Brooks & Dunn Muscians Thread Removed. Let's talk

I may have to apply for a copyright on that phrase...

 

Yes. But, as someone else pointed out, the hooks could be coming from any number of sources -- the songwriter, the vocalist, the producer, whoever plays on the demo, etc., as well as the session musicians.

But Nashville seems to be the pinnacle (or the nadir, depending on your view) of assembly line music production, and, in many ways, its last stronghold. The rise of MIDI sequencing in pop music thinned the ranks of working studio pros back in the '80s and '90s, and now affordable hard disk recording is killing studios right and left. The clock isn't running in anyone's home studio, unless the artist needs to be back on the road tomorrow.

Historically, Nashville Cats haven't used the studio creatively, as an instrument, like many rock and pop outfits. They just crank out the music and capture it on tape, a technique which is certainly not without merit. But, due to its insular nature, Nashville often seems like an ice cream shop that carries only four flavors -- vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and Neopolitan.

 

You better hurry - it would make a perfect name for a lot of bands!

 

welll......FWIW

Here I go......and maybe I shouldn't , but here i go....


Scully wrote:

Historically, Nashville Cats haven't used the studio creatively, as an instrument, like many rock and pop outfits. They just crank out the music and capture it on tape, a technique which is certainly not without merit. But, due to its insular nature, Nashville often seems like an ice cream shop that carries only four flavors -- vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and Neopolitan


Here is my take on Nashville's Cats.....(flame suit on sir )

We don't "crank out" in a sense that no care is taken or no creativity added....quite the contrary....let me explain...

I can say that a VERY CONSERVITAVE ESTIMATE of sessions that I've played on would be around 7 or 8,000....( that would be weeeeelll over 20,000 hours logged ) over the last 25 years ....all my buddies like Brent ,Reggie , etc...etc....can more than likely lay claim to even more....Now I'm not trying to blow our own horns but if you assemble a band of Nashville Cats...at any given moment you've got about 150 years of practicle studio experience at your disposal.....even if you take a band like the stones and add up all there studio time it wouldn't comeclose to that figure given the fact that they are not in the studio 5/6 days a week ....every week.....It's not that we're not creative...its just that we've honed our skill level to the point of concentrating solely on the creative side and achieving it very quickly and totally being able to know that all the other hurdles don't even excist...ie: like taking a day to get drum sounds....getting levels on amps.....auditioning certain mics...etc...etc....because all of our support people have the same level ( engineers....background singers.....etc...etc...) there is a level of expertise that excists in Nashville that does not excist in other places....when all is said and done and the dust clears you can't take away some of the people that come here to record...

some of them over the years have included
Bob Dylan
Mark Knofler
Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr
Boy George and Culture Club
BB King
Everly Bros
Elvis
Dobie Gray
Movie soundtracks (not just stopping at the obligitory Dukes of Hazzard style movies)
and national Jingles
and almost all contemporary Christian music

YMMV....But I can't say enough good about Nashville...because it is the one of the very last places on earth where you can assemble a 5 or six piece band and record with ease....

Bill Hullett
I've purposly left off the obvious C&W recording work that takes place here just to emphisise our diversity.....

 

I never wrote that there was no creativity involved/added. I was simply stating that the studio is generally not used creatively -- i.e., played like an instrument, so to speak. There's is no Nashville equivalent to "Sgt. Pepper," "Good Vibrations" or even Beck's "Odelay."

"Mutt" Lange does it with Shania Twain's recordings, but he's not Nashville (nor am I a fan of his work of the last 20 years). Big & Rich at least had the balls to try something different.

Thinking outside the box, production-wise, is not encouraged. In the rock and pop fields, bands are encouraged to come up with new sounds, sometimes to their detriment. There's a lot of copycatting to be sure, but everyone is always looking for the new sound from the next big thing.

And, of course, Nashville studios crank it out. That's the whole point. The studio pros are valued because they can do it quickly. Like I wrote previously, the in-and-out, play it and catch it on tape aesthetic has it merits. That said, it would be silly to discount the talents and efforts of those who do spend extra time on their recordings, and perhaps a bit insulting to them to suggest that studio pros can necessarily do in five minutes what takes them three weeks.

 

I am consistently amazed at the ability of Nashville studio guys to go in and produce amazing sounds in such a brief amount of time. I've been on sessions where we spent a couple of days just getting drum sounds, let alone anything useable tracked.

 

Re: welll......FWIW

With all due respect, I'm not sure this list bolsters your argument.

 

Re: my 2 cents

No, they didn't. They used Andy White on their first single, since George Martin had already hired him for the session before he'd heard Ringo play (Ringo was hired right before this session date). Once Martin heard Ringo play, Ringo did all the drums on everything else, save 2-3 songs that Paul did the drums on (as the band begain to fall apart).

If Martin didn't think Ringo was good enough, they would have fired Ringo same as they fired Pete Best.

I think the entire point of this thread is "credit where credit is due" and it's not good to slag people because of rumors you might have heard. Given that EMI kept meticulous union time sheets, and that Ringo's voice is all over the master tapes on every recorded take, this rumor is nonsense.

 

Now you've lost me. Are you saying the Nashville guys should stop doing what they're doing, and try to make records more like Shania's?

 

Er... take notice of the part where I write that I'm not a fan of Mutt's recent work. IMHO, he produces the life out of things. He's been known to record guitar chords one string at a time.

 

Mutt

Mutt is one hell of a pop/country producer.

The guy has a way with a melody and a hook like no one around.

He's only sold about 150 million records or something. His work with the Cars on Heatbeat City was cool and interesting I thought.

I like what he does with Shania's stuff.

And he uses the eeeevvveelll PRO-TOOLS!

I love bringing that up because it causes such a knee jerk response among indie types.

 

Re: Mutt

Gopher, are you that guy in the commercial who gets busted singing along to Shania?

For my money, Mutt stopped being great after Back in Black.

 

Shania?

 

I don't hide it

I don't have any indie cred to protect or anything, so I openly tell people I like Shania and Mutt.

It can cause some amazed looks on people's faces, especially musicians. Robbie Fulks has a good line about her in his new song "Countrier Than Thou" where he throws a hipster for a loop by saying he likes her.

Good stuff.

 

I was yankin' yer chain. I know you really like it.

Robbie Fulks: now there's a guy who never worries what hipsters think of him.

 

lets see

the part I don`t get is ,why are we so politicly correct that the question has to be removed.

maybe we could discuss something Like
string gauges
3 saddle bridges
pick ups
Leo`s thoughts when ...............
the sonic qualities of cloth wire

good I`m ok ,your ok topics

after all ''newspeak" is supposed to keep us from an actual thought crime,


if you say something that offends me , I`ll get over ,

maybe we should let everyone speak and when the tears start to flow because , somebody elas has an opinion , just suck it up and move on.

 

Okay, I can't really speak for Paul here. But I can tell you the thread was removed because it was headed toward becoming a flame war, not out of any sense of "political correctness."

You can discuss anything you like on the TDPRI, save for those topic areas specifically mentioned in the notice at the top of the main page, which reads in part, "There will be no hate, politics, religion, sex or drug discussions here." Again, the rule is there to prevent flame wars – experience has shown that despite many members' best intentions, those topic areas almost invariably deteriorate into shouting matches, with the resultant ill feelings then spreading to others areas of the board. Everything else is pretty much fair game.

This board is about as far from "1984"-style censorship as you can get. No one's mandating "newspeak" or even "happy talk." What is mandated is the first part of the previously mentioned front page notice, which says, "IMPORTANT: <u>Treat everyone with respect, no matter how difficult that may be</u>."

The problem with the previous thread started when one poster decided to basically trash the playing abilities of several touring pros who post here. So much for treating everyone with respect. :-| But anyway, that's what started the trouble, and eventually resulted in Paul receiving a number of complaints, and his decision to remove the thread.

Again, it was <u>not</u> removed for content, it was removed for the same reason bouncers remove troublemakers from bars, i.e., to end and/or prevent a fight.

Hope it helps, CS

 

<li>Novel idea here on the TELECASTER Discussion Page.

<li>Thanx!!





Please visit my page

 

Fuzzy and Racehorse

Fuzzy and Racehorse....

You guys are exactly right! I apoligize for my posts that prolonged this thread...I'll go post on another topic that means more in the grand scheme of things...

Bill hullett

 

Fuzzy

These subjects are covered pretty good with the search function.