Whenever I buy a new record I hope to learn about other people’s lives, truths, philosophies, skills and craft.
This is what I single out and any productional efforts to be “impressive” are usually not very interesting to me.
It seems nowadays that most of the attention people pay to music goes to style and form, the outside packaging.
To me this is out of proportion to the essence of it and it often feels like the song and its contents are overlooked.

As prove many folk records, a good song, instrument, microphone, room and, of course, heart-felt performance can make for a great recording.
Differences in sound quality between demos and studio recordings like in the old days can be pretty minimal these days.
In my case, when a batch of songs is finished I first have to tell old Mr. Neumann about it.
Mr. Adolph Neumann is a U47 microphone dating back to the 1940s and he faithfully reproduces any sounds entrusted to him.
Listening back these recordings sound like an introduction to my own songs, that in some cases have been in progress for years.

Next I am struck by the notion that this is basically all I need to hear from the songs.
A few quick and minimal dubs take it home and make it presentable to my ears.
I could go on and add and re-record stuff but the question is how much better will it be for the song?
This is my ongoing dilemma more or less… is less more, is more less….?
Weighing all the choices, options and cues available I decided to put this out as is.
I hope you’re with me and will enjoy this.

“I love soundcarriers.
Physical hands-on documents.
I count my life in soundcarriers, my own as well as others’.
They are a diary, they keep a score and order.
They are a culmination of life in music and poetry,
a journal, materializing in groups of songs from period to period.
Great love, care and energy goes into crafting them and bringing them home.
Home to myself and to a select audience around the world.
All my soundcarriers are exclusive limited edition issues,
published by dedicated independents.
I am fortunate and thankful to always have had the right people
and circumstances around to make them happen.”
AV, May 2013

A quote from Neil Young, addressing a convention of recording industry folk:

“That’s only one way of making records. A lot of you out here are craftsmen: just beautiful records, and take great care with every note. And I know I’m not one of them. I like to capture the moment. I like to record the moment. I like to get the first time that I sung the song. I like to get the first time the band plays the song. So there’s a lot of compromises you make to get that feeling, but in the long run, that’s where the pictures are when I hear my words and when I see the pictures while I’m listening. So that’s what we try to record.”

Speaking of  ‘Beat the Record’ ; could have said it better myself but he beat me to it…

David Olney plays Sad Saturday Night, a song from ‘BEAT THE RECORD” that I cowrote with him and John Hadley and recorded at Hadley’s cabin in Nashville. There will also be a version of it on David’s new album “When The deal Goes Down” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQbuzxum4I