s e t o n Anna McGarrigle (button accordion) and Kate McGarrigle (banjo) tracking with Emmylou Harris. g n reunion of Harris’ legendary Hot Band for the 2004 i ASCAP Country Music Awards show, where Harris was presented with the Founders Award. d “Since the award was about history, she asked me to come in to supervise the rehearsal and to re-create r TOGETHER AGAIN the Hot Band session vibe,” Ahern explains. “After the show, we were sitting at dinner when she asked me o By Rick Clark to do another album.” c Few artists in any genre have created a body of work By that time, the two had already reunited for %--9,/5as substantive and ric(!22)3h as Emmylou Harris. Over the a number of recordings for various projects: Robert e years, Harris has mined great songs from folk, coun- Redford and Ethan Hawke movies, duets with Wil- try and pop music traditions and showcased their lie Nelson and Rodney Crowell, and, with Kate and r !.$compellin"2)!.g power w!(%ith her2. own unique readings. Anna McGarrigle, three songs for the re-issue of She has also been a selfless champion of many art- Harris’ luminous Christmas album Light of the Stable. ists and writers, and has written a number of superior Especially moving was her version of Joni Mitchell’s songs herself. Harris has received many awards for “The Magdalene Laundries” and a richly imagistic her work, and this year she was inducted into the track called “The Connection,” which appeared on Country Music Hall of Fame. The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches and Harris’ string of hits stretches back to 1975, when Highways, and earned Harris a 2005 Grammy for Best she began working with producer Brian Ahern on a Female Country Vocal Performance. successful run of 11 albums that included a number of “We’ve always worked incredibly well together,” classic tracks and hits like “Together Again,” “Boulder says Harris. “Even from those first sessions, when I to Birmingham,” “Sweet Dreams,” “If I Could Only Win was so unsure of myself, it wasn’t long for me to feel Your Love,” “Two More Bottles of Wine,” “Beneath comfortable because one of Brian’s many talents is Still Waters” and “Too Far Gone.” White Shoes, which his ability to sense an artist’s strengths and encour- was released 25 years ago, age them without putting you on the spot. He allows was the last album the two you to grow at your own pace and gives you just made together. Since then, enough room so that you don’t hang yourself, but Harris has put out many you also start to get confidence. I really think Brian fine and critically acclaimed understands that every artist is completely unique and albums, but it is her work has a vision down there somewhere. He helps you with Ahern that has proven discover that by giving you all the tools. I felt I had to be the most influential a safety net, that he was listening to everything, and and enduring over time. sometimes just him not saying anything was exactly During the past few what you needed. It’s a very nurturing presence.” years, Harris and Ahern All I Intended to Be celebrates some of the people have occasionally revisited who have journeyed with Harris over the years on their creative dance, and her artistic path, including Dolly Parton, Vince Gill most recently it has resulted and musicians Glen D. Hardin, Stuart Duncan, Steve in a beautiful new release Fishell, Richard Bennett (who has produced Harris) titled All I Intended to Be. and the Seldom Scene. The album also showcases Brain Ahern and Dolly Parton The seeds for this new col- Harris’ talent for gatherering great songs, as well as laboration began during a —CONTINUED ON PAGE 115 108 MIX, April 2008 • www.mixonline.com recording n o t e s ever think. And we were buddies right up to the day he died.” Owen Bradley passed away in 1998. His brother Harold, now VP of the American Federation of Musicians, is quick to point out that he’s still making musical memories, but he knows that those days at the Quonset Hut and in Bradley’s Barn, working side-by-side with his brother, were some of the best. “One thing about Loretta,” Harold Brad- ley says, “when you walked in the studio, you were going to get a hug, and when you left, you were going to get a hug. We all became like a family. The business part was secondary to the personal part of going in and meeting an old friend and having a party Welcome to the control room: Ahern during overdubs at The Village. and making a few records.” N was also a highly sought-after mobile facility with an LA-2A. An RCA 44 was placed on used by such diverse acts as Black Sabbath, the floor looking up at the bass with a big Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand and James block of foam behind it so the backside of Taylor. the mic heard nothing. That was run through Even with these options, however, sev- a Tube-Tech CL1B compressor. “Glen finds a eral basic tracks on Harris’ latest required way to be musical with one note at a time,” FROM PAGE 108 a larger band, and for those Ahern booked says Ahern admiringly. The producer places her own gifts as a songwriter. the Sound Emporium in Nashville, where he his microphones on Gramma insulating floor Harris has long kept a huge library of produced Ricky Skaggs and a Number One risers designed to hold guitar amplifiers. %--9stashed s,o/5ng-fi(!22)3nds on what she calls “mate- country record for Johnny Cash. “I like re- Guitarist Bennett was situated in an all- rial cassettes,” and as always she shows her cording at home, but not playing host,” says wood room designed for string sections with !.$extraor"2)!.dinary kn!(%ack f2.or taking others’ songs Ahern. “So when the contingent exceeds two four bidirectional ribbon mics to capture his and making them feel like they came from people, I book a studio.” Ahern mounted his sound. According to Sound Emporium engi- her heart. Ahern’s empathetic production 16-track headstack on Sound Emporium’s neer Kyle Ford, “For the close stereo sound, and arrangements go a long way to making Studer A827 to record bass and drums at 15 Brian hung two RCA Varicoustics on the only All I Intended to Be one of the most emo- ips on 14-inch reels. “I like to use 14-inch stereo bar I’ve ever seen like this—at differ- tionally satisfying albums Harris has done in reels because it cuts down on tape waste ent heights, on the 12th fret and at the sound years. and while you are changing smaller reels, hole. Brian had Richard face the curved Six of the tracks on the new album are the best performances could be slipping wood wall, where he spread out a pair of Harris’ own compositions. This is an area away.” Wes Dooley’s 44RcneX microphones. Huge where she has shown tremendous growth Another member of the creative team vintage Turner hybrid microphones faced during the past several years, as her songs who has contributed to the excellence of Kenny Vaughn’s amplifiers, which included on Red Dirt Girl and Stumble Into Grace this new album, as well as most of Ahern’s Brian’s Space Echo feeding his Fender De- show. One song of All I Intended to Be, titled productions since 1975, is engineer/mixer luxe.” “Gold,” is a stripped-down “three chords and Donivan Cowart. “Donivan puts up with me. Stinson, one of Nashville’s consummate the truth” gem of classic country. “Those are I’m getting old and irascible,” states Ahern. session drummers, observes, “the first ques- the hardest songs to write,” she comments, “But the common lingo tends to build after tion Brian asked when he hired me was, “because you’re working in a very small 30 years. He’s become an irreplaceable as- ‘Where do you want to be set up?’ That framework and you can’t get clever. You set.” question never gets asked! Nothing about have to come out and say exactly what you To ensure that there would be plenty of this was typical Nashville. Emmy and Brian mean.” creative sparks, Ahern brought in a group of still like to approach music as an art form, Most of the work on All I Intended to Be world-class players. He notes wryly, “If you whereas Nashville—if I can make a politi- took place at Ahern’s Easter Island Surround are the smartest person in the room, you’re cal statement—is about doing it quick, fast, studio, which got its name from the 8-foot working with the wrong people.” Musicians formula: ‘Let’s go with all these plug-ins.’” stacks of gear that surround the control room included original Hot Band member Glenn Stinson also overdubbed drums at like the ancient Pacific Island statues. Among D. Hardin (keys), Glen Worf (bass), Harry Ahern’s house. “When Harry is overdub- the projects Ahern has done there are Harris’ Stinson (drums), Richard Bennett (guitar) bing to something previously recorded, he Producer’s Cut (a DVD-Audio surround col- and Kenny Vaughan (guitar). can hear, sympathize and play through the lection of classic Harris tracks) and surround Ahern miked Worf’s upright bass with his center of the mayhem,” says Ahern.