New John Mellencamp / T-Bone produced album

[Recycled_Brains]

NEVER (in a million years) thought I'd utter the following sentences...

A very interesting listen. Great recording/songs.

What makes it interesting..... Recorded in the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA, 706 Union Ave., Memphis TN where Sam Phillips recorded Howlin Wolf, Elvis, and rm 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, where Robert Johnson was first recorded. All with one mic, live to 1/4".

(From his website)

Recorded In Savannah, Memphis, And San Antonio With 1 RCA 77 DX Microphone (Savannah & San Antonio) or 1 RCA 44 (Memphis)- Mono To An Ampex 601 ?? Reel To Reel.

I dream of the day when I get to record musicians good enough, and in a room with the character to allow me to approach making a record with such simplicity.

Kudos to T-Bone Burnett for doing something different.

[dgrieser]

I heard an interview with Mellencamp on NPR yesterday morning, and said to myself, "Must be T-Bone Burnett producing." Sure enough, next sentence mentioned him. I could tell the clips they played had the sound of the room even in my truck.

One of Mellencamp's quotes in the interview was something like, "I asked TBone, 'What were we doing in the 80's, recording the songs 100 times and using all those tracks.'" Another comment was, "We weren't good enough musicians back then to record this way."

I'm looking forward to listening to this in some good phones.

[cgarges]

I've definitely been interested in this, which is more than I can say about anything else JM's done in more than a decade.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Nick Sevilla]

Cool.

I'll buy it soon.

Thanks for the comment.

[nwxnw]

Bought the album today and I like it - like the songs and the feel of it. But this talk about songs being recorded at Sun Studios seems off the mark. This is what it says at Mellencamp's official website:

While Sun Studios actually is a working recording facility, its equipment has been updated since the days of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis so Mellencamp?s team used the Ampex machine and established a makeshift recording booth in a construction shed in a vacant lot next door. Mellencamp and his musicians did, dutifully, arrange themselves on the studio floor in accordance with markings that had been laid down by Sam Phillips many years before for optimal presence.

That Sun Studios has some magical room sound if you can hear it while recording in a neighboring construction shed.

EDIT: Do you think they mean control room rather than recording booth?

[vvv]

The last Coogs was also by T-Bone; I liked it.

[roscoenyc]

The last Coogs was also by T-Bone; I liked it.

The last album is also available in a 24 bit 96K format.

I liked it too.

[accordion squeezist]

I like T-bone Burnett. He is inspiration. There, I said it.
I'll mention this to my fellow headphone warmers, local guys with nice home studios like me, talented recordists who happen to dig pretty much the same whatever as I do, and they roll their eyes with "ohh...T-Bone Burnett...that shit!" And then they act like, well, it's so obvious, it doesn't need explanation.
It's like they're disappointed in every new thing he does.
What am I missing here? I mean, c'mon, this guys not finished winning Grammys.

[Archmart]

Hey Hey!

They MUST mean the "recording booth" was the control room...

I'm listening to this right now and I'm finding it true to its claims. These really are good songs and well played. The one mic thing is just astounding. Carefully arranged, indeed!

I searched for some session pics, though, and the only ones I've found clearly show other mics besides the 44. What's that about?

http://www.gomemphis.com/news/2010/aug/ ... n-the-sun/

Archmart