John Wiley Nelson (a.k.a. “The Rev”) is a folk and bluegrass songwriter residing in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He was the manager of WOMR, the local public broadcasting station there form some years, and still acts as DJ for a regular bluegrass show. He has recorded several CDs here at Jonymac Studio. Over the years, he has focused more and more attention on hiring the finest award-winning musicians for his CDs: Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Adam Steffey on mandolin, Randy Kohrs on resonator (dobro), Ron Stewart on banjo, and most recently Kenny Smith on acoustic rhythm and lead guitars. He also brings in Kenny and Amanda Smith to produce and perform his vocals. Due to the busy schedules of all of these musicians, it is impossible to get them all together at one time to record. We have to multi-track, working around their schedules. Here’s the process:
- The Rev records a rough vocal and rhythm guitar track to click for all songs (I accompany him on guitar)
- The Rev creates an arrangement sheet, identifying clearly who plays rhythm, fills, or leads during each song.
- Kenny Smith comes in and records a rhythm track for all songs, replacing my scratch guitar track.
- Kenny then records any lead acoustic guitar work needed
- I record an acoustic bass track
- This improved rough mix is sent to:
- Adam Steffey who records his mandolin tracks at his preferred studio (sometimes Ron Stewart’s Sleepy Valley Barn in Paoli, Indiana)
- Randy Kohrs who records his resonator tracks at his studio (Slack Key Studios, Nashville, TN)
- Ron Stewart records his tracks at his studio: Sleepy Valley Barn in Paoli, Indiana
- These artists send their stems to me digitally to put into the mix
- The Rev comes back into the studio and records his final vocal tracks
- Kenny and Amanda come in to do background harmony vocals
- Stuart Duncan comes in to the studio here and records his fiddle tracks which provide the “glue” on the CD.
- The Rev and I do a good early mix for each song
- I finish the mixing and mastering
Because of the quality of musicianship, this process works wonderfully.
One final thing that really helped this new CD. I’ve been less than happy with the basic sound palette when recording and mixing acoustic music such as bluegrass “in the box” in Logic (Pro Tools is not better), so I added an instantiation of Slate Virtual Mix Channel’s Neve console emulation on each bus, and on the Mixbus, and it made an amazing difference. I strongly recommend this! The sound is warmer, rounder, more listenable. The CD is available on iTunes, Spotify, Napster, and YouTube. To hear the album on YouTube go here!
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