Basement247 Sessions

Yesterday I had the pleasure of playing electric bass on a singer-songwriter session at Basement 247 Studios in Allston, MA.  Studio owner, Jack Younger, is one of the North East's analog masters.  The sounds he gets out of his vintage mic collection, amplified by tube pre's, onto 2" tape are true butter, not this "I can't believe it's not butter" stuff you get from ProTools plugins.  I have known Jack through several renovations of his studio, and although he often warns of moving out of his basement in Lower Allston, I know he loves that room, and for me it is one of the first places I drop in when I come back to town.  He will either have a fresh track to yum yum my ear drums, a great story about a local rock band getting into a fight in the studio, or a new, custom made knob on his analog synth that you just have to check out.

Rich Foster brought some simple, yet elegant tunes to the studio to work on at the session.  His charts were clear enough that we were able to rehearse them once or twice, and then get them on tape in a couple of takes.  I had played with drummer Phillip Ouellette many times, but never together in a rhythm section.  Phil sings and plays guitar in the Beau Roland Band, who I have recorded and played some gigs with.  Jack had an ear for editing Rich's tunes, taking out an extraneous vamp or chorus here and there to tighten up the structure.  They gave me a few helpful suggestions for the bass parts, but I mostly had free reign, and the opportunity to embellish the lines where I felt appropriate.  The session had good flow, and we tracked seven tunes to tape, all live bass and drums with scratch vocals and guitar.

I was especially happy with the bass sound.  I think the last time I had a consistent set of strings on my bass was when I had the excellent Baltimore guitar luthier Philtone

set up my fender jazz bass with some flat wounds in June of 2007.  Since then, I think all four strings were of a different brand as they kept popping when I would get over-excited at space-funk gigs.  When I went to the shop earlier this week, I saw some black nylon tape-wounds on the shelf.  I had checked these strings out when Ryan Dorsey of Baltimore Hip-Hop band Soul Cannon brought them in on his bass for a recording session I engineered at the Peabody studio two years ago.  I loved the feel of them - very loose, and easy to slide around on, yet thick enough to dig my fingers into.  I didn't hear them electrified until I was at the session, going through a Fender 400PS amp to a 1960's Altec 15" cab.  They sound very even through the lower and upper register, with a good amount of pop, and just enough growl.  I was especially happy with the dynamics I could play with, and they look awesome.  The bass was recorded

 with an AT M25, through a SC50 compressor.  The drums were recorded with Coles ribbon overheads (my favorites), Sennheiser 441U on the snare, and AKG D20s on the toms and kick.  

My first experience at Basement247 was in 2004 playing with Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves.  

I had been playing with Eli, before he was known as Paperboy Reed, in High School.  I would go busking with him, Eli Keszler (drums), and Gabe Birnbaum (sax) in Harvard Square on Friday and Saturday nights, making much cash, mostly in one-dollar bills playing blues and R&B.  We put together a killing band, with Andrew Fenlon in Trombone, and Ben Jaffe on Tenor, and began to play the Boston club circuit.  We had our thing together when we got to the studio, and layed down something like eighteen tracks in two days, all live, twelve of which ended up on his first record, "Walkin' and Talkin'."   When I moved to Baltimore, I became a "part-time lover," and eventually enjoyed Eli's success from a distance, sitting in at an occasional show when I could catch him in town.  His vintage sound fit Jack's analog sensibilities.

Jack invited me back some months later to lay down some 12-string guitar tracks on his solo project, Nefarious Jack and the Naysayers.  I wrastled the guitar in tune, and overdubbed to Phillip Ouellette on Drums and Tyler Pollard on Bass, playing an almost uncomfortably slow, minor tune.  I appreciate the haunting use of Mellotron on this record.  Jack was utilizing an interesting from-the-ground-up song-building technique.  This was my first, and last session as a 12-string acoustic guitarist.  

Two other sessions at 247 I was called for were Phillip Ouellette projects.  The first, in 2004, The Beau Roland Band's "The Road to Wichita." 

Folky, alt-country, all original tunes by Phil (except for a Flaming Lips tune), tell a story of love, loss, life, and the hope associated with moving around.  

I played upright bass on this session, and my favorite tune was a country ballad, "There's a Contrast," with a line that always sticks in my head, "Cicadas/sing a heart breaking song/it's not right, it's not wrong/and the same could be said of you."

The second session Phil invited me to was a true honor, as he collaborated with his father, Dennis Ouellette, a finger-picking master of southern swing.  Phil and Dennis played guitar and sang, while I played upright bass, and Jeremy Eagle played drums.  We tracked everything live, and we recorded a few overdubs where I got to put my organ and rhodes chops to the test.  

I am very happy with the project.  My favorite track off of the Lone Oak Boys project, "Vic's Tune," tells a story of a friendship between a man and a woman.  Vic and his friend would visit every day, until a city grew up between them, and they got too old to move around much.  They would talk on the phone instead at 5pm daily without fail.  The song ends with the sound of a phone ringing off the hook.  Each ring ties that knot in the back of your throat tighter and tighter.  Just writing about the experience of recording this tune brings a tear to my eye, and reminds me why I love emoting and telling stories through music and sound.  I often get caught up in the technicality of my playing, and a project like this refreshes the soul of my craft.