A few weeks ago, I traveled to Minneapolis to observe the production of one of the winning songs of the All-Star Session Contest. Our members entered songs for the chance to be produced by some of the best players, producers and engineers in the world. After watching these guys work, that’s an understatement.
In November, Joey Finger, Founder and CEO of Sessionplayers.com, called to see if we’d be interested in working together. We decided to do a contest and have Session Players pick the songs they wanted to produce. One of Joey’s picks was “Shut Up” by Bryan Bryant of Houston, Texas. After listening to “Shut Up,” I understood why Joey chose it to produce: The hook is classic. I listened to some of Bryan’s other songs and his talent is obvious.
I arrived at the Institute of Production & Recording (IPR) around 3 p.m. IPR is a media institute that trains engineers and producers. Over the years, I’ve been in a few of these schools. I appreciate the fact that they exist and that they’ve made the music industry better.
IPR is an exceptional facility and the guys who started it have worked on some of the most successful records in history. They live what they teach and I was honored to witness this first hand. As I walked to the control room, I noticed the entire wall was covered with gold and platinum awards. Genesis, Paula Abdul, Jonny Lang and Prince were just a few of the names on these records.
The session was recorded for the students at IPR, who were watching from a lecture hall. It will also be used to teach future classes. Joey was the executive producer, as well as co-producer along with Paul Petersen (Prince, Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Lionel Ritchie). Tom Tucker (George Benson, Prince, The Osmonds, Chaka Khan, Jonny Lang) was the recording engineer, but most impressive is that he founded IPR. Danielle Clare ran the Pro Tools rig. We all wish we had someone in our studio that could move around a program like she could. I didn’t get her credits, but I’m convinced she’s done this before. On the B3 was Ricky Petersen (Billy Joel, John Mayer, Prince, Sheryl Crow)
Posted by Broadjam on May 3, 2006 in Broadjam Blog
Oops, made a spelling goof on the above post. It’s Los Cuates.
Jun 1, 2006/2:28 pmWe’re in Mexico and discovered the finest group of musicians I’ve ever had the pleasure to play with, Los Quartes, The Twins. They’d never been recorded before we produced a CD. Check them out on CD Baby, or on our website, Gatorlegs.com.
May 30, 2006/12:43 pmThey’ve also become our sessions group. These guys can play anything. We just completed some live recordings at an open mike night we run for snicks and grins. Uploaded some of our stuff,replacing the old uploads. We discovered how the baud rate of the upload affects the quality. Hope these new ones sound much better. It’s kind of Trop rock country. Hope to get feedback.
What a beautiful production on “Shut up”. I can’t wait to hear what Joey and his incredible producers and group of musicians do with my song “Bigger Plans”.
Thanks for believing Joey… See ya in Nashville in June.
Until then –
Donna Britton
May 15, 2006/12:43 pmhttp://www.donnabritton.com
Yep, I agree with Dan. The demo was very good, but I could hear straight away with the Pro recording the difference in production sound and techincal playing. I suppose when you’re using seasoned professionals, you’ll get more than just a tweak here and there. Their treatment of Bryan’s song gives me inspiration and something to aim for. Well done Bryan Bryant!
May 14, 2006/6:38 amWow. I thought the song was pretty great right out of the box, but it was very instructive to hear the version with the session cats and production team. It’s really true that the devil is in the details. And what a cool idea…the winner gets a great recording and the rest of us get a valuable education. Great job.
http://www.danreichandfriends.com
May 9, 2006/7:05 pmI was very impressed with the professionalism I encountered with Session Players. The musicianship was astounding. Beyond having some of the greatest names in music record my song, I was also quite impressed the revolutionary approach of observing the event through the internet while being able to monitor the entire process. I believe that this methodology will be the next standard in recording with Session Players leading the way.
I would highly recommend Session Players for anyone who would like to have their material recorded at “industry standards”. Joey along with the others involved were very easy to work with, showed attention to detail, and gave me a great product in a short amount of time. I will definitely be using their services in the future.
Bryan Bryant
May 8, 2006/5:55 pmhttp://www.bryanbryant.com
Here are a few other thoughts I had on the experience.
After the session, we went down to a local club called Bunker’s to see a band. Since it was a Monday night, I figured there wouldn’t be too many people there and we’d sit and chat. I was wrong. The club was packed and there were no available chairs to sit and talk.
The band, Dr. Mombo’s Combo, was on break when we arrived so I wasn’t sure what to expect. They came back and opened with an old R&B tune that I can’t remember the name of but recognized immediately. I’ve seen many great musicians in my day, but this band was unique in the way they stayed loose while being extremely tight. All the tunes they covered had their own stamp on it and I never thought I’d say this, but they did a James Brown tune better than James Brown. The front man was awesome.
After a song or two, the band invited Paul and Ricky up to play bass and the Hammond, respectively. Now Paul, who is right handed, played the bass player’s axe, which was left handed. He proceeded to play an incredible solo and was followed by Ricky, who played one of the best improvised B3 solos I’ve heard in a long time. At that point, I realized what makes these guys truly great. During the day, they laid back and played exactly the right thing for the song they were recording. They never once stomped on each other or the song. At night, they made it work in a completely different environment and had everyone in the place mesmerized as they did their thing again.
Hats off to Joey Finger for his idea of Sessionplayers.com. Joey is a great musician who is sincere about helping writers produce their sessions. Check out his site, http://www.sessionplayers.com, and look at the roster of players he has accumulated. This is a testament to the respect he has earned in the session world. He certainly has ours and we’re looking forward to doing this again with him. The entire group of people in his circle of friends lives, eats and breathes music. Not because they’re trying to be famous, but because they love it. I have been around a lot of great musicians, producers and engineers in my career, but I have to say this had to be one of the most ego-less sessions I have ever been in. That’s why they’ve had so much success.
Let me know your thoughts on the original vs. the version produced by Joey Finger and Sessionplayers.com
Roy
May 4, 2006/5:27 pm