"12 Days of Holly Happy Days" |
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Holly Happy Days everyone! Here are 12 days of 'Holly Happy Days' recording sessions which took place in May 2010.
Here some of us are, gathered in the studio to arrange a song. From left to right: Carol Isaac's leg and accordian, Luke Bulla, Amy. and Alison Brown. Before we recorded each song, we would get together in this main studio room and work on arrangements. This is where the players' ideas for their parts originated. Peter Collins (producer) listened in and made suggestions about song structure and vibe. Once we got the shape of the arrangement, we would go to our isolation recording booths at the same time and begin to get song 'takes'. Regardless of what we came up with at the beginning , we would often change parts and song structure once we got in to the booths, began playing together, and could really hear how the song was coming together. You can see in the photo that there are many instruments strewn about. At any point, we could pick up a different instrument and try something new on the spot to see how Peter and everyone else liked it. You can also see Alison taking notes on her chart. These Nashville players, and Carol, our Brit, are world class players who write and read charts second nature.
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2 Tomorrow we will look inside the control room at a couple of the players.
'I Feel the Christmas Spirit'
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3 Tomorrow we will take a look at the process of arranging and recording 'Angels We Have Heard on High'.
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4 Tomorrow we go into the control room again.
'Angels We Have Heard on High'
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5 Tomorrow, we will watch video from the recording of 'Peace Child". Emily's Dad makes his debut on an Indigo Girl's record!
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6 Tomorrow we visit the nexus of gathering again: the control room.
'Peace Child'
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7 Tomorrow, we will watch the footage that Sulli shot of us recording ‘O Holy Night’.
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8 Tomorrow we will look at photos of Jim Brock and Alison Brown.
'O Holy Night'
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9 We have known Alison for a while now. She played on ‘Poseidon and the Bitter Bug’ acoustic versions. Emily used to listen to her records up at her N. Georgia cabin years and years ago, so it was a thrill to actually get to work together. Alison comes with an arsenal of banjo-like instruments. Listening, in the control room, we were always blown away by her parts. Tomorrow, we will watch the process of recording ‘In the Bleak Mid Winter’.
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10 In the control room, we listen to what we have done so far and, while the structure and arrangement are what we want, we decide that we can get a better performance. Peter is quite adept at recognizing a stellar performance and, also, when we have ‘peaked’ and probably can’t better what we have. The process with this group is quite democratic. However, it is important to have a producer and engineer whose opinions you completely trust. We have that with Peter and Trina. We laugh a lot, but in the end, we are serious about doing the best we can. Tomorrow, we will look at a picture of Emily and her dad, in the control room and petting Dave, Peter’s dog.
'In the Bleak Mid Winter'
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11 You can see how much Emily loves her dad in this picture. She is also proud of him for playing so well in this new and, often intimidating, environment. One of the best parts of making an IG record is getting to invite people to come join us. Along with Don, there were guest appearances on ‘Holly Happy Days’ by Janis Ian, Mary Gauthier, and Brandi Carlile. We also have friends and family drop by from time to time. It is always a communal affair with us. Tomorrow, for the 12th Day, we will watch some of the process of recording ‘Your Holiday Song’.
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'Your Holiday Song'
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