From the Archives: Rattlesnake

As many of my readers know, I’ve got a small record label, in partnership with my band-mates from Soul Patch. The genesis of Toothless Monkey Music (the name is another story entirely) starts when I set up my first “real” recording studio in a sound-proofed, detached two-car garage at my former home in Portola Valley, CA. It is on an idyllic creek-side spot, and many of the albums on the label were recorded and mixed in that studio.

One day, back around 1999 or 2000, when the studio was not-quite-fully operation, some friends dropped by, and a phenomenal luthier from the Santa Cruz area named Fred Carlson was with them. Fred builds some amazing instruments, starting with guitars, but ending with sympitars, harp guitars and other one-of-a-kind works that defy categorization. Check out his site at Beyond the Trees.

Anyway, Fred sat down and performed a song, which I am assuming is called Rattlesnake, but I don’t know for sure. We had one microphone set up hanging above him that captured the performance. My band-mate Nick Peters dug it up from his archives, and I did a little bit of mastering to add some stereo imaging, some gain and to bring out the vocals a bit, since the original recording wasn’t as good as it could have been — the performance was great, but I was a very green audio engineer at the time. It is a fun, quirky song, and well worth a listen. Enjoy!