The Making Of A CD/Album - Part 1

The Making Of A CD/Album

What a day in the studio! Recording is work. Many just think it's like a live gig and you just go in and play the song, then go home. Truth be known, it's actually quite a tedious experience. Today we focused on the rhythm section for three songs, “Dockside Bar”, Yeah, A Harbor” and “21^st Century Kinda Girl”. The rhythm section is the bass and drums.

We worked on the arrangements on the songs last week. I had the basic arrangements done, however the producer, Ian Shaw, came up with modifications and adjustments for them all. Ian's input was exactly what the songs needed.

On “Yeah, A Harbor” he had us repeat the chorus at an additional point, then also moved the bridge of the song to after that chorus, where it previously had been after a verse.

On “Dockside Bar”, Ian had us add stops to a few points, which completely added a whole new feel and accent that the song had been lacking. In addition, he felt the second verse was a little long in the tooth. However, it was the exact same structure as the first. As a writer, I naturally raised an eyebrow when he first mentioned it. After all, here he was cutting out a piece of my creation.

We have to add a little note here regarding Ian. Ian Shaw is a world class producer who moved to Key West from London, England a few years ago. He maintains a flat in London and bounces back and forth periodically recording in both locations. He's been a record producer for over thirty years, and has a checkered history to go along with it. He's recorded virtually every type of music in the western world, save for an orchestra. He really knows what he's doing.

                        Ian Shaw - Picture by Ralph De Palma

           Ian Shaw (standing) working with engineer Drew Gunning
                                 Picture bt Ralph De Palma
                          https://www.facebook.com/rwdepalma

           Ian Shaw recorded the vocals for Dani Hoy's newest release
                                  At The End Of A Long Road

So, before my eyebrow was fully raised, I stopped myself to listen to what he suggested. After all, he knows miles and miles more about this process than I do.

The first thing I realized was that the verse he was suggesting to eliminate, really wasn't needed to begin with. What it was saying was redundant. Coming in with the verse he suggested, made complete sense. Off with the old and on with the new!

Throughout the rehearsal, bassist Robert “Bob” Tucker added immensely, along with drummer John Sausser. It was great watching them work out so that they complement each other, working out who does what, so that they complement each other and weave in and out their respective lines that together work out the rhythm section. Ian would say what he was looking for in a particular section, Bob and John would work it out, not to mention adding suggestions of their own.

Going into the studio today. It takes a very different talent  doing studio work than playing live. It's not often that a great live performer is a great studio musician, and visa versa. Doing studio work is a different ballgame all together.  Playing live is more like driving a Ferrari on a race track, whereas studio work is more like driving a tractor hoeing a field. It's a very different discipline. Nashville, for instance, I recall hearing years back, has a pool of around 28 musicians they pull from to do a recording. That's guitar players, keyboardists, bass players, and pedal steel players. 28 total, and they played on every Nashville cut on the radio. About a year ago there was a great movie out called "The Wrecking Crew" about a small group of musicians who were on so many hit songs, I couldn't begin to count. The Beach Boys wanted to cut their own tracks, but after hearing The Wrecking Crew, they backed off. It's a verry different talent, as I say.

Ian chose The Ramble Room Studios, on Eaton Street, here in Key West. The Ramble Room has been open for around a year, maybe a bit more, I'm guessing? I had not been there as of yet, nor had I seen any pictures of it either.

I have to say the studio is very comfortable to work in. Sofas, a bar to work on (no, sorry folks, no alcohol!) a drum booth with a very nice Yamaha kit, the main room, recording booth, all in easy access, plus, even a baby grand piano, donated by our friend Adrienne Z, for safe keeping. It's a very nice facility indeed!

With the studio came Drew Gunning, the engineer. Drew did a fantastic job all day and I need to say not only was he great to work with from an artists standpoint, but also he worked like clockwork with Ian.

I asked Ian what song we should start off with. His answer was “Whichever one you feel most comfortable with”. As Bob and I had been doing “Dockside Bar” live a couple of times, and it seemed to go well, I picked that one.

When we went through the first take, I felt that although it wasn't perfect, we would have this completed in a half hour. Ian however had different ideas on how the drums should be accenting the song in various different parts throughout the song. He would come out of the booth and say what he wanted in this part, or that.

In addition, throughout the entire session, if any of us were ahead, or behind the beat, he's make a note to us and we'd do it again. Likewise, if he wanted us to lay back, or be right on top of the beat, he's tell us. And we'd do it again.

A lot of all of this happened over the day, on all three songs, but funny enough, mostly on the first, which we felt we knew the best!

The next song “A Harbor” went a bit quicker, but not by much. I had a bit of trouble with the timing in a part of it and Ian came out and gave me a hand by actually directing! It worked!

Finally, we recorded the last song “21^st Century Kinda Girl”. This song I think we only did three or four takes and we were done. All totaled, we went from 11am to 4pm and laid down the rhythm tracks.

So again, the vocal tracks and guitar tracks that I did today will not be used. We call them “Scratch Tracks”. What they do is keep the song in structure for the bass and drums. Ian will take those tracks, edit and them. For instance, He may like Bob's first verse bass line on Dockside Bar's for that verse, but he might like his forth take on the song's second verse. On the chorus of the song, he might take part of one take and stick in another take's for the other part.

He'll do the same with the drums. Mixing and matching the best from the entire session. This is part of what will happen with every instrument as it's recorded.

Right now we have the bass and drums. When Ian is finished editing that, I'll go back in the studio and add my guitar and vocal. After that we'll add additional vocals and instrumentation. I'll keep you posted as we progress, so that you see the process in action.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

Hey Look!!!!  Dani Hoy and Terri Wlaschin!

For additional pictures, videos and stories, be sure to check out the Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/recordalbumKeyWest/

Also, if you'd like to help out with making the album, it's very easy, just buy the songs as they come out! The first one, Island Blue, already is out! My friend Misty Loggins sings it and Dani Hoy sings background vocals!

Here are the links for Island Blue. It's less than a dollar. The proceeds go to recording the next songs! For you, the consumer, it costs less to buy the album this way, plus you get them as they come out! Why wait for the album to be done? It actually costs less for you to do it this way!

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/keywestchris2

https://itunes.apple.com/…/…/island-blue-single/id1142208757

https://www.amazon.com/Island-Blue-Key-West-Chris/dp/B01K39P4R6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470838734&sr=8-2&keywords=Key+West+Chris


Also! Check out my book on Amazon, "Bar Stories"! It currently had 17 Five-Star ratings!
Only $4.99!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Bar-Stories-Semi-Fictional-Adventure-Tour-Witnessed-ebook/dp/B01AHKCY1K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472277826&sr=8-1&keywords=Bar+Stories#nav-subnav

Thanks for reading the blog and for those of you who purchase the son a very big THANK YOU!!!

All the Best From Key West!

Key West Chris Rehm

Being a Key West Artist and What's In The Hopper!

Being A Key West Artist

Island Time Radio up in Cleveland recently were kind enough to interview me for the release of my new book, Bar Stories. Island Time has always been a great supporter of both my music, as well as having both myself and the “Key West Bar Tales – The Sum of All Beers” on for a beer segment on their show. As a matter of fact, the podcast was an off shoot of the segment of the Island Time Radio spot! The Beer Chat segment was on for almost a year before we started the podcast, which was inspired by being on Island Time. It most likely wouldn’t have ever happened without Island Tiles Beer Chat segment! Thanks Island Time!

The book interview went great! Dennis King, a.k.a. DK, is a fantastic guy and knows his way around the microphone like most know the back of their hand. It’s always great to be interviewed by a pro!

Naturally, the conversation drifted to include my music, which is my main focus. One of the things DK touched on was inquiring on what I’m doing currently, as well as the future. In the thick of this portion of the interview, DK made an observation which I actually took as a complement. He said something to the effect of “Your music isn’t really Trop Rock so much”.

The question brought me back to when my album “Shanghai’d And Marooned In Key West (things could be worse)” first came out. For starters, Island Time was always a great supporter of the album! Thanks DK and his sidekick, Amo Bennett! The late DJ Jeff Allen was also in love with it. I’d hear it on his station (Beachfront Radio), plus, I’d get calls and messages from friends that he was playing it left and right! Jeff often commented to me “You’re doing things that no one else is doing in Trop Rock!”. That’s me alright. HA HA! I never follow the crowd. Seldom do I drive the crowded highway. I’m the one who prefers blazing a new trail in most anything I do. 

Take my book, “Bar Tales” for example. I can’t find one other book that is available on Amazon, out of something like 20,000,000 (Twenty million) available books, which is about bar stories from the customer’s side of the bar. This wasn’t my intent, but when I finished writing it I thought it would be a good idea to see what others wrote on the same subject. Oh, there were books on bars, how to run them, guides to bars in various cities, how to mix drinks from a particular bar’s recipe, but nothing on stories about the antics that go on with customers. I didn’t set out to do this, I only discovered it after the book was completed! Apparently I blazed a new trail and never knew it! HA HA!

With that as a backdrop, getting back to DK’s observation, yeah, my music isn’t the same as all the others. The funny thing is, around 95% or more Trop Rock artists, don’t live in the tropics. As a Key West artist, I write about the daily goings on here, verses from the perspective of someone visiting for three to seven days.  I live here. I pulled that trigger eight years ago and moved 138 miles from my home in Cutler Bay, to Key West. Eight years down that road and I see things from a day to day perspective, as opposed to that of a visitor or a tourist.

Additionally, I’m different from a musical structure point of view. This stems from my major influences in my musical interests. Almost all Trop Rock musicians’ number one influence is Jimmy Buffet. I love Jimmy Buffett. He’s a great songwriter and I have the highest respect for him. For myself, bands and artists such as The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Dire Straits, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Santana, The Who, Martin Denny, the improvisation found in some of the said groups, as well as jazz,  all play a very much larger influence in what I do. All of that mixed in with the Tropical feel and lifestyle that Buffett brought to light, as well as living right here in Key West, the source, is what my music is. It’s bound to sound different. Story wise, it’s based on a local perspective. Locals and visitors will get it, tourists wont. Additionally, an artist is someone who creates. All artists have influences of course, but the artist creates, we don’t copy. DK’s observation made my night! What he said was actually a great contradiction, without being a contradiction at all, because although it was between the lines, it point blank at the same time. DK stated my music is original! As an artist, thank you DK!

What’s in The Hopper?

What’s in store for the future? Well, I had a bit of a bombshell dropped on me around a month ago in that Dan Simpson, resident musician and recording engineer for thirty five years here in Key West, is pulling up stakes and moving to Ashville, N.C.!  Dan produced my album “Shanghai’d and Marooned in Key West (things could be worse)”, to the extent that engineer and producer Shelley Liebowitz (Miles Davis, The Rolling Stones, Ella Fitzgerald, Dr. John, … etc) wrote me from Los Angeles and said “Chris I love your album!”. It was in the cards that he’d do the same on my next project album “Jump Into de Fi-Ya!”.  Regretfully apparently those cards had a couple of Jokers in them and their name is Ashville, N.C.

There are some producers that will take artist’s songs, from a demo they were sent. The demo may just be a very simple recording made with a guitar and a vocal. The producer may make an arrangement of the songs, or get someone else to do that part of it, then gather musicians together who record them. The original artist then records the vocal track and essentially from that point, they’re done, save for the mixing and mastering.

For myself, that would not work. I’m an artist who is involved in virtually everything that’s done. I’m playing a guitar, collecting musicians to play, suggesting to maybe a keyboard player what sound I’m looking for. When the engineer is doing the mix I may say, “Let’s bring the rhythm guitar up in this two-bar segment”. A lot of this is actually wearing the producer hat. Point being, I’m a very hands on artist with what I want. Working with Dan was always a pleasure! He always came up with great ideas on everything and as I say, losing him is heartbreaking.

Having said that, Key West has a world class producer who moved here a few years ago from London, England, Ian Shaw. Ian’s been in the recording business for over thirty years and has many laurels and awards to his credit in the United Kingdom. He still bounces back and forth between London and Key West on various projects. We had lunch at Frenchie’s Café a week ago and agreed to record a couple of songs I’ve written, “Yippie Cayo Hueso” and “Tote The Load”.  Something new and exciting!

Ian Shaw

Of course I have a bunch of other songs that need to be recorded, however my budget at the moment restricts me to doing these two songs to start with, then when there’s more funds accumulated, we can add more.

It goes without saying, if a good minded, philanthropic soul would be interested in helping the project out, we’re interested! Thanks in advance!!!!

HEY! LOOK BELOW!!!

 Thanks for reading the blog!  All The Best From Key West!

My book “Bar Stories” is available through Amazon! At this moment it has 12 five star ratings! Only $3.99!!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Bar-Stories-Semi-Fictional-Adventure-Tour-Witnessed-ebook/dp/B01AHKCY1K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1457639261&sr=1-1&keywords=bar+stories




To obtain my music:

My CD is available on iTunes, CD Baby, CD Universe, Rhapsody, and Beachfront Radio.
Search: Key West Chris

Thank you everyone!!

Recording In Key West With Homemade Wine

                              Recording In Key West With Homemade Wine

A little while back I mentioned that I was soon to embark on a new album. Well, there were some delays, but on February 12, 2015 I went into the studio and we got the ball rolling! This part of the album, is a bit of an island from what will be the rest of it.

This section actually is rooted almost two years ago when my friends with Homemade Wine out of Knoxville, Tn. were in town and we had a jam up in the band room at Margaritaville where they were playing.

At my suggestion, we jammed on Marshall Tucker’s song “This Ol’Cowboy”, as we were both major Marshall Tucker fans. Of course they were familiar with the song, but up to that point, had not played it before.

We had a blast playing it and percussionist, Tod Sheley, video taped it. It’s gotten a lot of attention on their YouTube channel. It was a great evening, without a doubt.




After this, we decided we’d love to write a song together. I started it, but whenever they were in town, regretfully there wasn’t time to get together and work on a song.Consequently, I wrote the rest of the song.

It was written musically by design to have a close relation to This Ol’ Cowboy, though at the same time, it’s very different. The song is entitled “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”. Kind of semi-philosophical of how I lead my life. Learn from the past, live in the moment, set goals for the future, based on sailing on a sailboat motif/foundation.

Well, here we are and even though we never got to write the song together, we did record it right here in Key West.

The original plan was to record it with Dan Simpson, however Dan didn’t have the facility to do it live, which was the plan. A block away from me is Lance Taylor’s Key West Studio, so that was made the official destination. We could set the whole band up there and do live takes.

It’s an amazing studio, built into a small Conch House, not far from the Southernmost Point. It’s also Lance’s home, however it’s far more accurate to say that Lance lives in the studio, rather than the studio is in Lance’s home.

As you walk into the house via the front door, you are walking into the drum room, complete with sound deadening, plus,  a set of drums that the late, great Richard Crooks donated to the cause, so that they could be put to use by all who need a set of quality drums to record with. A great philanthropic gesture indeed, by the Maestro, prior to his earthly departure.

From there you enter the control room, where all of the computers are. Mission control, so to speak. The bass was set up here, which gave great proximity to both the drums on one side and the rest of us on the other. On that other side is what would be the dining room, however this is where the rest of the band sets up. For us this day it was two electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, and added percussion.

Before all of this, we met up in the band room at Margaritaville, where the band was playing,  the day before. We actually were doing two songs, the other being another song of mine “Ride to the End of the Line Anyway”. Both songs needed to be defined structurally and the guys need to be versed with what was going on and when.

The guys were superb! What more could you ask for really? They not only gave their undivided attention, but also helped immensely in the arrangements. I had done the arrangements, however they refined and defined them. Ryan Sheley has a very keen sense of what works. Often as a writer/arranger one cannot see the forest for the trees as you become so embedded in it all.  Ryan would say “lets cut that bar before the chorus and just go right into it.” He was 100% correct. Thanks Ryan!



(Ryan Sheley going over songs in the band room)




Rick Reese was fantastic at defining what went where and what chords were used. Having a Berkley College of Music graduate on hand was the proverbial silver bullet. The rest of the band was fantastic as well, all just falling into the arrangements as we went along.



(Rick Reese in the band room)




(Andy Westcott and Brad Williams at rehearsal)

Additionally, after that was done and I left, they continued to work on them later that night. These guys were dedicated professionals. Their efforts are greatly appreciated!

The next day we hit the studio. As always, there were a few glitches to overcome, but that’s expected and nothing was extreme.

The two songs I chose to do with them were both Southern Rock based songs. “Ride To The End of the Line Anyway” was on the Allman Brothers side of the tracks, while “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” was from the Marshall Tucker Band side of town, influence wise. Doing two songs based on Southern Rock, who better that have Homemade Wine backing me?



(Andy Walcott  of Homemade Wine in the studio, Key West, Fl. C.R. USA)



(Rick Reese of Homemade Wine in the studio, Key West, Fl. C.R. USA)



(Bradley Williams of Homemade Wine in the studio, Key West, Fl. C.R. USA)



(Tod Sheley)



(Ryan Sheley of Homemade Wine in the studio, Key West, Fl. C.R. USA)



(Playing acoustic in this picture)

To show progress as it goes, here’s some snippets of the songs. A lot must be added still, but for those not in the business, it might be interesting to see how a song progresses.

Here’s a snippet of “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”



And “Ride To the End Of The Line Anyway”




Some folks only know me from my album “Shanghai’d and Marooned in Key West (things could be worse)”. On that album I tried to bring in a bunch of influences I’ve had over my life in music. Consequently, every song was in a different root genre. Afro/Cuban, Jazz, Brazilian, Bahamian, Country… the list goes on.

The album got fantastic accolades from all over the radio and recording business. The late Jeff Allen said “Shanghai’d and Marooned in Key West (Things Could Be Worse) covers so many different genres, it’s another great addition to the ever expanding sounds of Trop Rock by adding so many different new flavors to it.” Jeff Allen, Beachfront Radio

Also, I received an e-mail from none other than Shelly Liebowitz from Los Angeles, producer of Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Dr. John… saying that he loved the album! It really doesn’t come any stronger than that. That’s a seriously heavy endorsement.

Fact is however, that although so many people within the industry had such good things to say about the album and played the heck out of it (and still do! Thanks everyone!), it hasn’t sold as much as I hoped for.

It was funny because as we were in the studio last night, Dani Hoy said to me with a smirk while listening back to Ride To The End Of The Line Anyway, “That’s not Trop Rock” to which I replied “No, it isn’t”. We both laughed. I then replied “It is Conch Rock however!”



As sales within the Trop Rock community hasn’t been supportive enough, I need other options to augment sales from other angles, in addition to Trop.

Everything is my passion that I’m doing, that’s the most important thing for me, in addition to carving new trails to go down. The one thing I insist on is not sounding like anyone else…. even myself sometimes. Not necessarily the creed of a pop artist, but I’m a songwriter and a progressive artist anyway.





What will it sound like?  Key West and the Florida Keys, naturally!

You can take that to the bank.

More to come as it proceeds!

Thank you again!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To obtain my music:

My CD is available on iTunes, CD Baby, CD Universe, Rhapsody, and Beachfront Radio.
Search: Key West Chris

Thank you everyone!!