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.
Across more than 100 tracks, MEMPHIS captures Elvis from the earliest stages of his career at Sun Records/Memphis Recording Service to his final recordings in Graceland’s Jungle Room, with stops at other iconic studios such as American and...
It is often challenging within a review period to fully explore a piece of gear and integrate it into the daily workflow. It's not that reviewers won't use the feature set and put it to task in at least a few applications, but to truly get to know...
Simultaneously making apparent the depths of both my dorkiness and my loyalty, I steadfastly stood by Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" all through its various tribulations over the last couple years -- first with its questionable placement on the OC,...
There have been so many great releases in 2017 that it is hard to pick just a top five or ten! This is no way definitive year end wrap-up, but here are a few of this year's Tape Op staff favorites. Happy listening!
Larry Crane
Roger Waters-...
Vintage King recently celebrated their 30 year anniversary. Like most things, there is a story behind what has now become a fantastic retailer of both vintage and modern recording equipment. I caught up with founder Michael Nehra on a Zoom call and...
Dear Tape Op Reader,
We wanted to let you, the folks we make this magazine for, aware of a fundamental change in our business.
Short version: We are cutting our ad rates nearly in half.
Why?
Here's the long version: Tape Op is an...
Arooj Aftab's Night Reign
Arooj Aftab is a four time Grammy-nominated artist we featured in Tape Op issue #157. With Pakistani roots, she sings in Urdu and English, and became one of my favorite vocalists the moment I saw her performing on a live...
Larry Crane and Geoff Stanfield discuss mixing analog vs. in the box vs. a hybrid approach in the latest episode of Creative Recording With Tape Op!
This episode is made possible with support from our friends at BURL Audio.