Driving up the driveway to WETS-FM seemed familiar now. Not that it had lost any of the excitement, but this was the 4th or 5th time that this radio station has recorded a performance with me on the piano.
I had done that with The Watch, Ernie Gray, A Solo Performance, Kevin and Steve with Jazz, Reagan with Doug Habenna and now the new Reagan Boggs six-piece band.
I got there a little early – somewhere around 11.30 and unloaded the gear into the studio. I had a few moments to shoot some photos of the band and Dave Carter which are located Here, but was pressed for time. My keys were set up by 12.15 and it was then that I found out that the sustain pedal I had bought from Morrell’s Music in Kingsport didn’t work anymore. I was actually trying to solder the darn thing 30 seconds before the recording light went on at 1pm.
Studio One has been on the air for several years at this NPR station (WETS-FM) and it’s always a thrilling 60 minutes to force yourself to perform flawlessly inside a pair of headphones.
Carter was verbose today and spent a lot of time talking to Reagan and the overall mix was a little off balance in my opinion. The vocals,banjo and madolin are front and center, but altogether the recording is flat. I suppose its a good representation of Reagan’s songs though and that’s what counts.
We performed till about 2.00 pm and joined Mike Strickland, the engineer at The Acoustic Coffeehouse for lunch and got ready for the Down Home Performance at 9pm.