PJ Loughran Tracking “Flora” from Stephen Shirk on Vimeo.

During this past week, while setting up for the days work at the studio, I put on some Holiday music that a friend gave me.  Not your run-of-the-mill stuff you hear at Macy’s, but something with a little twist.  With no further adieu, I give you…

Cactus Jim and The Wranglers!

Wait For The Wagon (On Christmas Day)

So while this music may sound dated, it gets my wheels spinning.  I love the texture of the music.  I like how the band isn’t right in your face.  It’s all about the vocal.  The band is there to just support that and nothing more.  These days with all the studio production tools at our disposal, it’s so easy to get caught up trying to make every instrument sound huge and perfect.  The quest for a huge wall of sound.  Listening to music like that on Cactus Jim and The Wranglers “Western Christmas” album (despite being a bit hokey) reminds me of what’s most important in a song…the vocal.  It kind of makes me want to do a track on PJ’s album where we have the rhythm section all in one room, everything bleeding into one another, all a little bit muted, and then the vocal…right up front.   While I don’t think a vintage Christmas album is what we’re after in terms of style for this album (or anything too 60′s sounding for that matter), I think there are approaches like this that we can call upon to get some interesting vibes on the upcoming recordings.

We’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, stay warm…  Here’s a little something to help.

O Tannenbaum (recorded in 1907)

With the sax put away, PJ borrowed my acoustic guitar (I think?) and we got started.

We cut one basic rhythm guitar track from beginning to end.  Then punched in a couple overdubs for second acoustic guitar parts.  Then we cut one take of the main vocal.  Here’s what it sounded like:

Shoebox (First Demo)

shoebox-first-demo

I get a kick out of listening to PJ’s voice on this version.  He was far less confident and comfortable in his abilities at this point in his musical career.  He hadn’t done much live performing yet as a solo singer/songwriter, with the exception of a few open mics here and there.

I hadn’t heard this demo in a long time and when I first listened to it I was startled by the amount of vibrato PJ had in his vocal delivery.  I’d never really remembered him using vibrato at all.  What I have noticed is that singers that are just starting out tend to overuse vibrato a lot.  It’s almost as if they don’t know that it’s OK to let your natural voice just be what it is.  Or perhaps it’s just an exploratory exercise.  Either way… as singers develop their vocal skills, many learn that all that vibrato is overkill.  In my experience, simply locking on the note and holding it, showing the purity in your voice, is what really takes the skill and confidence.  (I suppose that could be considered a matter of opinion)

As PJ’s vocal control developed over the years that followed, he really began to excel at being able to lock on to a note and hold it.  In fact I think it is one of my favorite parts of his vocal skill set.  I remember hearing him perform his ballad, “Boston” a number of times (live at Mercury Loung in NYC, Uncommon Ground in Chicago, or recently in his kitchen) and just being floored when he’d get to that point in the bridge.  He’d nail a note in his high falsetto voice and just lock on to it for like 4 bars!  It has the affect of a soft violin line just floating along with the music.  PJ has come a long way.  It’s great to hear an artist progress….and even more fun to be there to watch and document it as it transpires.

To show the progess, here’s where Shoebox ended up a year or so later on PJ’s first studio release Selections from the Shoebox.

Shoebox – Selections From the Shoebox

The band was made up of Aaron Mitchell (vocals), Michael Preston (guitars and vocals), Eddie Rubiez (djembe/percussion) Mark Sakamoto (Monster FRETLESS Bass) and one PJ Loughran (Sax). We did a weekend recording session in February of 2000, using my living room as the live room and my bedroom as the control room.  The end of the elevated N train (Can anyone say Ditmars Blvd.) was about a block from my house so trains were roaring in and out every 5 -10 minutes.  We got pretty good at spacing out takes.  I’m amazed that my elderly Greek landlord that lived above me never said a thing about the thumping Djembe in the apt below him.   Anyhow, we cut basic tracks for 5 songs that day.  Djembe/percussion, Bass and Acoustic Guitar.  We’d overdub vocals, and sax another day.  I’ll always remember this session because, A) it was my first session in NYC that I ran using my own gear and space and B) it’s the only recording session I’ve run to date, where the artist(s) brought homemade cookies.

Fast forward a month, through lots of vocal overdubs, drum and bass edits, countless engineering mistakes on my part and probably over a thousand playbacks of these 5 tunes.  Now it’s time to record the saxophone parts that PJ had planned out.  Up until this point I had actually never met him, only seen him on stage.  So he came in and we got started.  It was my second time recording saxophone.  My first time (seriously) was when we had Michael and Randy Brecker in to Pink Noise (the Jingle/Music Production company I worked at) to do some kind of funk track for a Canon copier ad.  I literally setup a mic and they made it happen…we had a take in 10 minutes.  This time it didn’t come as easy.   Not because of the talent, but because we were working with denser arrangements of instruments and it was hard to figure out where to put the parts PJ had in his head.  But after 3 or 4 hours we had what we needed and were happy with how it fit together.

Here is a track to give you an idea of what we did that day and where we were in our musical journey’s back in early 2000.  Listen to PJ cut loose at the end of this one.  I think he broke his EWI the last time Shagg palyed this one live.

“Shiela” Written and Performed by Shagg

Following the recording of the horns…PJ asked, “Do you have time to record some of my songs?”  My next post will fill you in on what was to come.

All kidding aside, this was a fun session. After a few years away from working on music together, it’s nice to have at it again with a familiar but more seasoned writer and musician. PJ and I come from pretty different musical places and we have a good push-pull working relationship that usually lands us in some interesting musical spaces. I’m excited to see where we land on this batch of songs. Once the rhythm section is locked in, the true direction of these tunes will be in site. At that time we’ll get to decide what musical colors or pallets to choose from.

With that in mind….I’d like to put a question out there for discussion.  PJ’s an accomplished saxophonist and has expressed interest in using soprano saxophone on these tracks.   My initial instinct is no…the instrument itself just says “solo” to me.  Maybe I’m just having a hard time hearing it as a backing or accompaniment instrument.  Perhaps we need to stretch the barriers of what I’m hearing?  Maybe it’s time for me to get out of my box?  Anyone care to comment on this one?   Anyone have some good examples of tracks that use saxaphone in a “non-lead” manner? Something that extends beyond the traditional use of this instrument?  I need some inspiration here.