mentions the set up at Sun Studio exactly as Elvis and Johnny Cash recorded (instruments in same places) as well as exact setup Robert Johnson recorded in San Antonio. Everything recorded in mono stereo, same microphone for vocals as instruments, recorded live, no overdubs.

I am looking forward to the end result.

http://www.mellencamp.com/?module=news&news_item_id=488

“At Sun, John and Andy were joined by Nashville bassist David Roe, who played with Johnny Cash, and top New York session guitarist Marc Ribot, who’s worked with the likes of Elvis Costello and Tom Waits. T Bone Burnett, on board again as the album’s producer, also played guitar.

“Everything was set up exactly as Cash and Elvis Presley recorded,” says John. “They had ‘X’ marks made with electrical tape on the floor where Elvis and his musicians stood and where the instruments were placed, because [legendary Sun studio and record label owner] Sam Philips walked around the room and decided where everything sounded best.”

As at Sun, the equipment was arranged according to how it was when Johnson recorded there.

“It was set up exactly the same, because I’d seen the layout of how they recorded him and in that hotel suite,” says John. “They had remodeled it since then, but otherwise the space was exactly the same–where they put the tape machines, the one microphone. I’d seen pictures and the floor plan, and I stood in the exact same corner with my face to the wall the same way Robert Johnson did.”

As John has explained previously, “No Better Than This” was conceived specifically with the sound of early country music, folk and rock in mind. So the recording process was geared toward achieving that level of classic audio quality. This goal, John says, has indeed been met.
Equally unusual and significant, the album is in “beautiful mono,” says John, with all songs recorded using one microphone for all the vocal and acoustic instrumental parts

Thanks, Tom, very interesting stuff.

I hope Lucinda told the director to f*ck off on her way out the door.

@tntracy wrote:

As much as I love Lu, Lafayette, that message does nothing to entice me to become Twitter-active… 😉

On a similar note, I thought this article was interesting (& pertinent!).

Yours truly still firmly ensconced in the cave,

Tom 😀

Agreed, Tom!

I only posted to point out she was still tweeting while on tour overseas, however, that tweet didn’t come through until yesterday. I thought it odd.

The one most interesting tweet I have seen from Lu involved her meeting Nora Guthrie, that’s the stuff I’m talking about. I would love to have seen some tweets from her show at the Greek with Elvis, if she is in the studio, pictures of the band, pictures of her, what she is doing on her days off (like the tourist stuff she talked about at the one show), etc etc.

I give her props for effort, I hope she continues, and maybe one day ya’ll will come out of the cave 😛