Erik, I think the whole thing started out as a Robins' recording, but when he got here he communicated with Monroe and Bill basically decided to come to the session, so the direction of the whole thing changed. I was there originally to keep Bill 'on track' because he was beginning to forget some of the songs we did. Funny, because I didn't really know a few of them that well at the time.
We all sat "LA style" as you put it. Most of it was done in the middle of one room without the benefit of baffles. No rhythm tracks and layering, just all of us batting it out. On the duet stuff, I sat right across from Bill, say within 8-10 feet. Sure, I was nervous. But I learned more those couple days about Bill's right hand than I had in decades previous. It became obvious quickly that I had to match his tremolo to make the duet blend, not only the speed of it, but the feel, the 'lope'. Bill wouldn't even play "Tanyards", couldn't remember it. He told Butch to "let" me play it. I told him I didn't think I could do a better job of it than he could. He said, "I know so", so I shut up. Nothing like being put on the spot by the Bossman. Buddy Spicher was on that cut too, I believe. Bill came to the session dressed in a suit and one of his Stetsons. All the rest of us came ragged out in tee shirts and jeans. The old school guys came to the studio dressed up and ready for 'work'. A few of the girlfriends came along. Of course Bill flirted with them. I remember one of the days everybody piled out for lunch and left. I didn't go for some reason. After hanging out in the break area for a while I went back into the studio and slipped up on Monroe playing Campbell's fiddle, playing "Muleskinner Blues" real quiet. I listened a little bit and then said, "I didn't know you played the fiddle, Bill". He did one of those moves a possum will do when he's wanting to be invisible..."...you don't see me, you don't see me..."; he put the fiddle down really slow and turned clean around in the chair and just sat there like he'd been that way all along. All in all it was sort of a whacky project. Randy Howard played some pretty spectacular 'contest' style solos, Dewey Farmer did his psychedelic hotrod style mandolin, Buddy Spicher brought integrity to the tunes, Butch ran around keeping it moving along despite all the rest of us giving him a fun-loving hard time. I reckon it was the first time I'd worked with Butch and certainly with Bill. Seems like we did another batch of tunes someplace else, the one that included "...Over Yonder". I don't know where any of that stuff went. Tbug On Mar 10, 10:24 am, erik berry <[email protected]> wrote: > I just bought my first-ever download MP3 record (welcome to 2010 > Erik!) and it was Butch Robins' record. It's really cool. I'm pretty > sure I can tell which tracks have just Mike on them, but boy, the > Monroe-Compton duets are really slick. Hard to tell where one starts > and the other stops. I like Butch's banjo playing and singing a whole > lot too, which is great, since I basically got the record for the > mandolinin' on it. A number of cuts I can't wait to share with my > banjo player (Doin' My Time and Short'nin' Bread, to name two). > > Mr. C--great work on that disc. If you have a notion and a few minutes > to talk about it, I'd appreciate hearing some stories. If you need a > question or two I'll pitch some at you. Was this the first time you > worked with Bill and/or Butch? Did you and Monroe sit right next to > each other and play together? Where you nervous? Do you still play two > of my favorite new tunes, "My Father's Footsteps" or "I'd Like to Be > Over Yonder," ? Was disc recorded "Nashville Style" or "LA Style?" > > Cool stuff. I got it off CDBaby for 10 bucks, if anyone else is > curious about it. Simple website to use and 10 minutes after I decided > to get the thing, it was on my MP3 player. Cool, cool, cool. > > erik -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en.
