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GORDY QUIST
When I called my old guitar player and close friend Steve Wedemeyer to tell him I was thinking of recording another album, Steve said two words. "East Nashville."
A few phone calls, a week off from the Band of Heathens, and a 900-mile drive to Tennessee later, I'm looking for Joe McMahan's studio, cradled between the halfway houses and soul food joints of the Nashville underground. The east side.
Juju beads, tape machines, goat nail shakers, walls of vintage amps, an oil-on-velvet portrait of Freddy Fender above an analog mixing board, a vinyl library of 1950's rock 'n' roll and soul records… Vibe was everywhere. This was the idea behind the sessions. Capture vibe on tape. No digital editing. No cut and paste. Just vibe. That's how I wanted to record the album. The warmth of analog tape and skin on soul. People in a room making music. Timeless music.
Here comes the flood. A soundscape catalog of the ride I've been on the last couple years, and where I'm headed now. The slice of Americana I've been served. Highways, Heathens, Gypsies, Demons. Austin, Kerrville, Sydney, Nashville… The best songs I've written at a time when I'm playing in the best band I've been in.
So I've got this recording in my hands that I have to get out, but I'm about to spend God knows how long on the road with the Band of Heathens. A timeless space between folk and rock 'n' roll. We're about to start a Heathens studio record next month. Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and Europe. Who knows when there'll be time to do another solo record? Vinyl to tape. Analog to digital (0's and 1's…) CD's, dinosaurs, downloads and flying cars… Somewhere between yesterday and tomorrow today's riding down the rails and she's not coming back again. What a ride.
Nevermind the questions spinning around in my head. I'm high on caffeine and recording mojo, driving back home to Austin. 14 hours of American highway in front me.
12 hours to get to a show with the Band of Heathens. Step on the gas. Here comes the flood
Profile courtesy of Gordy Quist.