Goose Creek News

January 3, 2011.  We’re about to release a bunch of new Goose Creek Live material, and Stuart and I have also been reviewing our catalog for a Goose Creek Music compilation disk.  Since I’m a guitarist, I particularly enjoy listening to the live solos, and pulled out the clips below as some of my favorites.

We have some great guitarists that play all over the metro and mid-Atllantic area…here are some exceptional Washington DC guitarists we’ve seen at Goose Creek Live.  All of these guys were featured with other headliners during Goose Creek sessions, but most of these players can be seen in a variety of places and bands in the mid-Atlantic region.

Anthony Pirog – with David Kitchen, he shows traces of Steely Dan, Burt Bacharach, Rockabilly, and Texas Swing…he has something surprising every way he turns.  Every solo tells a story.

Mike Stacey – explosive rock player, with touches of virtuosity in surprising places.  He’s as impressive for the tasty stuff he’s playing behind Sam Grow as well as his solos.

Andy Rutherford – Tasty twangy telecaster with a shy smile.  If you like Buck Owens and Asleep at the Wheel, you’ll like Andy’s guitar work.  Check out Ruthie’s new video for the whole song.  Besides with Ruthie, you can see Andy with the Thrillbillies at the Sunset Grill.

John Penovich – Lyrical rock and roll, he’s great at phrasing signature licks that make a song pop.  John played at Goose Creek with Billy Coulter, but also gigs a lot with the Cravin’ Dogs and the Yachtsmen, and also does alot of guitar and production work with Bandhouse Gigs.

November 2011: Studio albums made well are terrific. But they’re hard to make well.

The energy and vitality of live music played well at the moment of performance is what we’re often trying to emulate when we spend hours and hours in the studio playing every part until its perfect.

Sometimes the energy fades as the process drags on, but we get so used to hearing the song that we CAN’T hear it. Good producers and performers are able to avoid those pitfalls and do. Creating a studio album that maintains the energy of a live music performance throughout is an exacting and difficult process, and it can be magic…or not.

With a live recording, if you start with solid performances by gifted professional artists, the energy is already there, and we would have to really work to dissipate it. At Goose Creek Music, our post-production process idealizes the audio environment because we are able to make considered decisions about the mix with tools and capabilities that would be difficult for a live engineer to duplicate, but we can’t change the energy of the performance.

In a live music performance you’re actually hearing a band’s version of a song at a specific point in time.

A studio track can easily be months in the making, and both the song and arrangement evolve over that time. Once the album is out and they’re playing to support it, the live arrangements gel into something slightly different than the studio versions. They pick up little improvisations, and get played with different band mates at different gigs.

By the time they get to Goose Creek Music, the singer/songwriters know the performance aspects of their existing material inside and out and we get to record them playing the song exactly how they feel it.

I personally enjoy those performances, and it’s a real pleasure to produce them for Goose Creek Live releases. Since our launch last year, we’ve produced CD and iTunes releases of live performances in the Washington D.C. area for The Sam Grow Band, David Kitchen, Danny Knicely, Billy Coulter and Jimmy Gaudreau. Our newest release, Billy’s album is a Goose Creek Live performance with an absolutely killer band. Also just out the door, Jimmy Gaudreau’s release is a mostly instrumental studio album with virtuoso performances by Jimmy and guests including Frank Vignola, Mike Auldridge, and Bill Brown.

Also soon to come are an EP for Lisa Taylor, a few iTunes releases here and there, and a whole new series of videos with Ruthie and the Wranglers, Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein, Esther Haynes, The Steel Wheels and our whole upcoming lineup of shows: Justin Trawick, Jake and the Burtones, and Janine Wilson. Whew… a lot going on. Welcome to Goose Creek Music.

December 5, 2009
What a night!  We launched David Kitchen’s Live at Goose Creek CD at the M&S Grill last night, and the party was better than I could have hoped for.  A lot of people did many things to help us along, but special thanks to these people in particular…

Stuart Martin worked his magic on the board, and the room sounded great.  I don’t know what he does, but every time he touches a mix, it sounds like a million bucks.

Brenda Wirth drove all the way from New Jersey to run merchandise and make sure the room worked just right.  It would be impossible to overstate the impact Brenda has on Goose Creek…we’re so lucky to have her friendship.

Jim Barrett, manager of the M&S Grill (and a hot sax player in his own right) was enthusiastic from the moment I pitched the concept in October.  Keep your eye on Jim’s restaurants in Reston and Tyson…there will be some awesome music in the coming months.

Ruthie Logsdon provided marketing support guidance on how to make the whole thing work.  You’ll hear more about Ruthie in an upcoming Goose Creek project.

Opening act Emma Bailey, and her supporting band of Rob Bailey and Mike Devlin.  They set just the right tone to kick off the evening, and kept things moving nicely when David’s band took a break.

And of course, David Kitchen and his band.  They sounded as great in the room as they do on the record.  I have listened to the recordings from the Goose Creek show literally thousands of times over the last 7 months, and still love every song.  Ariel Francis, Larry Ferguson, and Anthony Pirog sound incredible on the record, and last night we were also lucky enough to have Dan Hovey and Mookie Siegel sitting in.

The album is now on sale at this site, CD Baby, and on iTunes.  It’s the sound I was dreaming about when starting Goose Creek Music.  I hope you enjoy hearing it as much as we loved making it.

Cheers,
Mike