Gone On The River at iTunes

Tue, 24 May 2011 15:11:49 -0700

A year and a half ago when I began writing and tracking this collection of tunes I had no idea that i would read Lee Sandlin’s brilliant book “Wicked River” and be inspired to name the EP after one of its’ the chapters. Neither could I have predicted that it would clear release into the iTunes music store just as the Mississippi would be cresting in my hometown of Natchez at a level that would eclipse the great flood of 1927.

We’re all very aware now of the level of damage that has been done by the flood waters this season and those of us who are from those areas can only watch at a distance with a heightened level of understanding and sympathy for those who have been directly affected.

I couldn’t announce the release of this EP without paying allegiance to my homeland and fellow Mississippians, our neighbors and their recent trials. While I’m excited to finally get this collection released, I’m also pleased to have an opportunity to put it to greater use by donating the proceeds of the first weeks sales to the Red Cross in support of their efforts in the flood regions and the areas hit so hard by the recent storms.

You can get your copy at any of the retailers below:

iTunes

Amazon.com

eMusic.com

Zune.com

Rhapsody.com

Nokia Music Store on your Nokia mobile phone

Napster.com

IMVU.com

I hope you all enjoy hearing it as much as I did making it.

KD

Credits:

Electric, Acoustic, Dobro and Gut String Guitars: Kevin Dukes
Bass: Mike Elizondo, Matt Bragg, Kevin Dukes
Keyboards: Tim Heintz, Scott Plunkett, Dave LeBolt, Joel Goldsmith, Kevin Dukes
Pedal Steel: Dave Pearlman
Orchestration: Joel Goldsmith
Drum & Percussion Performances: Michael Blair
Drum & Percussion Editing: Kevin Dukes

All tracks engineered by the performers in their personal recording studios.
All titles engineered and mixed by Kevin Dukes at The Ranch
All titles written by Kevin Dukes, Crooked Letter Music, BMI

Cover art by Josie Portillo, www.portilloillustration.com

Liner Notes you can actually read

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:24:00 -0700

Isn’t this great? Liner Notes you can adjust to suit the current state of your eyeballs willingness to focus. Bon Jovi has recently said Steve Jobs killed the music business, which I don’t really get, but I do know Steve in his infinite wisdom killed the CD liner note and thank God.

I do miss the LP album jacket art work and all the cool info you’d get off the inside of a fold out-LP size cover, but come on; miss CDs? Not hardly. So in the absence of a hard copy release of any sort for the upcoming solo EP, I’m starting with the blog so you early adopters can get all the inside info on the tracks and who’s on them.

All the tracks on the Gone On The River are built on the grooves and sounds of drummer and percussionist Michael Blair. Quoting from the liner notes of his Twisted Grooves collection:

“A rough, dirty neo-blues style with awkward rhythms and hard edges. A highly personal instrument set-up includes a mix of regular drums and odd bits and pieces like trash cans, bedroom furniture and rusty bicycle frames. The combination of Michael’s timing, expression, and junkyard sounds create a rich range of musical textures.”

Sounded like exactly what I was looking for. I wanted this project to sound like it was struggling to get somewhere, not like it had arrived.

Anna’s Bottom features the bassist from my first band in LA, Matt Bragg and keyboardist Scott Plunkett, who I met in Boz Scagg’s band, the first major label artist to offer me a job. Matt and I played almost every college and a dozen clubs in the LA area with our original band. We also got a serious education playing with Richard Tee and Steve Gadd in Richie’s solo project. One of our bands’ mentors was the great Chuck Rainey of Steely Dan fame and the classic Sanford and Son theme, who gave Matt one of the first Yamaha Chuck Rainey model basses to come off the line. You can hear Matt with Sista Monica and L. A. Big Daddy’s on the blues circuit around the states and Europe.

Scott and I went on to work together with Don Henley and our own original band which also served as the backing band for Peter Cetera and Mandy Barnett. The brilliance of Scott is that he has the brain of a computer scientist and the heart and soul of a stadium rock B3 god. I have stood onstage beside Scott in theaters as he wrangled complex arrangements out of a pre Midi wall of synthesizers/pianos/and keyboards, later as he stood on a riser playing a controller that was triggering banks of synths and samplers underneath the stage in an arena and at outdoor festivals as he climbed on top of a B3 and proceeded to play the final encore with both hands and both feet. Scott can be heard on Stevie Nicks upcoming album and with Chris Isaak’s band on the road and on their new CD.

Devil’s Punchbowl is book ended by the orchestration of Joel Goldsmith and the bass of Mike Elizondo. Joel was the first composer to hire me for a film score, although he was the engineer on that session. I’ve worked with Joel since on dozens of his TV series and films and been honored to be included on tracks of his with some of the legends of the LA musical community, not the least of which being his father, composer Jerry Goldsmith. He’s finally getting around to cutting his own solo project and I’m looking forward to returning the favor when he does some recording in my home state of Mississippi.

I met Mike through mutual friends at a church we had both wound up attending. LA is one of the few towns on the planet where you can show up to church and wind up playing with a guy who has No. 1 hits on the radio and AAA grade session chops. He has since drug me around town into other church bands and we’ve drug each other around the mountains of California and Colorado cycling and mountain biking. I did the demos for his Carrie Underwood tracks which included the hit Cowboy Casanova last year in my remote studio in Natchez, MS. (otherwise known as my parents dining room). Mike produced the current Avenge Sevenfold album and is working with Michelle Branch on her upcoming album.

Black Cat Moan features keyboard tracks from Dave LeBolt who is as equally hard to pin down as Plunkett. Dave had been with Billy Joel for a few tours when I joined that band. His role was similar to Scott’s in that during that era, the pop stars of our generation had years of hits with a wide variety of production on them and It fell to the keyboardist to cover all those textures. The bay under the stage that held all his gear and mine was as big as a garage and was the home of the “Dudes Club”, manned by our crew under the watchful eye of Mark Farner of Grand Funk from and old concert poster. Dave soon moved west, went to work for DigiDesign (makers of ProTools, the industry standard of recording hardware and software) as an artist consultant and eventually wound up running the company. He’s since found his way to LA and back to his roots writing and producing music and luckily for me, playing keys full time. He’s currently scoring the upcoming feature “Getting Back To Zero”.

Gone On The River again features Mike on bass and yours truly on electric, acoustic, dobro and extraneous keys and programing. Listening back to it now as I write the these notes I can hear bits and pieces of the bizarre mix of influences that have shaped my playing and writing through the years. The pop records i fell asleep to with a transistor radio under my pillow as a kid meets Texas blues, Brit Jazz Rock and the tech of lap top recording. And a dozen random points in between.

Madeline and The King When I moved to LA everyone presumed because I had a southern accent, I surely must play country music. Truth was I had never played any country until I took advantage of that misunderstanding and started taking gigs with country bands out in the Valley. Pedal Steel guitarist Dave Pearlman & I met playing the legendary Palomino with a local band that opened for Ricky Scaggs, Jerry Lee Lewis, Vince Gill and his wife, prior their individual successes in Nashville and everybody else that came through the west coast in the early 80s. Dave had been a serious staple of the LA country scene throughout the 70s which is how I, as a June Bug-Wanna Be in Mississippi, wound up seeing him with Dan Fogelberg at the only major rock venue in the state before i moved to LA. After running a premier boutique recording studio full of vintage gear for a decade he now builds his own custom mics that more than faithfully capture the textures and vibe of the rare classics.

Keyboardist Tim Heintz ties this project together from several different angles. We first met when he subbed for Plunkett on a Don Henley benefit show at the Long Beach Arena. That was a tough band to drop into on several levels, not the least of which was the fact that that chair pretty much drove the bus of that show. Banks of keys, drum machines and sequencers to program, run and coordinate... and by the way, rock it up for a stadium full of folks at the same time. Through the years we continued to wind up together on sessions and as Tim’s production career took off he continued to find excuses for us to work together, to the degree that when he and his family decided to move to South Africa and run an aids orphanage on the border of the Zulu Nation, we worked together via FTP and iChat bouncing files halfway around the world and back again for a year and a half. Tim is still the busiest guy I know, bouncing from one production to another, running the church band, producing his kids band, managing the horses and still finding time for the occasional beer at our local craft brewers.

In the Virtual Back Cover segment of Liner Notes I’ll spill the tech details for the gear geeks among us and provide the links where you can get your copies. Can’t wait for you all to hear it.

Save That For Your Solo Record

Wed, 2 Mar 2011 13:21:51 -0800

Back in the day, when musicians actually got together in the same room and recorded a piece of music with one another, at the same time, it was inevitable that you’d hear the title of this post at least once a week.

It was reserved for the special occasion when someone on the session had over extended their enthusiasm in the moment and played something so self indulgent as to be embarrassingly inappropriate for the job at hand. When it happened, everybody knew. All heads in the room were yanked to the source like a pack of dogs jumping at a dog whistle.

The gonzo drum fill in a delicate pop ballad; the screaming guitar riff full of all the altered notes you could muster in a 3 chord rock track. Every session was ripe with opportunity. The bassist that went totally Brothers Johnson at the first provocation of an open high hat...

The joke gained it’s sting from the reality that almost all of us slogging it out in the session trenches have at some point wanted to be artists, either in our dream rock band or in front of a pack of chop monsters on some little jazz label that “gets us”.

I wanted the band scenario and as a result, never considered the solo instrumental record as a worthy pursuit for me. There are some guys that can tell a great story with just a melody and an instrument, but i knew i was not one of them. At least not on my own.

When you’re a pro musician it’s inevitable that a lot of folks, both in the business and not, presume that you would, or would like to, at some point do a solo project. All through the years I would just dismiss the idea outright when anyone brought it up. Wasn’t into it, didn’t like instrumental music, no money in it, too much work being the front man, etc, etc. While all those points have some basis in truth, the reality was that after years of banging on my guitars I was just sick of listening to myself.

And that happened way early on in my career. I loved being able to contribute to great songs, play and interact with the great musicians I was blessed to work with, but I just didn’t want to approach an entire project knowing the sound of my guitar would be the principal tone and one constant voice in 45 minutes of music.

While explaining this to someone a couple of years ago, they asked “what would make you want to do one?”. I was finally provoked to think about that.

What struck me at this point of my life and career was that the one thing I could get excited about would be having a lasting record of my musical relationships. Tracks with performances of my friends and the people that have most influenced me, doing what they do best, interacting as openly and honestly around melodies and grooves as we have over beers, bike rides and family dinners through the years. That, I never get tired of and I knew I could never tire of hearing that in a track, even if my guitar was the instigator.

The story then isn’t purely mine and it’s not a snapshot of a moment in time. It’s not a monologue from the front of a stage, it’s a conversation about shared experiences and how we all wound up here together.

In the next post I’ll do the “Liner Notes” thing and tell you who everybody is and what they played on. Look for the release on iTunes by the end of the month.

To Blog or not to Blog, that is the Twitter

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:31:57 -0700

It’s pretty obvious from the dates on my previous entries that staying on top of The Rant is not high on my priority list. There are a few reasons for that, but primary is the growth of Facebook and Twitter. By the time you sit down to write an in depth report on your activities of the last month (or in my case, last 6 months) it occurs to you that you’ve already Tweeted almost everything worth reporting. And unfortunately, more, usually.

So what is the point of a personal blog then? Surely you don’t need to spend your valuable time absorbing my analysis of the goings on in the political, religious, scientific, tech world or even the music business. There are far more authoritative voices out there on any topic you could name. So the hope is to offer something unique. Something unavailable anywhere else and something that has value to large enough an audience that it justifies the effort on both ends.

In the coming months I’ll give it a bit of thought and maybe take a few stabs at seeing what I can bring to the blogsphere. Maybe more on the state of the digital guitar rig as I seem to be (according to my endorsers and clients) a uniquely willing early adopter.

As soon as I do find the topic and the time to spend on it, I’ll let you all know. On Twitter.

Peace,

KD

Pop Stars, Micro Brews & Guitars in Cleveland

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 08:52:31 -0700

Earlier this year I went to Cleveland to help Kate Voegele and her band tweak their show for their summer tour supporting her latest album, A Fine Mess. Producer Mike Elizondo had taken Kate a bit beyond the more traditional sounds and arrangements of the first album and management wanted to make sure all was on track to bring as much of that to the live show as possible.

Kate’s guitarist and MD Sam Getz was quite capable of covering the parts and the sounds, the challenge was getting a rig assembled that would reliably do it night after night, radio show to concert hall, without breaking the bank and the crew’s will to live.

I saw Sam’s display case (yes, display case) of vintage pedals, his wall of boutique amps and I thought it would be impossible to sell him on downscaling to a DI rig. It’s marvelous what a few beers at the Winking Lizard can do. The next night we went out to Guitar Center and Sam took home a Line 6 X3 Live.

The band looked more than a bit skeptical when Sam fired it up the following rehearsal. After the first run through of the single 99 Times, Kate’s drummer started dogging Sam about lip syncing. The guitar tone, complete with mix effects, was so dead on in the In Ears that he thought Sam was playing along to a backing track.

Here’s the story in his own words:

How did you approach the first Kate tour in terms of gear and recreating the sounds on the album?

The guitar tones on her first record were pretty strait forward. Mostly delay and some chorus, but it's funny how fast you can fill up a pedal board just to get a few different tones. I had to carry a smaller pedalboard for fly dates which limited my options a bit. I was using a couple different amps and would mic up a 4x12 cab off stage so that I could crank the amps to their sweet spot... I was definitely taking around a lot of gear.

On her new record there are a lot of variations on the effects which meant I was going to need an even bigger rig... You couldn't have introduced me to the X3 at a better time!

What were your reservations about using a modeling rig, going DI only?

Well first of all I had never played through a modeling rig that I felt sounded as good as my vintage or boutique amps, even if I did find an amp sound that I liked in a modeling unit, I couldn't get passed the cabinet & mic simulation. A year ago I would have never thought I would be using an amp modeler on stage, but now that they've got the cab and mic modeling down, I actually really enjoy my tones.

What were the biggest benefits of using the X3?

Portability and consistency! For the first time ever I was able to plug into the exact same rig every night on every leg of the tour and on one-offs where I used to have to rely on rental amps. You always get something different, so I was constantly having to reset my overdrives and FX's to work with whatever back line provided .

Also, since we were using in-ear monitors the X3 sounded great coming DI into my In Ears with no bleed from drums or mic distortion.

What did you miss most about your amp and pedal board?

I think what I missed most was physically having an analog amp and pedalboard there on stage. Being able to just reach down and quickly adjust one effect.

In the end, did the benefits outweigh the disadvantages?

I would have to say yes. Although I couldn't tweak my individual effects quite as easily, I found that I didn't need to tweak as much because I had every section of every song pre set and stored in the Gear Box editor. And the X3 Live is surprisingly easy to tweak compared to other modelers I've messed with.

How did Kate , the band and the crew adapt to your switch to DI?

They were shocked at first... Kate was impressed that I actually gave in and was trying something digital. Mark Tobik who is Kate's bass player is my gear buddy. We sit on the tour bus every night looking for vintage gear and boutique effects. In fact it was funny because on this last tour it was the bass player who had the biggest pedalboard.

He thought I had gone crazy leaving behind all my stomp boxes, but was sold after our first rehearsal with it. He couldn't believe how close everything sounded to the record! Our front of house engineer Paul Babikian used to love throwing vintage mic's on my amps, so he was disappointed at first when I told him not to bring out his old 409's cause "I'm going direct". After he got over that, he totally understood why I wanted to bring out the X3 instead of my previous rig. He said "it sounds natural; like it's really pushing air out of those XLR outs"!

What were your favorite features of the X3?

I love the delays! I've always been a fan of Line 6 Echo Farm plug-in, and the DL4 has been on my pedalboard for years. Since we play to a click, I can have the craziest delays dialed in, in tempo, for each song! I used the Tube Echo & Stereo Delay a lot!

Something else that makes the X3 so valuable to me is that I can easily plug it into my laptop via usb where I have all my tones saved. If we change the set I can move the song order around on the X3 so my patches all line up with the setlist. I can also put those patches into another Pod. It’s super easy for me and I’m usually pretty slow when it comes to using computers.

What's your wish list for modeling devices, things that would make it a no brainer to switch to completely.

I think the only thing that keeps me from using the X3 all the time is that I'm kind of a "gear head" and I love using old amps and effects: when it's convenient enough... but Line 6 is doing a great job of delivering those tones when it just doesn't make sense to haul around all those different devices.

What are you up to next?

I'll be on the road with Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers this fall promoting the new album "The Bear" which comes out September 8th. www.SK6ers.com

I've also been in the studio a lot lately finishing up a record that's been about 2 years in the making... It's a project i have with a few of my friends at home in Cleveland called The Vig.

Free Line6 Pod Presets - Amendment

Mon, 3 Aug 2009 20:03:50 -0700

When I wrote this article I was under the mistaken impression that patches written for an X3 or Pod Farm would auto translate for other devices and open as usable settings in other Line6 gear. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. A few friends got back to me saying that basically all my patches were useless to them because my settings were based on models they didn’t have in their devices. Drag.

In light of that, my sincere regrets and a recommendation that you check out the Line6 site for presets designed for your particular box. Their list has really grown since I wrote this, so you should find some inspiring patches for your tracks and live gigs.

That said, if you do have all the Line6 Model Packs installed in your gear, these patches should work for you. Feel free to give them a try, they should still be available at the link in the article below:

Much too long ago I promised I’d have some Pod sounds available for download and I’m finally getting around to it. Instead of throwing up a pile of sounds that will take even the most nerdy of us a year to weed through, I’m going to try to get out a bank or so a week (and that could take a few years at this point) of templates I’ve designed for DI sessions, live amp/DI situations, no latency tracking with the L6 audio I/Os as well as DAW channel strip plugs.

There’s also a pile of artist inspired presets where I’ve copped some of my fav guitar sounds for instant recall. And as James Harrah would say, were he standing over my shoulder at this moment: “but wait... there’s more”.

In addition to the great guitar & bass sounds I use the Pod Farm plug on Pianos, Drums, Vocal Busses and a lot of other stuff too. I’ll eventually get them all up here.

The first contestant is a bank I made for live performance. 4 must have amps with the appropriate effects chain per each, with the most often used stylistic considerations in mind. If you have a dual channel Pod like the X3 live, the B button is a second version of the first chain with tweaks for soloing and melodic lines.

Here’s your link to Bank 1: Pod X3 Live & DI.zip