One of the coolest sessions ever- pics & video!

[cjmnash]

so i had one of the best sessions of my life yesterday, and it had the most humble of beginnings.

via email:

him: "hey, i have some old 2" 16 track reels i'd like to transfer and hear again"

me: "sure, come on over- i'll have the machine ready"

turns out it's Ernie Winfrey, and the tapes are from the famed McCartney/Wings Nashville Sessions in 1974; which were recorded by Ernie at The Sound Shop Studio, on a console & tape machine very similar to the ones I have (earlier versions of my MCI 400 console & MCI JH24 2" machine).

i took some pics and shot a short video, so check it out!

WELCOME TO 1979 | Facebook

(while you're there you can hit the "like" button....)

it was awesome hearing the individual tracks, and listening to the stories that Ernie told. i'm still on a high from it!

even better- i convinced him to let me invite 40-50 people over for an event, have him bring the reels back over and tell stories, play the tapes and answer any questions. more people should be able to experience what i did...so we're shooting for august, and am most likely going to work it through the Nashville AES chapter.

i'll post the event on my studio's Facebook page once it's firmed up, and keep everyone updated on it as well.

enjoy!

chris mara
nashville, tn
www.welcometo1979.com

[Nick Sevilla]

Awesome!

Congratulations on the Studio too!!! I hope one day to go over there and do some work...

Cheers

[Front End Audio]

Cool stuff for sure I bet that was a real blast to get to work with the original engineer!

Cheers,
Nicholas

[T-rex]

That's great.

The singer is my band is a Paul McCartney freak. I will send him this link. . .he will be floored.

[slowcentury]

Whoa! Thats awesome! Congratulations! I would love to hear those reels. I might be stepping out on a limb here but I really think McCartney's first 4 or so albums were the best post Beatles projects. I'll take Ram over All Things Must Pass any day.

[cjmnash]

Awesome!

Congratulations on the Studio too!!! I hope one day to go over there and do some work...

Cheers

thanks- please do come on over and cut some stuff!

Cool stuff for sure I bet that was a real blast to get to work with the original engineer!

Cheers,
Nicholas

it was- and Ernie is so nice & unassuming. it was really fun to see him start digging back in on the console (since it was the same make/model he had used all through the 70s). in no time at all he was grabbing stuff without even looking.

That's great.

The singer is my band is a Paul McCartney freak. I will send him this link. . .he will be floored.

do it! let me know what he thinks!

Whoa! Thats awesome! Congratulations! I would love to hear those reels. I might be stepping out on a limb here but I really think McCartney's first 4 or so albums were the best post Beatles projects. I'll take Ram over All Things Must Pass any day.

cool- i'm going to work with the AES chapter and hopefully webcast the event, perhaps out to other AES chapters around the country.

it was interesting hearing the star takes, but the out take reels had some really wild jams and stuff. you could hear a lot of "sgt peppers" stuff, then the next jam would be a real organic country-type thing with chet & buddy emmons (steel) wearing it out. it was hard to believe they were cut by the same players/engineer in the same studio-- they were that different!

i've said it once, i'll say it again- totally killer!

-chris

[junomat]

That's awesome Chris!

What a gem.

[jkretz]

chris that is so cool. i may have to drive to nashville for this.

[Fletcher]

Congratulations!!! Sounds like a fun time... wish I could be there!!

Peace.

[drumsound]

That's some serious coolness right there!

[mrclean]

This is cool but I wondered about the legality/ownership of this tape?

Is the tape owned by Ernie? Does Sir Paul know about it? (would he care?)

[Gregg Juke]

...an event that you should hold at the next Producers and Engineers Conference in November (because I can't make it in August!). That is outright so cool!

GJ

[gustavobill]

That's some serious coolness right there!

+1

[cjmnash]

...an event that you should hold at the next Producers and Engineers Conference in November (because I can't make it in August!). That is outright so cool!

GJ

ooooh..great idea. actually just starting to work on the summit details. slated for Nov 13-15th, fyi. i'll talk to ernie about it!

thanks for the idea-

chris mara
www.welcometo1979.com

[Nick Sevilla]

This is cool but I wondered about the legality/ownership of this tape?

Is the tape owned by Ernie? Does Sir Paul know about it? (would he care?)

It probably belongs to Ernie, if he label did not pay the full bill in 1974. But Paul probably knows about the transfer, and we'll probably see the resulting remixed album in stores at some point. Things like this definitely do not fall through the cracks.

Cheers