promo shot with the original MNP lineup - photo by Otto Bost
I've talked about always wanting a blues band and the Magnetic North Project was that band for me. JJ Cale & Willie Dixon covers, mostly, is how it started. Kenny George was the original drummer, brought in by guitarist Zack Roth. Ray Hoffman played bass and, mostly, gav the band it's name. Ray also had a big house to himself in Kutztown, so we rehearsed there every Tuesday. Mostly. We did a few shows with Kenny before Zak Achenbach was found, but Kenny served as a necessary rhythm man while we found our legs, and I'll always be thankful he was there.
early rehearsal at Ray's with Kenny George, Ray Hoffman, Zack Roth & KK (l-r)
Marion Courtroom/Lancaster, PA with final line-up.
It was once Zak Achenbach took over on drums did some sort of picture start forming. I wrote Shining Through for this band to play, and Long Way from Home came about too, sparked by an odd riff from Zack (guitarist...yeah, two Zack/Zaks). The spark really arose out of the weekly jams we would have at rehearsal, excursions into whatever that sometimes held some real weight. I started recording these, and that process propelled me creatively. I would like to think for all of us, but you'd have to ask the guys. For me, a blues-based jam band was heaven, and our weekly get-togethers bared some fruit. Zaks playing, especially, inspired me. I think it's where I was able to find a sound with my electric guitar playing too.
River Street Jazz Cafe May 2013 - photo by Friendly Frank
My daughter Lily was born right at the beginning of alot of gigging with our new drummer, in the winter/spring, then summer of 2013. The gigs, thanks (mostly) to the booking of Casey Scherer, helped tightened up everything that could be tightened and provide some confidence. By the end of that summer we started falling apart for various reasons, but had a nice bunch of new songs. I talked about this a bit earlier in this blog series and quite honestly, it's stupid of me to throw any kind of negativity around. I really, really enjoyed playing with these guys and am so thankful for our time together. And to Casey for helping us so much and dealing with me during that time, as I was often just totally exhausted from having a newborn around.
That band kept me sane and it was one of the best hard things I've ever done. I'm especially thankful I was able to record the original music not only I wrote at the time, but utilize the energy of the garage performances from that day in October. The jams and segues were all about the mood and vibe that we were able to emit. I've talked about how I added new things and took things out and so forth as the project moved on but make no mistake, I'm still in Zak's garage during the original recording sessions when I listen back to the album those original recordings became. It was a lot of fun - Really guys, thank you.
Here's a couple shows from the archives...
Longswamp Tavern 3/23/13
Puck Live 8/23/13
River Street Jazz Cafe - 5/30/13
I'm really lucky sometimes, a project like this reminds me of that.
The folks that have helped me find what's in my head were all the
perfect fit.
Anthony Hannigan & Olive/Woobie Cat Kitchens
I've known Cory Heller for a very long
time now, since the mid 80's I think. He was, as he is now, the man on
keyboards on the Reading Jam & rock scene. He's got a beautifully
expressive singing voice, and performs zillions of songs on a regular
basis with one of his fine groups NEO TRIO, but to me his greatest gift
is his intuitive piano & organ playing. He came in to Woobie Cat
Kitchens near the beginning of the project and played through each song,
then again. And I had all my keyboard backing tracks. Then he did a
series of one take leads and went home. He plays on all tracks on the
album but stands out (imo) on Traveling (organ), Long Way from Home
(electric piano) & especially Morn In The Morrow (piano). He was
brilliant, and I sat there next to him and watched him be that.
Bill Stetz, Julie & Olive
Anthony Hannigan is another one of these guys. Mando champion at some ridiculously young age, and insanely proficient on fiddle, banjo & guitar as well, Anthony and I have Garcia Grass together and I love every single time I get to perform with him, which isn't often enough. I asked him if he would lend his fiddle skills to 2 tracks, Morn In The Morrow and the album coda called 'Pasture'.He did not disappoint on either. Olive was mesmerized...
Olive is also a big Bill Stetz fan as we all are here at Woobie Cat, I've been personally playing with him since 1994, and we've done a ton of shows together over the years. Our acoustic duo at that time blossomed into what was Kris Kehr & Stone Poets and he recorded some beautiful stuff for my first album Long Year as well as Notes From the Crossroads ten years later. The acoustic duo still performs occasionally although more often recently with the addition of my wife Julie (who I will talk more about in a sec) and sometimes as the Kris & Julie Kehr Trio. Bill also performs with Garcia Grass and was one of my best men at my wedding (two bassists & a merch guy), so I love the guy. When I started conceiving of the coda as a lusher instrumental piece, I started hearing the upright bass of Saturday Sun by Nick Drake, which was played by Danny Thompson, in my head. Bill and I saw a bunch of great live music together while I lived in State College years back, but one of the best was Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson at Lancaster's Chameleon Club, which was masterful & ridiculously inspiring and influential to our acoustic duo. Bill recorded a series of bowed tracks that were mixed together, then took a separate 'Nick Drake take', plucked that nailed it all.
Julie at work
Julie is my secret weapon, I am so lucky to have her at my disposal. My wife Julie & I first met in the Recipe as I may have previously mentioned. I have a lot of respect for the type of singing she does, from a place of power and confidence. Fronting that band took balls and she could really let it fly, eventually to the detriment of her vocal chords. Later we started doing acoustic duo stuff, a more delicate soul/folk mix that still allowed for that her fronting prowess.
With this project, I knew I wanted a response harmony with the lead vocals on Long Way From Home and so Julie readily and easily, in one take, nailed that first. I have long been a fan of the vocal production on albums by Queen, especially the first couple. Many, many nearly identical vocal parts stacked on top of each other and panned around the stereo spectrum until it sounds like a cathedral. That and the Glyn Johns book that Julie got me for Christmas inspired me to find something new for myself and try the stacking process on Anymore and Shining Through. I did several on the lower register takes myself then had Julie do the upper harmonies....many times. The result is something cathedral and lush, and I'm very happy with it. It took the both of us a long time to find that special thing that was needed and I'm thankful for her patience.
As I'm writing this mixing is coming to a close, talks are starting to happen with a mastering studio and a tentative delivery date for the complete album is set at June 22nd, 2015 (although single songs may be released sooner, and also all this may change, tho not likely...) I'm glad, the picture is pretty clearly complete and I want people to hear it, but patience has been a huge benefit in this album's process. Stay tuned on the album's facebook page or Kris Kehr.com for updates.
Scott Murawski in his studio 3/2015
Very recently guitarist Scott Murawski sent me a series of takes for three of the 8 songs on the album - Poison in the Well, Anymore and Shining Through. It is such a thrill to be able to punch various takes into the mix, different moods, very cool...tho it wasn't hard to choose the brightest moments for final mixes. Scott and I have known each other for a while now, meeting in the late nineties after his band Max Creek covered my song To the Sea and a crossing of the fates....
His friendship has been a blessing over through the years, and our musical paths have crossed at some pretty fun places. He sat in with Chris Kew and I back in 2004 in Providence, RI recordings of which take the second half of the LOWdOGS/In the Tall Grass album. Soon after that Q and I returned to Massachusetts from the North Carolina we were both living in at the time and did another show with Scott & drummer Greg Vasso as LOWdOGS4, a recording of which is HERE.
Kris Kehr, Vasser Clements & Scott Murawski
Kris Kehr, Bill Stetz & Scott Murawski
Kris & Scott at Scott's 50th
That is the backdrop for Q talking me into asking Scott to participate in this album when it became clear I could use some spaces filled on the album with some other voices. I really didn't want to ask because UI know how busy he is and I thought it was over-reaching, intruding....I don't know why, I just did. I hope I was wrong, he couldn't have been more gracious. Scott of course agreed, soulful dude that he is, never even telling me how busy he was preparing for his upcoming tour and album release as guitarist and co-writer in The Mike Gordon Band, or the never ending string of gigs he does with his long-time bros Max Creek, or the handful of other people he seems to be sitting in with. I am forever indebted.
Mike Gordon Band Rehearsal spring 2015
Taking on a lesser but also tasty hot shit guitar role is west-coast jammer Bob Coons who recently toured with bassist Chris Kew around North Carolina. Coons is known for a stint in post-Jerry JGB with a growing cultish west coast fan-base. He was also very kind enough to contribute tracks to Long Way From Home and Shining Through that come through as emotive voices in carefully tailored places.
Bob Coons in the Studio/Fairview, NC
Bob & Q
Next time I'll talk about the rest of the great players I was lucky enough to coerce into helping me make this album!
In the spring of 2002, I was asked to do some shows with the touring slamgrass jamband known as The Recipe. The experience was a revelation to me in more ways than I care to count here but paramount amongst the many high points are two things: meeting, working with and ultimately falling in love and marrying my wife Julie who was the bands' lead singer, and forming the touring duo LOWdOGS with the bands' bassist Chris Kew (Q). Both of those things heavily affect the vibe and literal sound of the Telectro album
Lowdogs - State Theater/Alexandria, VA - 2004 photo by Clicks Photography
I'll talk about Julie's part more later, but as I was parsing the basic tracks I had made and contemplating my next step one thing became clear- I needed to get my old partner in LOWdOGS involved. This project was unlike anything I had done in the past, more of an electric sound with the spry and organic drumming of Zak Achenbach and the use of my GNL Telecaster/Fender deluxe combination.
MNP-Lancaster, PA - photo by Zack Balko
Lowdogs - Richmond, VA circa 2004 - photo by Scott Elmquist
Chris (Q) Kew - Asheville, NC - 2014
Q is a Boston boy who started out his career in the Jiggle the Handle (later just JIGGLE) amongst others (who are coincidentally working on a new album right now as well..) I first saw him play at the Crowbar in State College in the late 90's in the touring jamband/klezmer act known as Hypnotic Clambake (think polka/klesmer on acid). And when I think of his playing style I would say that some sort of bluegrass/rootsy version of Jaco Pastorious wouldn't be out-of-line. He had been touring most of his life by the time we started working together in The Recipe and I must say he ended up being one of those players who I feel is always present there for me, always interested in where the music takes you, one of the very best of sounding boards, an incredibly talented musician with a sharp and educated ear and certainly one of the more intelligent & accepting people in my orbit.
After the Recipe's demise the two of us remained behind in the Asheville, NC and decided to move forward as a duo. More miles on the road and together playing resulted in a live album called 'In the Tall Grass' and a few great writing/jam sessions; Q came up with a bass line that I put lyrics to that we called I Gotta Gun.
I got a gun down in my pocket
I got a big one in my van
I’ll tell you boys I got a gun wherever that I am
I got a gun, You wanna see?
I gotta a gun good people wherever I might happen to be
I got a gun down in the cellar
I got a gun out in the yard
I gotta a gun up in the attic
Just to makes things a little hard
I had a gun and went to prison
They snuck one in and now I’m free
I never did understand if
It was him or it was me
'I Gotta Gun' - March 8th, 2005
Later in the summer of 2005, Julie and I moved from North Carolina back north to Pennsylvania where we live today. When the Magnetic North Project began looking for more songs I introduced I Gotta Gun which began heavy rotation in the bands' sets. When time came for album production it lacked Q's distinctive bass part that inspired the song in the first place. The original lyrics were inspired by the ridiculous conversations I was often subject to as a seasonal helper in my dad's Pennsylvania taxidermy shop, but also growing up where I did in general, and reading and traveling. I thought the song worked by itself but lyrically didn't really fit into the Telectro oeuvre. I decided to ring Chris Kew up.
He had been through a few things since I moved north, including serious brain surgery. Although we lived far apart at this point I kept my eye on him and his recovery, and tried to stay in touch. That became easier as he convalesced and by the time I reached him late in 2013 he was doing pretty well and starting to pick up his music career again in earnest. He agreed to revisit the song although by this point I was in the process of rewriting the lyrics into a completely different song called 'Poison in the Well'.
Early in the spring of 2014 we made plans to get together here in Pennsylvania on his way to a Jiggle reunion up north but time constraints started clouding our plans. Up until this point I had all of the album's tracks on ADAT, an antiquated digital format preserved on SVHS tape. As I explained previously, this process allowed for me to use all my old equipment and mix easily in a live fashion. My hard drive is limited in speed so the thought of doing this album on a computer never occurred to me. Also, I was taking delight in having only spent less than $200 on equipment upgrades to accommodate 16 channels. I only had one ADAT recorder, which has 8 channels, when I did the basic track recordings at Zak's parents house; 4 drum channels, two guitars and bass with an open channels for cuing the band through the headphones as we were playing. Originally I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 for my Alesis ADAT machine in 1997. When I searched on ebay for a matching machine to slave with mine and create 16 channels, I was surprised to find an exact partner for $75, which was ridiculous to me at the time...in a good way. Partnered with my Mackie 16 channel soundboard mixer I spent that winter through the year adding other instruments to the mix, and creating bass demos with the lines I wished to hear on these songs as well. I added mandolin, banjolin, various acoustic guitars and a few new electric guitar tracks to accompany the ones I had already recorded, including those of MNP guitarist Zack Roth, as well as rewriting and refining much of the lyric content.
Woobie Cat Kitchens/Leesport, PA - 2014
But to get Q's offerings it became clear last summer that we needed to take another approach and I had to start figuring out a way to use bass lines he would record at his home in North Carolina and sent to me via the internet. I began transferring all the ADAT tracks I had amassed to hi-res wav files via live mix/recording sessions with my ZOOM recorder. These I transferred to my PC and used the mixing program Audition, which I was mostly familiar with.
.
Chris Kew in his home studio
The bass line Chris sent me was wonderful, and served as the stepping off point for my change in production. Remember, zero budget for any of this. The individual tracks transferred nicely, I basically mixed the songs then transferred the tracks one-by-one. Working with Q was a wonderful breath of live air as I was completely resigned to doing this myself by this point with little sounding board existing. And Q is a great sounding board. I believe he felt the same way about working with me again and so we decided he should play on most of the rest of the project. Throughout the summer and into the fall of 2014 he'd send me new bass tracks via dropbox that I would add to the mixes accordingly.
Q's Can of Worms Studios/Asheville, NC
My conversations with Q throughout his time sending me tracks helped greatly as well, and his suggestion to include our mutual pal Scott Murawski on the protect now seemed like something I could accommodate since I was now fairly adept at mixing on hard drive. Scott is the guitarist and leader of the long-term jamband stalwarts Max Creek, huge on the scene in the New England area. Also as a long time friend with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, he serves as his songwriting partner for his solo projects and guitarist in his own touring project The Mike Gordon Band. He's always been most kind to me, and one hell of a guitarist. As of writing this blog he is currently working on his contributions so I'll speak more of Scott's stuff later. Q was also working with guitarist Boob Coons recently and was able to corral a few guitar adornments for the album as well but I'll talk about the rest of the players next time.....
Hello Everybody- Kris Kehr here. I've been working on a new album called Telectro for almost two years now and I've decided to start this blog to talk about the process.
It's been an interesting trip so far, starting with the formation, growth and ultimate dissolution of the electric band called The Magnetic North Project. It actually started a little before that...
Jawbone! Kris Kehr & Jason Zarecky at the Phyrst 2000
Many years ago while driving around with my old buddy Jason Zarecky I pontificated endlessly on my want to start an electric band that used the songs of J.J. Cale as a base but grew into its own thing - driving, bluesy and yet original. He and I started the short-lived band Jawbone, an off-shoot of my country-rock band Kris Kehr & Stone Poets.
MNP at River Street 5/30/13 - photo by Frank Stacks
After a major turn of events in my life (I'm glossing over a lot here, including moving from State college, PA to North Carolina, getting engaged then married, touring nationally in a jamgrass band, the breakup of that band, a move back to Pa., buying a house, getting out of the music business briefly, losing my job & getting back in the music business then changing focus and moving on) I ended up living back in the area I grew up in - Leesport/Berks County - and looking to spice up my post-touring life decided to revisit the original thought. This time I started from the ground up, enlisting bassist Ray Hoffman, guitarist Zack Roth and drummer Zak Achenbach and starting with the music of J.J. Cale, the bluesier side of the Grateful Dead, Willie Dixon & Muddy Waters and some of my own older stuff that seemed to fit.
As my daughter Liliana was born in January of 2013, the band began playing some nice gigs thanks to the booking work of Casey Scherer and really started to gain steam. We got together every week and jammed in Zak's parents garage (a HUGE thanks toKaren & Mike Achenbach for putting up with THAT!! -and their unending kindness), and as we did I was able to sharpen up a body of new original material. Some jams led to other things (Long Way From Home but not all our songs came out of the regular jam recordings I was making. Traveling & Shining Through I wrote inspired by playing with an electric band. I had also resurrected and eventually completely rewrote a few things from my past (Anymore, I Got a Gun).
Through the summer of 2013 the band started feeling like it had run it's course with nature though I still hadn't gotten decent studio multi-track recordings of any of the original material, which was wrong. Both of those things. Most of these songs, or at least these particular versions of them had come about because of The Magnetic North Project. I had an absolute blast playing with the guys and still feel bad it burned out so fast, or there was nothing more I could do to prevent it. I am so very proud of the material we produced, and the process of getting there we all shared up to a point. Every Tuesday night in Mohnton for the longest while, it kept me sane. It made me insane at times too, but that first year with Lily at home, I am glad I had a few predetermined hours of music every week to let my mind go. I feel like I started a new chapter in my musical life as well as personal, corny as that sounds. I felt these songs deserved the very best I could give them, and I added to my personal challenge by not spending any money on it. It felt like I needed to make an expression of who I really was musically, and how I got there. This all started to become clear to me as the band was ending so I needed to set up some recording sessions and get the songs down, at least the basics
I moved my 8 track Alesis ADAT, antiquated as it was, and Mackie mixer into our usual rehearsal space at Zak's parents house in the garage and mic'd the drums with 2 over heads, kick and a snare, a 57 on Zack's PEAVY in one corner, another on my Deluxe in the other corner and Ray's bass direct in through my Joe Meek rack processor. That left an open channel for a room mic for cues and scratch vocals. The recording came out surprisingly well, especially the drums. The session marked the official end for the band, I think we only did one gig in York after that. I decided to take the recordings back home, reconstruct Woobie Cat Kitchens with my old equipment.
T-Bone & bird/Woodstock, NY - 1998
In the late 90's while making my first official album Long Year I purchased what was then state-of-the-art portable digital recording equipment in the form of a 16 channel Mackie mixer and an 8 channel Alesis ADAT recorder, which uses SVHS tape. It mixes in real time and I became pretty accustomed to using it, mostly because of the experienced expertise I was fortunate to receive from one Tom 'T Bone' Edmonds, live sound mixer for Lenny Kravitz with a music history as long as the list of artists who passed through Woodstock's Bearsville Studios with a coupla Stones tours thrown in. T-Bone was very giving with his incredible knowledge and I consider that time to be amongst the most valuable in my career. With his 8 Track ADAT we set about making Long Year and after I used the 8 tracks for all my demo recording and a few other things. Nowadays (boy, that word shows your age) most recordings are made direct to hard drive and mixed piece-meal on a program, usually protools or something of the like. I decided to keep using this 90's technology not just because I still owned it and it worked but because of the freedom to mix back on a board in such a small undertaking. Plus, to my ears the recording made onto tape are far better than direct-to-digital.
T-Bone (w Woobie Cat shirt) & Lenny Kravitz in France around 2011
At that point I planned on adding some different instruments and finished vocals here in my home studio (Woobie Cat Kitchens) and mix down live but the thing started growing....more than I could imagine, and I had to further adapt.
