Just recorded Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” with Emil. He’s on violin and I’m on cello/vocals. You can listen to it here.

I just recorded Crow Jane last Friday. It was recorded into an M-Audio Microtrack and then mixed in Garageband on my Mac. Since the Microtrack only records one track at a time, I do the cello first, transfer it to my Mac, then sing the vocals in the Microtrack again while listening to the cello track in Garageband. Pretty simple. The Microtrack is just a pocket-size digital recorder, and has been really handy for making quick recordings of ideas, and for these finished recordings that I’ve been putting on my website.

This song took me a while to finally record because it’s a bit difficult to stay in tune with the particular chord barring technique I’m using. Normally the cello is played with the left hand pushing down one string at a time, but for this song I’m making chords across all four strings throughout the whole song. After a few minutes, I can’t even push the strings down accurately anymore. It’s still not perfectly in tune, but I think this is as close as I am going to get. I’ve been trying to record it on and off for weeks when I’ve had spare time, and I finally got it close enough. Anyways, I kind of like a little bit of atonality and sliding around along he fretboard.

The song itself is traditional, and I couldn’t find much info on it. I learned it from this remarkable Skip James version on youtube below. If you have a spare minute, it’s worth listening to:

I just recorded a new one: “Wayfaring Stranger.” I first heard this song on a Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys CD, called “Off The Record, Vol. 1: Live Recordings, 1956-1969.” It is an incredible CD if anyone is looking for something refreshing to listen to.

Wayfaring Stranger is an old “white spiritual” song, basically about putting up with all the crap you have to deal with in life with the final reward of getting to be with your family in the afterlife. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve added links on my Music page to purchase CDs from Emil Altschuler, and Moss Mountain Project.

Emil Altschuler

I recorded guitar on the first two tracks of my brother’s (Emil Altschuler) CD. The first being “Caprice No. 20,” which is one of the 24 diabolical caprices written by Nicolo Paganini for unaccompanied solo violin. We wrote a guitar accompaniment for it in a gypsy-jazz style, a la Django Reinhardt. The second track is “Cantabile,” also by Nicolo Paganini.
The CD is currently available for digital download from Snocap:

You can also purchase the physical CD at one of Emil’s shows

Moss Mountain Project

I didn’t record with Moss Mountain Project on this first CD, but they are a phenomenal band from Maine that I am playing with. If I am lucky, I will be able to collaborate with them on their next album.
You can order the physical CD from CDBaby, or download it digitally from Itunes.
Check out their web site, Myspace page and Youtube channel.

These are just the audio tracks extracted from the the last two videos I posted:
Meeting at the Building
Sunflower River Blues