Hi Bob, I agree with you about Laura; I attended a workshop she gave out here in Summer 2002 and she's a great teacher. I have her CD "The Merry Making" which I like quite a bit, but I was initially disappointed in it because I'd first heard her play for a dance I attended and her playing on the CD was nothing like what she did at the dance; that was much more spirited and jazzy, where the CD is more polished and much tamer. I suppose some of that is just the difference between sitting down in the studio and recording vs. playing live for a group of appreciative dancers!
I've always been of the mind that a good studio recording should capture the energy and organized chaos of live performances. It can be done, but it's a hard thing to do.
I don't think it's a matter of skill with the musicians, alot of top notch pro session players here in Los Angeles and Nashville make studio recordings that sound totally dead. They just too tight sounding..
Maybe it's a matter of production.. I'm learning that there are alot of tricks that can be done to make things come across alot more live on studio recordings. For instance, instead of plugging straight into the board, running through a really warm tube amp and then mic'ing it.
Another thing that adds is to mic the players feet. Ashley MacIssac's recordings where you can hear his feet, are definately live sounding..
It's too easy nowadays to load everything into Pro Tools and basically build a really sterile, really "perfect" album straight off the computer.. Plus there's the habit they have of seriously compressing everything in the mix, to where it sounds like it's going to explode. That technique came from producing pop music for FM radio. I'm not into that sound :-)
Don't get me wrong, those sterile types of recordings have their place (for Scottish Country Dance Teachers to rehearse their dancers), but they certainly aren't musically interesting.
BTW, Elke is also the only fiddler I know
who can simultaneously play and dance a Highland Fling! -Steve
Actually there are quite a few players who can step dance and play at the same time..
I've always though the whole dancing & playing thing is kind of a cool showmanship thing.
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