SKIP ALLUMS

After being “musically dormant” for so long, it was nice to tag along with The Stragglers while they worked on their new album, entitled Singularity. Many pictures here.

The premise was this: hole up in a cabin in the Sierra foothills with some vintage analog recording gear, and attempt to track 10 songs. I feel that the recordings they made here really capture the key elements of Erik’s songwriting: endless melody, stargazing imagery, commitment to loved ones, and spaced-out Americana.

Friday:
Around mid-morning, we met with Bryce Gonzales at the fabled Hangar recording studio in Sacramento, and loaded up a few key pieces of gear, including a monstrous, tank-like 70s 8-track that took 4 of us to carry up & down the stairs. After cramming all our gear into 2 vehicles, we set off for Emigrant Gap, the gateway to the Sierras.

After a bumpy and somewhat treacherous ride into the foothills, we arrived at the Big Green Cabin, a serene escape for Erik’s wife’s family whose pioneering ancestors settled in this region. The cabin is surrounded on all sides by trees, rocky outlooks and secret streams. The cabin sits just on the perimeter of Tahoe National Forest. At night, you can see most of the Milky Way stretched out above you. This place was a truly appropriate setting for the music of The Stragglers.

We spent the first few hours moving furniture around and setting up shop. Bryce & Erik put the first song to tape: Aristoteles & Eudoxus, an undulating solo acoustic piece that will close the album. Erik addresses the song to his daughters.

Garin & Bryce arrived just after supper, and we set to work getting drums dialed in and laying down a rhythm track for the dirge-like live staple Star Signs. We decided to turn in early, so as to put a full day of tracking on Saturday.

Saturday:
After a breakfast of bagels and pancakes (supplied by Batter Blaster) the guys set to work. Many of the songs were taken from the Stragglers’ live show, but the majority of the tunes were in their infancy. Since time was short, they decided to complete tracking & overdubs for each song in succession, rather than leave overdubs for the end. They managed to hammer out 7 songs in the first 12 hours… very impressive. Each composition started with a simple acoustic guitar, bass, drums arrangement, and then augmented with spacey electric guitar tracks and multiple vocal harmonies.

Intermittent breaks in tracking were filled with short hikes up to surrounding vistas, coffee drinking, barbequing and junk food consumption, and listening to a few records that were lying around the cabin (mostly The Stones’ Exile On Main Street).

Sunday:
Our last day at the cabin started a bit slower, but by 4pm we’d managed to wrap up 9 of the 10 songs. Breaking down and cleaning up the cabin took a few hours, but we were back on the road home by 6pm. After dropping the gear off, I hit I-80 around 8pm, feeling inspired by the amazing music that I feel thankful for being a party to. I’ve got a few hours of video that I’ll turn into a little 20 minute doc on the recordings, and most likely a video for one of the hits. I’ll post it as soon as its available!

More pictures:

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