The call came in about two weeks before the end of March.

Neil said, “let’s record in Colorado in a couple of weeks to work around the next full moon. Just some overdubs on several songs I did solo acoustic on the road. Just me by myself, I’ll play the added instruments.”

Well, well. That soon changed to be, “We’ll have Billy (Talbot) overdub some bass.” Then additional instruments were ordered and then… “Hey, John… Can we get Jeff Pinn (our tech) to come up and set up the Green Board (UA 12 channel tube console) and the Studer 8 track 2” tape machine and go analog all the way?” And that’s never really a question but more of a request that one wants to fulfill because as usual, Neil is onto to something and I stopped trying to figure out what – a long time ago cuz it’s usually a great ride and you want to be on it when it starts.

So, Jeff was not available and I thought I was off the hook for all the analog gear staging, but then Neil said he’s got the “The Horse” coming in – which is all of the band Crazy Horse, so we were now a “GO” on all things recording full analog including the Neve BCM-10 and Baby Neve consoles as well as the UA “Green” board and 8 track machine and full digital ProTools. Whenever possible, it is always best to record Crazy Horse on eight track or less because their best records were done that way and as the saying goes,”If it works, don’t fix it”. Putting the pressure on the band and me to “Be great, or be gone”… never hurts and makes it a challenge; always more exciting and you are more alive in the process.

It also sounds amazing! And there is one simple reason for that regardless of analog, digital, sample rate, bit depth or anything else, because there is less electronics and less circuitry, less microphones, and more sound, period!

And that makes for better music. Why I got into this craft a long time ago….

In an historical silver mining town in the San Juan Mountains and we were going to do some musical mining of our own on the mesa above the long valley and box canyon the town is located in.

None of us had ever worked before at this studio above Telluride so it would be an experience. Not to mention that we would be at approximately 9,200 feet above sea level. The air is a little thin at that elevation and you have to acclimate. And that takes time. So I drove in from the California coast with my own gear and spent three days getting there, in order to do just that, acclimate, prior to load in and setup.

In a sense I had to build a studio within a studio to accommodate all the additional recording gear along with space to set up all the instruments. And there were a lot of them. If there is an instrument in the studio – it has to be able to be recorded and that gets a little tricky when the mandate is to record the basic track in an eight track format and setup. Some instruments can go to additional overdub tracks on the digital machine but the core eight tracks are important to not deviate from. Without our technician, yours truly would be swapping the 16 track heads for the 8 track headstack to go on the Studer analog machine. I also brought along Neil’s Ampex ATR 2 track tape machine for mixes or for real tape slap effects on the mixes. Aligning analog gear is another entirely different endeavor and luckily for me – everything worked. It didn’t hurt that my previous career was as a studio electronics maintenance technician. It’s like riding a bike, it comes back fast when you get back on, cuz you have to take that ride.

Before Neil had first mentioned recording with his gear, I had Jeff Pinn and John Hausmann prep and check out all the consoles in LA – just in case the equipment would ever end up in Colorado for sessions in the future. That decision paid off big time and was fortuitous. Once we got everything into the Studio In The Clouds above Telluride all the electronics were re-seated and equipment powered up with a fire extinguisher nearby, just in case. The band loaded in and three days after driving up the long snowy rutted and icey access road with our first load we were ready to record.

Steve Drymalski the production manager made all of the load-in smooth and logistics possible and Neil’s longtime guitar and keyboard techs – Kurt Kasinoff and Bob Rice respectively, attended to all things musical instrument setup wise whilst I dealt with the control room with Lynn Peterson the studio manager along with his assistant Greg Naylor. Our digital engineer extraordinaire Dana Nielsen edited his brains out for Neil on the tracks as they were recorded and Philip Broussard manned the eight track tape machine and the PA. Always a fun job….not.

Briggs once offered me the monitor mixing job back during the “Unplugged” album. I looked at him and said, “You must really be pissed off at me”. He just laughed, and said “just kidding – you don’t want that gig with Neil”. A recipe for disaster could be lurking in the kitchen.

My next article will talk about the recordings as the weeks unfolded. No days off until the “Horse” rides out of town.

John “Senior Chief” Hanlon