Well, looks like we're having a First Friday event in a few days, and that always makes me feel like I need to catch everyone up on what's going on around here. Haven't done that since last summer.
The biggest news around here is our new engineer
Rachel Russell, who started working with us in the fall. It seemed like we hadn't even known her a month, and already she seemed like an essential member of the team, and an important voice in the ongoing push to always do better and better work, and a part of the family. And her mom sent us cookies.
Rachel is immensely gifted, and a perfect fit with our drive for great sound and great sounds. So many outstanding musicians, producers and engineers have been impressed by her work, including the legendary Shelly Yakus, her longtime mentor. One veteran studio owner in the area told me point-blank, "I might be twice her age, but I'll never be half the engineer Rachel is." And her mom sent us cookies!
Rachel's work has included breakthrough albums for
Birdie Busch (Bar None), the award-winning
John Francis, and
Devin Greenwood, that guy with the hair. In her short time here, Rachel has already thrown herself into soul, rock, jazz and classical recording, as well as a full length a cappella project. She's now busy recording
Monica McIntyre's much-anticipated full-length debut,
Abuse Gets Heavy, a beautiful and unusual and ambitious project from an artist I've admired for a long time. I have little doubt, this is another breakthrough in the making.
We are a little overwhelmed at the moment by all the cool projects being released, about to be released, about to be finished, or just getting started. Last month,
Pianadelphia was released to rave reviews, and we're part of a group that's launching a new foundation to promote Jazz musicians in Philadelaphia. Volumes 2 and 3 of the
Philadelphia Jazz Tribute series are already being planned. Very exciting stuff.
Just last week,
East Hundred dropped their EP, a very impressive piece of work whose only fault is ending too soon. About to drop is the solo debut record from
Jawnzap7, a favorite from Burndown and veteran of the much-loved Disciples of Discipline, and a record of original jazz duets by pianist Heath Allen and guitarist Skip Heller. (There's our other longtime tradition ... not doing one kind of music for more than three days in a row.)
The next few months will bring a minor Philly roots music earthquake in the form of four fuil-length albums -- yes, four -- all produced or co-produced by our man
Jeff Hiatt. First up is a very impressive full-length from folk-rock prodigy
Johnny Miles, showcasing his deft songwriting and arranging alongside the best players in town, including Tom Walling, Pete Donnelly, Chuck Treece and Andy Keenan.
Soon after, a gorgeous and haunting new record from
Like Moving Insects, a band that seems to be every other band's favorite band. And you know that great masterpiece record you never thought
Cowmuddy would actually get around to making? Well, it's nearing completion right now, and a sneak preview is already playing on our profile. Last but certainly not least, the full-length debut from
the Lowlands, recorded at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington. (Do I even need to explain how great the Lowlands are? I think not.)
And those are just the projects that are finishing up right now. We're just starting full-length projects with Monica McIntyre and Kelly Rouke, midway through mixing a wild fusion record with Dave Hartl, and there are a few more projects that are
about to start ... that I really want to tell you about ... but I really can't, not just yet. We're kind of hogging a lot of this town's coolest artists right now, that's all I can say.
So it's a fun time right now, because there has never been more talent around Turtle Studios, both in terms of the producer/engineers and the artists, our clients. Even our excellent interns,
Kim and
Brian, are fairly gushing with talent, though so far, no cookies from their Moms.
My Mom sent us fruit today. Not cookies, a box of fruit. For real, she did. I don't know why.