After the recording, what happens next?

The Attic, in Chicago.  With watchdog, Maddox!

What happens after spending months finding tunes we want to record, arranging the tunes, practicing the tunes (for many hours...), and then going into the studio to record the tunes?   Believe it or not, the process has only just begun.   Our recording engineer and David's son, Greg Magers, took all of our recorded tunes back to his studio in Chicago (The Attic) to begin work on the next phase. We will have 17 tracks on the CD - at least that's the plan! That actually worked out to 25 separate recorded sessions!


The Attic, in Chicago.  With Eleanora!

 
So far, David has made two trips to Chicago to  provide input in the editting process and to overdub some more guitar tracks and add drum (jjembe!) tracks.  We have also asked Graham Burris, Greg's assistant and bass player extraordinaire, to overdub bass tracks on our tunes to add some more color to the finished recording!   This work has been done.  What remains is for a guest recording on three tracks by Emily Magers, David's daughter and accomplished violinist/fiddler and the mixing and sequencing (another trip to Chicago by Stephanie) and the mastering. 

At that point, we will be ready to send our master to a CD manufacturing company to produce.  We have decided to not manufacture this CD ourselves as we have the previous two.  It's a lot of work to do and the commercial companies can do it faster, more professionally, and for about the same or less money!  But it does mean Stephanie is learning Coreldraw to produce the artwork for the CD packaging to submit when the master is ready!

Will we make it by Christmas?  Well... unfortunately it is looking a bit unlikely.  This process has taken more time that we expected - there have been a couple of unplanned delays and Greg's schedule has been a bit tight.  But, the silver cloud to this story is that The Looking Glass has agreed to host a CD release party for us mid to late January!  This will be our first ever release party - and based on the reviews of the editted tracks so far, this CD will be even better than our last one - so it will be more than worthy of a release party.  Stay tuned for details of the party!  Of course, as soon as the CD is produced and we have it in our hands, it will be available for sale - we have been asked a bunch of times when our next CD is coming out because folks want to buy it to add to their Red River Breeze collection!  And we absolutely appreciate and cherish the loyalty of our fans!  

Recording CD, #3 - October 11th and 12th, 2011

We recorded our third CD at 16 Ton Studios in Nashville, TN over a two day period in October 2011. This is the same studio where we recorded our second studio so it felt very familiar!  Michael Esser, the studio's engineer greeted us the first morning.  He worked with us on our second CD so his was familiar face.  He then left us in the very capable and friendly hands of his assistant, Tyler Cox.  Greg Magers, David's son, flew down from Chicago as he had done for the second CD to be our engineer.   Greg has his own very successful studio in Chicago, The Attic.

Stephanie, warming up before recording starts.

Melanie in her isolation room.

Because we are a band of four musicians, instead of the eight when we recorded our second CD in this studio, each one of us was in an isolation room this time.  That means we couldn't see each other but rather could hear each other through headphones and a box that allowed us to dial in exactly how much and how loud each of the other instruments sounded in our ears.   Playing with headphones on and without being able to read the body language of the rest of the band is definitely an added challenge to trying to record (forever!) our music.  

We recorded for 6+ hours each of the two days.   This meant recording everything at least twice to make sure we had a good take from each of the four instruments.  Stephanie also recorded some recorder and Irish whistle overdubs for several of the tunes (that means it's going to sound like Stephanie is playing hammered dulcimer and penny whistle at the same time!).



Byron, in his isolation room.



David, in his isolation area.



This is what a recorded tune looks like to the engineer!  Each instrument has it's own colored track (and the dulcimer has two!).  From this, the engineer can edit mistakes (we never made mistakes...!), mix the instruments so that one instruments doesn't - for example - overwhelm other instruments, and getting the tunes ready to be put on our CD.   But, of course that happens after the two days in the studio!  Stay tuned for the editting, mixing, mastering, producing portions of this project.   And fingers crossed we can get this done before Christmas!

We are getting ready to record again!

It's official.... We have set the date (two days in October) and location (a studio in Nashville) and we are practicing, practicing, practicing! Once we record the tracks, they will be editted and mixed by David's son, Greg Magers, at his studio in Chicago. This is how we produced our second CD, "Morgan's Song", and it seemed to work well for us. So look for the new CD in mid-November - just in time for Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas.... we debated whether this CD would be our "Christmas CD". After much thought and discussion, we decided that since we are now a band of four members - rather than the eight involved in "Morgan's Song" - we needed to do another CD of traditional tunes that reflect the four of us as a group. We have an exciting mix of Celtic, Old-Time, Renaissance, World, and three or four original tunes by band members picked to put on this recording. We have not recorded any of these tunes in either of the first two CDs (with one exception) and many of the tunes we have selected for the CD are recent additions to our repetoire so we are excited to be recording them for you!

So... maybe CD number four will be our Christmas CD. And as for the one tune we are recording again... we have decided to record "Steph's Air" again since it was recorded on our first CD, "Friday Night Favorites", and this CD is officially retired and no longer being produced or sold. "Steph's Air" seems to still be a crowd pleaser and happens to be a personal favorite of Stephanie's since se wrote it many years ago. Look for two other tunes on this CD that are original tunes by Stephanie, and even one written by David, as well as plenty of other interesting traditional tunes all played with our unique style of acoustic instrumental music.

Still to do is to decide the title of our CD, the artwork and layout of the CD packaging, and of course, practice, practice and a fair helping of panic!

Cooling at the Cave, Dunbar Cave, July 30 2011!

From the moment we arrived to start setting up for the "Cooling at the Cave" event at Dunbar Cave in Clarksville, TN on Saturday, July 30th - we were surrounded by enthusiasm, friendliness and helpfulness. With some help from Sally Schiller, of "Friends of Dunbar Cave" we decided to setup as close to the cave mouth as we could get to take full advantage of the cool air coming from the cave. This was instead of playing on the concrete stage area that has been in place since the early days of the 20th century when musicians from Nashville traveled to Dunbar Cave in the summer to take advantage of the coolness of the cave to play dances on Saturday nights. The stage to me, was too hot (always worried about the dulcimer) and too removed from the audience.

Of course, setting up near the cave entrance meant trying to find areas where the ceiling was not dripping on the floor. The evidence was in the wet areas on the floor - and there were a lot of them! Note how carefully we positioned our instruments to avoid the damp spots on the floor which indicated water drips!
As the "Friends of Dunbar Cave" bustled around setting up chairs (which needed to be moved because we moved - and no one was upset!), tables for the board games, and the concession stand, we got to work setting up for our 2 hour concert. Amazingly, on such a hot day on a Saturday afternoon, the cave parking lot was full when we arrived at 2:30 and the participation for the event was amazing!

Even before we were all ready to start playing, the chairs to watch our performance were filling up and we could feel the enthusiasm growing. Children discovered the stage area we had opted not to use and their laughter echoed through the cave overhang as they climbed over the levels.

Oh for a magaphone, or a microphone! While the audience could hear us play just fine, talking to them to tell the stories of the next tunes they were about to hear took every bit of lung power I had (and I have a lot) to be heard above the ambient noise ricochetting through the cave overhand - kids having a ton of fun, folks playing board games and just general noise from people having fun. The audience was amazing. Everyone was very warm and enthusiastic and the applause was defeaning! And thanks for laughing at my jokes! When the audience is enjoying what we are doing and engaged with us, we can't help but play to our best - despite low light and water drips, and an interesting combination of cool air from the cave and hot air from the outside mingling right around us.... amazingly, the hammered dulcimer held its tuning pretty well!

To the "Friends of Dunbar Cave" and all the folks who shared two hours of our music with us under the overhang to the cave, we had a blast! We hope to see you at another of our performances soon!

All photos taken by David Magers, except for the last one which was taken by the Leaf Chronicle.

We Have New Music.. Or Is That "New Old" Music?

It's been a busy and productive summer for us. We've played a number of events... many of them outside in what has turned out to an unusually hot summer! ... as well as at our weekly Friday night gig at The Looking Glass on Warfield Blvd in Clarksville, TN. We have many more events on the schedule. Check out where we are going to be playing this month and next at our calendar page on our website at http://www.redriverbreeze.com/.

Our performance list of traditional tunes currently contains 63 sets of tunes for a total of 119 different tunes. We are working on 26 tunes which are new to us even though they have been around for at least 200 years. Learning new tunes to add to our repetoire is always an exciting time as we practice these "new" traditional tunes and arrange them so that they maintain their distinct cultural flavor but are also uniquely "us"!

Traditional music with Celtic origins as well as other world cultures often have interesting titles that make us wonder what the story behind the tune is. Sometimes, we can discover the history and story of the tune - which we love to share with our audiences. But for many of these tunes, we never find out the meaning of the titles but enjoy playing them anyway. Several of the tunes we are currently learning and adding to our repetoire have unusual titles including: Down the Broom, Sleep sound in the Mornin, If You Will Not Have Me You May Let Me Go (a rollicking fast tune that is barely longer than the tune!), Lilting Banshee, Wha Wadna Fecht for Charlie (Who Wouldn't Fight for Charlie), Shall I Sue (and it doesn't mean sue in a court of law!), and Mairi's Wedding.

We will debuting these new tunes over the coming weeks at our Friday night gigs at The Looking Glass as well as our other performances. We hope you come on out and listen to our unique interpretations of these traditional tunes as well as all of the tunes you have heard us play and grown to love!

We've Changed...But We Are Still Red River Breeze!

It's been awhile since I've posted on this blog. Which is definitely my bad...! But we have been actually very busy so far this year and now I would like to catch you up on some of the changes to the band. As you can see from the picture, we have a new look. The biggest change is that earlier this year we officially "down sized" from eight members to the four of us in the picture: Stephanie on hammered dulcimer, Byron and Melanie on fiddle, and David on guitar. We are even changing this up a bit at times by moving Bryon to guitar, David to hammered dulcimer, and Stephanie to Irish whistle with Melanie remaining on fiddle. So, we are quite a bit smaller but we have quite a lot of flexibility!

We have had to say goodby this year to Sarah (whistle), David Elder (mandolin), Dixie (guitar) and Steve (bass). All have found their lives changing and going in new directions and the four of us wish them the best of luck and happiness in their new pursuits. The reality of bands are that they are constantly changing, but the spirit of Red River Breeze is alive, well and very busy making music!

Check out out new and updated web site - it has a new look and our full year's schedule is now being kept there: http://www.redriverbreeze.com/. And, you can also stay in touch with us on our facebook page. We would love for you to "like" us, check out the event photos we've posted there, and drop us a comment. Find us on facebook by searching for Red River Breeze.

We are starting to "talk about" recording our next CD, which will be the band's third recording. Our 2nd CD, "Morgan's Song", has done amazingly. But, it's time to do another recording to reflect who we are and what are music is today with the four of us. Stay posted as we decide what type of CD to record (should we do a traditional Christmas CD, Civil War tunes, or a variety of Celtic, Renaissance, Old-Time and World tunes?) And let us know what you'd like us to record by posting on our facebook page if you have any ideas!

This Year We Are Going to Be BUSY!

Check out out schedule... It is filling up fast. We have already played a concert in February for the Grace Lutheran Church concert series which was a wonderful experience for us. We don't often get an opportunity to play in such a beautiful venue with terrific accoustics and playing in this church was truly awesome. And the folks who came to hear our music and who were involved in allowing us to come play were awesome also.

Also, in February we played for a private 50th (!) birthday party. This was a neat experience for us to share in a truly cherished person's special day. We were asked to play for her because she very much enjoys our music at The Looking Glass. Definitely makes us feel good when folks really like our music!

More concerts and events are coming. On St. Patrick's Day we are booked for THREE concerts and if there had been more hours in the day, we could have booked several more.... And with this being the 150 anniversary of the start of the Civil War, we have been booked for several re-enactments and balls. Other events scheduled so far include several outdoor festivals. So, keep an eye on our schedule - either in the blog, the website (http://www.redriverbreeze.com/) or our facebook page - to follow where we are going to be next!

Check out our new Website!

I (Stephanie) have completely redesigned the look and feel of the band's website. Many kudos to Tiffany Allemand who designed the first website. She is so creative and the look was wonderful. Unfortunately, it was so complex, that it was impossible for me to maintain it. The new look is simpler and I hope easier to navigate. And since I built the site, it should be much easier to keep up to date! So, check it out and let me know what you think! You can comment here or drop me an email at steph2stepper@aol.com.

And, check out the band's facebook page (search for Red River Breeze). We are always eager for more friends and that is the place where I post late breaking info - especially if something occurs that keeps us from playing at The Looking Glass on the coming Friday night.

Our next event - other than our standing Friday night performances at The Looking Glass - is our concert at Grace Lutheran Church in Clarksville, TN, Sunday, February 13th from 4:00 to 5:00. We are looking forward to the opportunity to play in a concert venue and hope to see you there!

It's a New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our friends and fans and now that the holiday season is over, we am eagerly awaiting spring! Red River Breeze had a busy December - we played at 11 events before Christmas. This year we had an extensive repetoire of traditional Christmas tunes and carols - some of them pretty obscure (I think those are the best kind!). Our arrangements of this repetoire is becoming pretty cool, I think so there just may be - finally - a Christmas CD in our future. Of course, this means recording Christmas music in the summer to be ready by winter - which is a tough sell for all of us!

The band's schedule is starting to expand with the new year also. Several events are coming up in the next few months with more that are being firmed up so they haven't shown up on the schedule yet. We love playing our music so come on out to wherever we are to hear us and we love talking to you about all things related to Celtic music, traditional music and traditional instruments!