Los Angeles, CA (March 16, 2016)—On her new double CD/LP, The Ghosts of Highway 20, recently released on Thirty Tigers, Lucinda Williams and manager/husband Tom Overby decided to record ‘live’ in the studio with members of her touring band. After the sessions and mixing were complete, tracking/mixing engineer, David Bianco recommended Brian Lucey of Magic Garden Mastering to provide the final touch.
“I co-produced the Ghosts of Highway 20 double album, with Lucinda and Tom Overby, just as I had with their previous Spirit Meets the Bone, project,” says Greg Leisz, long-time pedal steel player for Jackson Browne. “David Bianco brought Brian Lucey on board to master the new record, which was tracked primarily with Lucinda’s touring rhythm section, Butch Norton on drums, David Sutton on bass, Bill Frisell and myself on electric guitars. Lucinda played guitar on some of the tracks and a few subtle percussion and background vocals as well. There are no overdubs on the record; we recorded that way because we were attempting to capture Lucinda’s vocals and the musician’s responses to her performances in the truest, most immediate way.
“Bill Frisell and I have played a lot together and have a very symbiotic dialogue-driven way of responding to each other’s playing, so the guitar arrangements were created spontaneously as the tracks were recorded,” Leisz adds. “I think Brian’s master did a great job of keeping the focus on Lucinda’s vocals while remaining faithful to the immediacy of the instrumental performances and on David Bianco’s wonderful mixes.”
“Brian added a nice thickness to the mixes and retained the warmth I was going for,” observed engineer/mixer David Bianco. “In the recording, I didn’t cowboy it up with the EQ, but preferred to keep it natural—Hi Fi, not dull, but very real. Brian intuitively maintained that aesthetic and improved the bottom end in the process.”
Commenting on the project, Brian Lucey remarked, “It’s always a pleasure to work with a great engineer like David Bianco, and Lucinda’s artistic commitment is as good as it gets. The musicality and organic interplay of this band in studio was a delight to enhance.
Magic Garden Mastering
http://www.magicgardenmastering.com/
