Music
Artist Releases
Here are a few of the projects that I've been involved with over the last year.
Cryptobiotic Dirtbags
Boris McCutcheon
Appleshine - No one can paint a picture as vivid as Boris, and think this is one of his most beautiful songs. Pure and simple, and straight to the heart.
I've been recording and performing with Boris McCutcheon since 2000. Several albums and European tours later, we've developed a very special musical bond. This project started with Boris sending me demos of new songs he recorded on an iPhone. These songs were amazing, and they had a simplicity and a relaxed beauty about them that I was immediately drawn to.
Over the course of an exceptionally frigid and snowy Vermont winter, I got to work adding drum parts to them. I took my time, carefully choosing the right drums and cymbals for each track. After many discussions, we asked our old friend Steve Mayone to add to the tracks. Steve's the kind of guy that can pick up any instrument and make it sound good. He proceeded to add bass, guitars, keys, backing vocals and too many other things to list. And the icing on the cake was having Chris “Spirit Goat” McGandy slather his pedal steel magic on a few.
Midlife Chrysler
Jeremy Moses Curtis
Spinning Tires - I've always been drawn to songs that are simultaneously melancholic and uplifting. This track strikes a perfect, bittersweet balance between the two for me.
This is the second solo release from Jeremy Moses Curtis, a most badass bass player, songwriter, and musical partner in crime for over 20 years. We recorded this at Great North Sound Society in Maine under the expert guidance of Kris Delmhorst (producer) and Sam Kassirer (engineer). Jeremy's long list of credits on bass and as a producer are impressive enough, but this batch of songs really put him on the map as an equally great songwriter.
Further On: The Songs of Billy Conway
Various Artists
Further On - This is the last track on the album, so beautifully sung by Jabe Beyer. It brings me to tears every time I listen to it. Billy courageously faces the inevitable with dignity, peace and a whole lot of gratitude, like only he could. RIP.
One of the biggest honors of my career was to be asked to play drums on this project. Billy was a friend and an inspiration as a musician and as a person to me and everyone who knew him. He wrote some of these songs many years ago and some just within the last couple months of his life. Each of the incredible vocalists chose 2 songs to tackle. We gathered at Billy and Laurie Sargent's place in New Hampshire for a week and recorded everything live, with the exception of horn arrangements and backing vocals which were added later. There was such an abundance of love, respect, sorrow and inspiration going around that beautiful old farmhouse for the week we spent there. And hopefully that comes across in our interpretation of his wonderful songs.