Woodland is the name of Gillian Welch and David Rawling’s studio in Nashville, and it’s also the name of their new album. On Woodland, the duo continue to show their deep connection as collaborators. The album has a wide open sound that features their seemlessly blended and intimately recorded vocals, and the light touch of a backing band that includes drums, bass, pedal steel, banjo, and airy strings on tunes like "What We Had" and "Hashtag". "Lawman" and "The Bells and the Birds" have a lovely somberness, and the album as a whole has a "live off the floor" feeling to it that we hear less and less of these days. Woodland will stay in our "recently played" column for the forseeable future.
We interviewed Gillian and Dave back in 2001 for Tape Op #85.
Tape Op is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the art of record making.
The Decemberists' ninth album, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, is out now. In 2003 I got a call from Colin Meloy about maybe recording his band, The Decemberists. Tape Op contributor, Adam Selzer, had already recorded some tracks for what...
(me and Elliott rolling in Jackpot!'s original MCI JH-16, Feb. 1997)
As most readers of Tape Op may have picked up on by now, I have been involved in the archiving and cataloging of the music of my late friend, Elliott Smith. Here's an interview I...
I was on some webpage at the studio the other day, dealing with plug-in upgrades or such, when I noticed Google was placing profiled ads in front of me. Ironically, as I was in a pro studio, most were trying to refer me to recoridng schools (a bit...
In issue 32 we had a short review of Linda Smith's current CD. Even though we meant to get an interview with Linda in the mag at some point, for some reason it never quite happened. Jump to 2011 and Linda has assembled a site full of MP3's of her...
From Kitchen Op Magazine's letters section:
I just wanted to write in to chime in on the debate about home cooking. As a professional chef, with many years of time invested in learning my craft and thousands of dollars...
After reading Larry's "Eliminate Variables" End Rant from last issue, I was compelled to write a response. Don't get me wrong, I agree completely with everything he said; so before you read any further, revisit the back page of issue #92.
I...
Speaking of the art world, reader Halsey Burgund sent a link to his installation that “involves some unconventional recording techniques, mainly doing it wirelessly and using lots of open-source and customized software.” Looks like fun...
I'm in the middle of cataloging 1.5 TB of audio files. This is the work I do for the Estate of Elliott Smith. Two computers keep Pro Tools on the top one and FileMaker Pro and Excel for track sheets on the bottom one. Otherwise the MacBook Pro...
In issue #62, Josh Boughey reviewed the Monome 40h, a minimalist button-and-light interface which can be used to run musical applications. It's absolutely captivating in its simplicity; I'm writing this as an outsider, but as far as I can tell, the...