Podcasts for you !

There are 2 great podcasts to listen to these days when you appreciate Joe's work, and the people close to his 'music-making-proces'.

Allison Russel (Birds of Chicago) in 'Musings of the Artist, (Honest) conversations with Montse Andrée'

 

It's a wonderful conversation to listen to.... The importance of Art, (Personal) history and how to deal with it, Gender, love, resilience, life, connection,... 

Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson, Episode 78 Kim Rosen

For those interested (like I am) in the practical side of getting a recording to its audience, wether it will be on CD, LP, Digital Format.... (Don't worry, it's not getting to technical.)

Kim Rosen is a Mastering Engineer, and has worked numerous times with Joe Henry, Ryan Freeland, Birds of Chicago,... 

Hear her talk about what Mastering is, and how it is evolving, the challenges in the Digital era and the constant changing business,  and how she came to work for Ryan Freeland.... 

If you are new to Music Makers and Soul Shakers : Make sure to dig in to other episodes. Joe himself, but also Ryan Freeland, Kenneth Pattengale, and many more have already been a guest. 

Enjoy the listen !

Greetings,

Stefan. 

Sound is the artform

Ever since performances were held indoor, people have been trying to control the light for their shows. But many people consider Adolphe Appia(1862-1928) as the founder of Lighting Design. His approach towards this element of stage play changed the game forever. He didn't use lamps only to make something visible. No, he used the light itself as a scenographic element. It was not (only) the items that were shined upon that were important. It was the light itself... 

Adolphe Appia - Orphée et Euridyce de Glück

“I don’t want to make the same record over and over again,” Rhiannon Giddens said to Rolling Stone Magazine about her latest album with Francesco Turrisi. 'There is no Other' is indeed something else. To say even more : It stands out !

Like all of the new albums I buy, I also listen to this one now mostly in the car. While driving I noticed something peculiar started to happen. When traffic was easy, I noticed there were parts of the drive I hadn't been aware of, because of the music. Well now, for traffic safety it is probably not OK, but it actually proofs how deep I'm sucked into this music.

I don't really listen to these songs separately, don't really focus on the lyrics, but I am deeply absorbed by the music itself. Music that is defined by each sound you hear, and it is so well stored on tape for us. That's amazing...! As if the energy of those days in Dublin has been recorded. With different energy, we probably would have had a different audible experience.Rhiannon and Francesco have created their universe with this album.

Just like Appia made light itself the expression,
...Like poetry can be defining by the words itself
...Like so many dancers with whom the movement itself is more exciting then the total choreography,
 I received an album where each sound is more defining my experience then the whole... I received an album where sound itself is the artform.


It is therefore that this album stands out. I enjoy it the most when there is nothing to distract me. I am going to listen to this one in the dark one day I think, with nothing else but sound, as if it is being played in my living room. It can only be better with Rhiannon and Francesco being really in the room, and nothing distracts me...

'There is No Other' deserves to be performed with the grace of a classical performance, on the program these wonderful songs.

There goes the bell to take your seats. Do you hear it ?
Parterre, seat D22,
and I slight in to my soft red seat, with all these lovely people around me.

Lights go out...
We forget the world around us for a little while.

Total dark, and then there is sound.
Gently a lightbeam becomes visible, and leads me to hands moving on an instrument. Oh to see these subtile human movements.

A beautiful voice from somewhere...
"Ten Thousand Stories..."
And slowly that voice gets an equally beautiful face.
Each expression, movement, note, sigh,... We are in that world.

Rhiannon and Francesco's world.

My first listen to 'There is no other'

What you will be reading is actually an experiment. I am typing my stream of thoughts during my first listen of this album. I also feel it honest to not edit too much of all this. You will be able to read this within the hour after I have done listening to it. 

This could possibly become one of my strangest posts, but I was thinking, that maybe there is no more honest way to write about a record. 

OK, here we go.  

With high expectations it is only right now that I'm hearing this album for the first time. 'Ten Thousand Voices' has just begun, and I'm immediatly struck by the clarity of the recording. It genuinly sounds like Rhiannon and Francesco are standing in front of me, but strangly and in contrast with that fact : Rhiannon's chanting takes me away in to an imaginary reality.

These songs are taking me, like a Gypsy, around the world. It is the untouchable proof that there is beauty all over the world, and if all this beauty comes together, magic happens. It truly is overwhelming ! If you sit down with this, and listen actively, then "Where are we ?"  Yes, I am sitting in my livingroom, and I know this was recorded in a studio. But these are physical facts. Where in this world is my mind ? A word of advise : Close your eyes when you listen to this record. It will put a spell on you.

I don't know how close these recordings are to the ideas Rhiannon and Francesco had, but it feels so genuine, so true! I believe every sound I hear.

Wow ! 'Pizzica di San Vito' is shaking me out of my mindstream. I didn't see that one coming. It feels like a I'm being pulled into a dance, where my bones are not yet accustomed to. Neither can I resist it. The same thing happens with the piano in 'Black Swan'. I just thought I absorbed that song, and then that Piano happens. It's amazing.

I really love these Arabic influences. You know something ? This album is really hypnotising me. How do you do that Ryan and Joe ? How do you put this atmosphere on tape ? And I know you'll say something like : "It takes musicians like Rhiannon and Francesco, and magic happens !" . But how do you channel that magic in my livingroom, in my mind ?

Oh wait, 'Little Margaret'. The fullness of that sound.... I'm letting it all come in, but that sound is going through my entire body. It has something to do with the frequency of the instrument that is interfering with the vains in my body. It's making them tremble. I already had that with the first single 'I'm on my way'. That song is the authority walking in the room, and you can do nothing else then accept it.

All that is left is Amen in 'He will see you soon'.

What have you recorded back in Ireland ! Were all the elements of th Universe exactly in place those days ? This is amazing !

It's quiet in the room now, but not in me. It doesn't let me go.

There is no Other

Oh Yes I'm excited !

Have you heard the first single I'm on my way from the upcoming Rhiannon Giddens &Francesco Turrisi album ?



It sounds impressive !
Really :  Rhiannon, Francesco, Ryan and Joe; What a powerful sound ! song !

I can't wait to hear the rest of the album entitled 'There is no Other'.

It will be released on May 3th, and is already available as a pre-sale.

Listen to a conversation with Rhiannon and Francesco on the label's website : www.nonesuch.com/

And now, you can find me knock-out somewhere in a corner. 

5 Years of blogging, 5 open endings.

Today, 5 years ago, I started building the Time is a Lion blog. Since I am a sucker for marking such passings of time, I'm offering exactly that in this post.

Looking back at it all, I posted some stories where we don't know how it evolved further on. Stories with an open ending.
It seemed a good moment to try and offer the follow-up story, and there was only one person who could offer such insides..., I'm gratefull Joe was open for the idea.

Will you finally read the closure of these stories ? Who knows, but maybe new doors will open...

• Signature Guitar.

 

In oktober 2014 I asked Joe a few questions regarding Vintage Guitars. At the time, there was talk of a 'Joe Henry' signature.

"It is still in the design phase, but Tony (Klassen) and I are working on a model together based on a Regal guitar from the mid-30s, but with variations based on my favorite Gibson guitars –most notably a short-scale."

After that, we never heard anything anymore about it. Today it is totally off the radar. What happened to it ?

post : joe-henry-on-vintage-guitars

JH : This is still an idea that Tony and I kick around; but essentially, I believe he became so busy meeting customer orders (New Era is a one-man operation), that investing time into a new design ––which typically could require the completion of numerous prototypes–– has not yet been feasbile. but I am still open to the process. I love both the guitars he has built for me, and Tony is as well an exceedingly kind man.

• Vinyl Records

In an interview in 2015 about Vinyl records, Joe explained that 'Invisible Hour' didn't get a Vinyl release because it was too expensive at the time. We are only a few years later, and both 'Thrum' and 'Shine a light' received their Vinyl release, both with an exquisite artwork. What changed in the meantime ?

post : thoughts-on-vinyl


JH : From my vantage point, what has changed the field a bit is that vinyl records are now significantly out-selling CD's; and as more labels and artists are making vinyl availability a priority, more manufacturing facilities are opening their doors, thus making an LP option less expensive, and requiring less lead time to produce. Not very many years ago, there were only a couple of manufacturing plants in the whole world still pressing music into vinyl grooves, and they were servicing every label’s demand, big and small; and as such it was a pricey proposition. It took a great deal of time from delivering a master to receiving vinyl refs for approval. and some of us just couldn’t reconcile the money or the time.

Is there still chance 'Invisible Hour' is going to be released on vinyl ?
 
JH : I would sincerely love to have issued “invisible hour” on vinyl, and would still like to. I happen to think it is sonically quite a beautiful recording. Ryan Freeland did exactly what I asked him to do: Catch all the beauty in the collisions of string interplay, and the warmth of our friendship ––and let’s not f... any sounds up just for the sake of doing so. let’s be unabashedly beautiful, if we can manage it.Yes, I’d still love to. but given that I released that record on my own label (in partnership with my management 'Work Song'), it would require an investment from my camp of resources that I’d sooner see going to recording a new album.

Frankly ––the lion’s share of songs for such having already been written, I think.


The growth of the 'Vinyl industry' happened indeed quickly these last years. Even your album 'Shufletown' got released on LP.. 

JH : Well, I had absolutely nothing to do with the reissue of ‘shuffletown’ onto vinyl.  In fact, I didn’t know it had happened ––or was even being discussed–– until someone (No idea who that could've been) posted on social media a new physical copy. I still don’t have possession of one…haven’t heard its remaster, nor a single pressing ref. 

OK, I'll make you an offer you can't refuse : Next time you are in our regions, we must listen to it together.  
All kidding aside, such issues bring me to the following dilemma. Take for example a listener like me. When I buy music, I'd prefer that the money I invest, is fairly shared towards the artists who made it. Off course musicians, but there is also artwork,... What do you think, is the best purchase to do ? A legal download or streaming format, CD, LP, ... ?

JH : There isn’t a quick answer to this, given that none of us can know, when buying/streaming music, just what deals might be in place for any given artist that might best insure that the revenue stream flows as close to the artist as possible; but I am of the belief (and it is based more on instinct than on research) that vinyl is more typically instigated directly either by an artist and/or in partnership with. 

• Heath Cullen

It is almost a year ago, when the fundings for musical projects in Australia where made public. One of these projects was a record by Heath Cullen, Joe Henry and Jim Keltner.

post : heath-cullen-jim-keltner-joe

I was wondering, if it was already recorded or planned.

JH : It is a project I still dearly hope to do. Heath and I continue to look for an opportunity of time that works for us both. As well, we collectively have some grand ambition for this project, and a number of very particular people (Jimmy Keltner not least of which) who we are still figuring how to get all in the same room together. We could do it in pieces, of course; but both Heath and I feel committed to at least trying to go for some real-time alchemy, if we can manage it.

• Steve Lippman

A Couple of months ago, unfortunatly Steve Lippman passed away.   

"He (Joe) became part of the creative team of an ambitious project of mine not yet made." 

post : mid-summer-update-2018

JH : The sudden passing of Steve Lippman was and remains a shock to those of us who loved and admired him. Beyond the work he did for me around “tiny voices” and “thrum,” we had been in conversation for years about his desire to make a documentary film around Judy Garland’s seminal appearance at Carnegie hall in 1961. He was interested in me writing the score and curating the period source music. I think Steve’s vision was to not only look at Garland’s powerhouse performance on an historic night, but to look as well at the times surrounding it...  that provided its context. It’s a project that was dear to Steve’s heart, and I believe he had every intention of realizing it, no matter how long it took.

Do you think you, or someone else, might do something with the idea in the future ? Perhaps to honor Steve ?

JH : I can’t imagine this ever being undertaken without Steve. It was based on his vision, and a fundamental and wholly personal belief in the transformational aspects of that performance from Judy. Like a poem never written by a particular poet: No one else can step in and imagine its weather system.
 

• Writing in Ireland

So Joe, you had a writing residency in Ireland. Now how do we have to imagine such a residency ?

post : writing-in-ireland 

JH : When my wife Melanie and I were on the west coast of Ireland to celebrate our 30th anniversary, in may of 2017, we spent part of our time in the small seaside village of Ballyvaughan, where we happen to have a dear friend living. While there and in a pub one evening, I met the dean of the local Burren College of Art; and he invited me to think about my coming back there for a writing residency. He explained it to me over time that I would have no real obligations other than to show up with whatever it was I was interested in writing, and just…doing it there; be a presence on campus, where I might interact ––as much or as little as I cared to–– with the young art students. In exchange, the school would provide me a studio space at the school, a rental cottage for me and my wife, right by the sea.

Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity. I had an office in which to write, and I showed up there monday through friday, from roughly 10AM until 5:50PM, for a month; and I wrote. a lot of poems and several songs that I think will serve me well. I also did a lexture one afternoon for the students (mostly visual artists) about how I engage with the creative process. and then on the last weekend there, I invited in from Dublin both Lisa Hannigan and Glen Hansard to do a songwriting workshop with me, and then a shared performance that evening, as a benefit for the school.

Never underestimate the power of (creative) people around you. I personally believe that everything that happens in your live is important for your further evolution.  It is impossible to measure, but at the same time unpayable. I'm sure your presence had an important influence for those students.

JH : If my presence at the art college in Ballyvaughan had any lasting impact on any student, it would be without my realizing it ––and well beyond my means to quantify its value. I’d like to think it meant something to someone other than me that I was there; but i don’t think I could ever know it.

That is also an aspect of something unmeasurable. The entire trip sounds like a wondeful experience.

JH : It was one of the great autumns of our lives, both Melanie and I agree.





Greetings,
Stefan.

2019 Grammy nominations

2 Albums, produced by Joe, are to be found among the Grammmy 2019 Nominees.

• Joan Baez is nominated with her album 'Whislte down the Wind' for Best Folk Album.

•  'All The Things That I Did And All The Things That I Didn't Do', from the Milk Carton kids is nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

• Engineers : Ryan Freeland & Kenneth Pattengale

• Mastering engineer :  Kim Rosen

The Grammy winners will be announced on February 10, 2019.

Already congratulations for everyone involved in making these records !

Greetings,
Stefan. 

Studio version of the 'Shine a Light' songs.

Hey all,

Well, did I almost choke in my coffee this morning....

I was reading an interview in Hot Press with Gavin Glass, And there I read :

The studio he’s talking about is the rightly-famed Orphan Recordings, where he’s steered a myriad of Irish and international acts. “The Eskies, The Young Folk, The Sprockets, anyone and everyone. My favourite is probably Billy Bragg and Joe Henry. They toured America doing field recordings, Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly songs, but they couldn’t use it so they re-did the whole thing in one day in Orphan, facing each other over two microphones.

Have we all been fooled ?... I couldn't believe it !

What is it, that we are actually hearing on that album? Real field recordings? or a manipulated studio recording?  3 People can answer that question, and I asked 2 of them : Joe himself and Ryan Freeland.

I can now say, that the words in that interview are (not a little bit) misleading. Joe and Billy did indeed record all those songs again in a studio, but the versions on the 'shine a light' album are all really recorded during the trainride.

In fact, the recording in the studio happened near the end of the U.K. leg of the 'shine a light' tour.  That implies that : While Joe and Billy were recording these songs in the studio; the 'shine a light' album was already on sale for months.

So, why make these studiorecordings ?

JH :

It was recorded in case a use presents itself for the songs without the travel noise. 
If and only if....

Today, there are no specific plans on the horizon for those versions. 

Well, now I can close my eyes, finish my coffee, and imagine I'm at a railroad station. Don't you just love that background noise ? 

Greetings,

Stefan

Edit August 2nd : 
Today, apologies have been made towards the artists, and a promise for necessary changes has been done. As for now, the article is not anymore available to everyone, only to subscribed readers. 

The Milk Carton Kids & Band

A while ago I already posted some little insights on the fact, that a new album by The Milk Carton Kids, produced by Joe, featured also other people then Kenneth and Joey alone.

Over the last few weeks they teased us a bit with short clips on their social media. Today they gave us a small video from in the studio, presenting us everyone around.

pic.twitter.com/Fg0iwceQXq

— The Milk Carton Kids (@MilkCartonKids) April 16, 2018

We can see :
Paul Kowert from the punch brothers : Double Bass
Dennis Crouch : Double Bass
Russ Pahl : Pedal Steel Guitar, Mandolin and Electric Guitar
Brittany Haas : Fiddle and Mandolin
Pat Sansone from WILCO : Hammond Organ, Mellotron and Piano
Nat Smith : Cello, Octave Mandolin and Hammond Organ
Jay Bellerose : Drums
Levon Henry : Reeds

And off Course : Joe Henry with Ryan Freeland behind the Desk .
In my earlier post we also saw Lindsay Loubelly singing with them. On the musicstand in front of her, a song entitled 'Big Time'.

We are expecting 'The Milk Carton Kids + band'. That's for sure now.

Congratulation Ryan Freeland (and Rose Cousins)

A well deserved congratulations is in order !

Today the Grammy nominations, 2018 have been announced.

Ryan Freeland is 1 of the nominees for 'Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical'. This for his work on the album 'Natural Conclusion' from Rose Cousins. You guessed it: produced by Joe.

On January 28, the winners will be announced.

Good Luck !

Amy Helm

Joe is producing Amy Helm's new album.

We love @amyhelmmusic - she's making a new record - produced by @joehenrymusic - with some wonderful artists - #jennifercondos, @tylerchester, #jaybellerose, @rjfreeland, #adamminkoff, @doylebramhall2 - we were honoured to contribute some harmonies #studiob

Een bericht gedeeld door Birds of Chicago (@birdsofchicago) op 17 Aug 2017 om 8:45 PDT

Behind the desk there is (off course) Ryan Freeland and besides Joe's regular musicians, Birds of Chicago have also contributed to it.

Now Listen to that voice ! (and try to sit still)

Ryan Freeland shines his light !

March 2016, Joe Henry and Billy Bragg boarded the train from Chicago to L.A. and recorded the album, “shine a light, Field recordings from the great American railroad”. They brought us wonderful versions of this true Musical Heritage. But they were not alone on the train. Amongst them, for example, was also Ryan Freeland who recorded the music. You can see him sitting somewhere in the back in the videoclips that were made to promote the album. Ryan is Joe’s longtime collaborator in the recording studio. Without Ryan Freeland, even more so for this album, we would not be able to hear these recordings the way we can hear them today at home. I asked him, if he would like to bring us his story from that trainride, and he generously accepted...

ryanfreeland.com

I was thrilled to be asked to work with Billy Bragg again and, as always, honored to work with my friend Joe Henry.
It was also an interesting challenge to think of a way to bring my love of recording onto a train. I needed to find a way to capture the feel of the train stations, platforms, and compartments while keeping the performances sonically engaging. 

Making a record on a train is completely different than doing it in a studio. They asked Ryan over a month in advance. So now he could start and figure out a way to do it…. 

When I was in high school at Interlochen Arts Academy I recorded a lot of the musician’s college audition tapes. Back then I had a Yamaha cassette four track which I purchased with the help of my folks and money I made from mowing lawns.
I also have always been fascinated with the Lomax field recordings and the fact that he had figured out a way to get a rig that fitted in a car and ran off the car battery. So I was familiar with those recordings and techniques and was intrigued by the idea of doing my modern twist on the idea of field recording. 

The whole rig needed to fit into a case that conformed to airline checked baggage limitations. I had a second case the same size with the custom Latch Lake mic stand they built for me, as well as some cables. That bag was tricky trying to stay under the 50-pound airline weight restrictions. 
I had traveled to New Orleans with a much bigger rig for recording at Alan Toussaint’s house about a year before he died. That rig was very heavy and resulted in about $250 of extra airline checked baggage fees. After that experience I swore I’d try and do my best to keep things within the airline restrictions.
So I tried to keep everything as simple and streamlined as possible so I could get to the spot and be up and running in just over a minute. You can’t believe how long that minute seemed when everyone is looking at you and waiting for you to indicate that you were recording. A simpler rig would have made things much easier on me but I really had this 4 mic idea and wanted to see if I could pull it off given all the space and time restraints. It was a really interesting set of variables and I was really happy with how it turned out.(1)


Now, the hardest part was figuring out how to record 4 phantom powered ribbon microphones on a laptop all completely powered from batteries. I had recently watched some YouTube clips on the AEA Nuvo series mics and was very impressed. I immediately thought they would be perfect for this project because of their natural musical soundscape, their robustness, and their solid windscreens.
I did a lot of experimenting because of all of the variables and the intense time constraints once we jumped off the train to start recording before they called “all aboard”. Days before we started the trip I went over to Joe’s house with the whole rig and did some test recording... I tested everything at my studio,... at the hotel room the morning we were heading out on the train... And even with all of that : There were problems as soon I tried firing the rig up for the first time once I set it up in the first train station. I had just tested it 30 minutes before !!
I finally got it working but my stress level was an all time high. And then I looked at that beautiful building and heard Billy & Joe singing in my headphones on that first day at Union Station in Chicago. Looking back now, it’s my most wonderful memory from that trip.

videoclip 'Hobo's Lullaby'

 This was a great project to be part of. The most important thing for me was the feeling of comradery I experienced. There’s nothing like being a part of something great and being allowed and trusted to bring the best of yourself to the group.

And so the journey began, … Was it pure concentration and focus, or was he able to enjoy everything he was experiencing ?

There were plenty of times I would look around at the beautiful places we were, listening to two amazing musicians singing great songs and thinking about how lucky I was. 
We could all only listen on headphones one at a time. This made it such a personal and intimate experience. Anytime I looked over to Joe or Billy when they were listening to playbacks back on the train, they would always give me a thumbs up so I knew they were happy.
But most of the time I lived in shear terror that the recording equipment would fail or that the train would leave before I could get my mics packed and back aboard. At one point I almost got run over by a luggage cart, which is not something that usually happens on recording sessions.
 
You know, The thing that made me most aware of how special it was? It was when we got off the train in Austin at the end of the first leg of the trip. We had been this insular group of people living, sleeping, eating, and recording in this very unique way. Once we got off the train, knowing that we would not be getting back on until the next leg started, it was a very odd experience.
I remember being out to dinner that night with a bunch of other people and feeling weird. Once we got back on the train with just us I felt good again. I wasn’t ready to go back to the world outside of the train. I knew then, that it would be a life changing experience. I was doing something I really cared about with people I really cared about.

Promovideo 'shine a light'

Billy and Joe are both monster songwriters and encyclopedias of music over the decades. They live and breath that stuff every day, I live and breath microphones and compressors.






It is indeed a very special project. I stopped calling it the album or tour, because I felt it had grown to something more important. I went to see Billy and Joe’s show in Portsmouth where that became clear to me. I wondered if Ryan felt the same way, if the scale of it all was already in the air during the recordings. Where they aware of the power of these songs ?

I agree. Music has a lot of power! Joe and Billy are great spokespeople for what’s good and what’s bad about their respective countries. Music can be a very effective way to communicate thoughts and ideas. And a great song can change and affect people as much as any other work of art.
But when it comes to projects I work on : I live in a bit of bubble. As an engineer you aren’t usually aware of how the records affect people. Every once in a while, someone will send me a nice note about how much they like something I’ve worked on. But most of the time these albums just get sent out into the world and I’m not very aware of how important (if at all) they are to people.
I will say that I had a powerful experience being part of this album and that’s really the most important thing for me.

Let me assure you Ryan : don’t underestimate the influence of your work. You’re way up there for me, and I think many others also.
Already thank you for this, now a last quick one : studio or fieldrecordings ?

I’ve made recordings I’m really happy with in all sorts of places. 
Aimee Mann’s album 'Lost in Space' was made mostly in my one-bedroom apartment. Ray LaMontagne’s album 'God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise' was made in Ray’s living room. Almost everything I’ve done with Joe Henry over the last decade was done in his basement or versions of my home studio. 
I don’t think the physical space has as much to do with the recording as the people who make the album. It’s really the specific group of individuals coming together to put their passion, heart, and soul into something that really matters to them.
I just love recording. Wherever or however it needs to happen. I would never want to limit myself by thinking there’s a right and a wrong way to record.



(1) :For more technical info on Ryan's set up visit :  mixonline

Congratulations Ryan and Kim !

The Grammy nominees for 2017 are announced.

In the category 'Best Engineered album, Non Classical', 1 of the nominations was for Dig in Deep, by Bonnie Raitt.
Engineer : Ryan Freeland
Mastering : Kim Rosen

This fact alone is already an acknowledgement for them, so : congratulaions !

Joe Henry produced 1 track on this album, and he played guitar on that song (You've changed my mind).

Those of you following Joe's career know that Ryan is Joe's right hand in the studio, but I don't know if everyone is aware that also Kim Rosen is a returning name, when it comes to Joe's studiowork.
She  mastered almost every album Joe produced for a while now. (Chely Wright, Shine a light, Birds of Chicago, ...)