The Marshall Pass – Phantom Train

My latest release combines music, design and photography and is called ‘The Marshall Pass‘. This is the first time I have been able to combine all of these things into one project so completely. I had the sincere pleasure of working with Craig Rawding on these songs and without his encouragement and his tremendous contribution of lyrics and melodies, these songs would have likely remained instrumental demos for only my friends to hear.

The album was recorded entirely at my house. I wrote the music and played the instruments excepts for some incredible harmonica playing from Craig. Craig wrote the lyrics and melodies and sings beautifully. I used a beat up old 1970’s Yamaha acoustic, my father’s Fender acoustic and my little parlor sized Fender on most of the songs. I also play banjo, electric guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion on the album.

For my recording friends; I kept things simple. I used Apple Logic with an Apogee Duet to record with and a Blue Bluebird microphone for almost everything. I mixed everything at the house through a pair of EAW MS30CI monitors. Paul Dagnello did the mastering and I can’t thank him enough for the fine job that he did.

The cover and back photos I took in Boston Common a few years ago. The photos I used for the digital booklet were taken in various places over the years. The inside photo of Scott Ricciuti was taken outside of Vincent’s in Worcester MA. The design came together quickly once I decided on the look for the album’s cover.