Hand of Latham

Scott had talked about recording a podcast to talk about the recording of Trouble. An obvious date for the recording was the day of our gig in the new forrest. Scott happened to mention the idea to Steve at room with a view studios where we recorded the album and he suggested recording it there. So the date was set along with the venue.

Although, I needed to nip in to see the guys at Ashdown before hand to collect my amp as a few weeks ago I had noticed a lack in the usual high performance that I was used to. Like anything I guess its good to have it checked out every once in a while. I have had the amp for some years now and its been in and out of countless vans/trucks and carted half way round the world and back a few times so a service was long over due!

Ashdown ABM 900 EVO II

Upon arrival I was greeted by Jeff who was taking the rare opportunity to enjoy his tea break in the sun. Jeff is one of Ashdown’s amp builders. He took me into the workshop to show me what he was working on, along with some of the new models that Ashdown have planned. ‘Big Dave’ apparently was the man I needed to talk to regarding some of the more technical aspects of the all new tube amps that were lying around the workshop in a semi complete state.

As luck would have it Big Dave entered the workshop not long after. Dave is the head designer at Ashdown and knows every part that goes into each and every unit that Ashdown manufacture. Jeff explained how Dave could identify the exact component that may be at fault just by listening to the amp! Dave is a straight to the point Yorkshire man, A quality that is evident in his amp designs. I like the way that these amps are able to deliver quality sound by not over complicating things. So after a chat with Dave it was time to head off to the studio for the podcast recording.

I got to the studio as the others were arriving, It was good to catch up with Scott, Phil and Steve again. It has been around a year since we recorded the album at Steve’s studio. Just being in the Studio together brought it all back. The first day of recording, the day Robbie Macintosh came in, oh and the fire! The podcast recording was a lot of fun, it needs an edit but once its done I will post the link up here for you.

We streamed the recording sessions live at the time, here is a video of the first days recording. Phil and I are getting levels and tones here.

The gig was the Rydal, its a cool venue and not too far from the studio. It was good to play together again. We played a bit of the old stuff along with some of the new album tracks. I was so happy to have my amp back. some friends of mine had been nice enough to lend me their amps while mine was in the shop but once I got mine back I realised what I had been missing. But I have to say thanks to Greg and Mick for the favours! You helped me out of a couple of tight spots!

We will be gearing up for the tour in April with some rehearsals soon. Im looking forward to it. Not long to go before ‘Trouble’ is released! I cant wait to see what people think of it.

Room With A View Studios

Tracklisting:

1 The Girl

2 I Can Tell

3 Trouble

4 Scarecrow

5 Talk To Me

6 Broken Man

7 All That We Were

8 Capture Me

9 So Much More

10 Giving Me The Blues

11 What I’ve Become

12 Home

A solid date has finally been announced for ‘Trouble’, Scott McKeon’s second studio album. The 29th of march 2010 is the day you can get your hands on a copy. The album will be released on Provouge and available in HMV, iTunes etc.. I will add more info on other stores etc as I have it. Scotts new website is currently under construction, however there is a new splash page up at scottmckeon.com with details of the album and a new mailing list sign up form.  Here is an excerpt from the latest press release issued earlier this month.

Anyone with a taste for the blues-guitar pyrotechnics of Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrix

is in for a treat.”—The Independent

L-R Scott, Robbie, DRH

Trouble features 12 new songs and contributions from Robbie McIntosh, renowned British guitarist and former member of The Pretenders. McIntosh has toured with Sir Paul McCartney and John Mayer, among others, and has done session work for Mark Knopfler, Roger Daltrey, Tori Amos and Norah Jones. The album also features vocals from David Ryan Harris from John Mayer’s band. Of the album, McKeon says, “With Trouble, I wanted to be able to incorporate bluesy guitar soloing into a more soulful rock environment. I also wanted to be more disciplined with the tunes to move them from a riff-based style into proper songs. I feel this album is more balanced but still allows me the chance to cut loose.”

A track from the forthcoming Scott McKeon Album ‘Trouble’ has been chosen for release as part of the ‘New Blues Masters’ pack. ’Broken Man’ will appear alongside tracks from Joe Bonamassa and Tyler Dow Bryant. A culmination of events including a show last year for guitar Hero has won the track a place in this latest release from the Guitar Hero people. Here is a picture after the Guitar Hero show taken last year. I think we are trying to nail Reeling in the years by Steely Dan here while we waited for our flight home!

Check out the video below for a chance to hear the new track in its entirety. To be able to play the guitar, drum or bass part in your own living room you can download the track for your games console in all the usual places online.

Here is a short promo video to promote the new Scott McKeon album. There is still no word on a release date as yet, but will post something here as soon as I hear it. In the meantime check out the video, it features a track called the girl that we have been playing live for a while and some stills from the recording sessions.

I cant take the credit for this one, robbed it from Scott’s Blog.

www.Scottmckeon.com

Some more shots from the studio, Robbie Macintosh of the Pretenders/Mcartny /Mayer fame dropped in to play some guitar on a couple of tracks. Also Bill Mudge was here to lay down some Hammond!

Group Shot L-R Scott, Phil, Steve, Robbie, Me, Bill

Bill hits the Hammond!

BillMudge.com

The studio is named a room with a view… so heres the view!

This fella is my favorite, he has an honest face....

A Room With A View Studio

Not much going on here but recording! Got a couple more tracks down today. 

We took some time out from the recording to perform an acoustic show @ Square Records in Dorset. The event was to promote independent record shop day.

Day one in the studio and 10 mins into the session my amp had to be taken apart!!! Steve the studio owner by accident stood on my input lead and broke the lead and the jack socket! So out came Steves tool kit and after a little fiddling about with connections the amp was up and running again! Once the technical problem was overcome another soon reared its ugly head in the form of a desk malfunction, One of the channel strips went down in such a way that it seemed to affect every other channel, so once again out came the tool box! It was not looking like Steve’s day! But he came through for us, claiming he was at ’stress factor 12′ although his manor had not shifted at all. As far as we could see, he was still the calm collected individual that had greeted us a couple of hours ago.

The desk

The rest of the day was spent dialing up tones and drum sounds. Although the session started with a few troubles we did manage to get one track down.