Heard a great story on NPR today (thurs.) about this
one-man-bluegrass-band guy in Boston, Eric Royer.

Has anyone seen this guy? He grooves pretty damn nice on banjo and
steel while playing guitar with his feet! ..... Throw in some vocals,
harmonica, and a dancing doll and he really puts on quite a show.

NPR article ........
http://discover.npr.org/features/fea...l?wfId=1330920

Royer's Website ......... http://www.guitarmachine.com/

J_West

Kind of reminds me of Jesse Fuller, who also built a foot operated
bass (he called a fotdilla), and played it along with 12-string
guitar, harmonica and kazoo on a rack, and a foot cymbal.

and he sang through that bullet mic too!


P h i l i p

______________________________

"I'm too ****ing busy and vice-versa"

- Dorothy Parker

Now there's a man that's had too much time on his, er, feet! g

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio

301-585-4681




"Johnston West" wrote in message
m...
Heard a great story on NPR today (thurs.) about this
one-man-bluegrass-band guy in Boston, Eric Royer.

Has anyone seen this guy? He grooves pretty damn nice on banjo and
steel while playing guitar with his feet! ..... Throw in some vocals,
harmonica, and a dancing doll and he really puts on quite a show.

NPR article ........
http://discover.npr.org/features/fea...l?wfId=1330920

Royer's Website ......... http://www.guitarmachine.com/

J_West

You're right. Damned good group. Looks like I'm spending even more damned
money today! g Thanks for the heads up. Gave me some ideas on this
country CD I'm working on that doesn't want to be a country CD, too. Hell,
I might even buy a washtub and string it up now! g

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio

301-585-4681




"Julian Russell" wrote in message
...
Eric is a friend of mine... we busk together at Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market
in Boston... his one man band rig is very clever... the best one I have
ever
seen... bass *and* guitar strummed mechanicaly with his feet... lap steel
or
banjo with his hands... harmonica and vocals... and it actually sound
great!
Not *just a gimmick*... Check out his "real" band sometime... The
Resophonics... really good stuff.

Julian Russell
http://magpiesound.com


"Fill X" wrote in message
...
Kind of reminds me of Jesse Fuller, who also built a foot operated
bass (he called a fotdilla), and played it along with 12-string
guitar, harmonica and kazoo on a rack, and a foot cymbal.

and he sang through that bullet mic too!


P h i l i p

______________________________

"I'm too ****ing busy and vice-versa"

- Dorothy Parker

Hi Julian and Mike, and everyone else. Thanks for the kind words.
I am the one man band guy.
I had nothing to do with the mixing/mastering of the Resophonics
record, not that I know how to do it anyway. I just went in and played
the banjo.
I was talking to Mike Rivers about such things and mentioned to him I
like the sound of the 50's Flatt & Scruggs records, but that's a
little too "retro" for most listeners today I figure, but maybe I'm
wrong. I really like the 60's recordings of the Stanley Brothers, and
most country and bluegrass from the 60's for that matter too, and that
stuff seems to have a little more bass than the 50's stuff (in a good
way). Today's typical recording sound seems too pumped up to me, I
don't understand the technical side so much, but it seems artificial
and exaggerated. Bass seems too loud, highs seem too crispy, etc.
I question myself, wondering if I'm just being nostalgic about the old
records or if they do sound better.
It dosen't really matter does it?
-eric

Hi Eric

Don't get me wrong... the Resophonics record is great.... just *loud* and
perhaps modern ... BTW... "head like a cantalope" has been in my brain for a
while now.

I question myself, wondering if I'm just being nostalgic about the old
records or if they do sound better.

They sound better

It dosen't really matter does it?

Does in these parts!

see you at NM7 (ahem...that's a cool insider thing)

Julian Russell
http://magpiesound.com





"Eric Royer" wrote in message
om...
Hi Julian and Mike, and everyone else. Thanks for the kind words.
I am the one man band guy.
I had nothing to do with the mixing/mastering of the Resophonics
record, not that I know how to do it anyway. I just went in and played
the banjo.
I was talking to Mike Rivers about such things and mentioned to him I
like the sound of the 50's Flatt & Scruggs records, but that's a
little too "retro" for most listeners today I figure, but maybe I'm
wrong. I really like the 60's recordings of the Stanley Brothers, and
most country and bluegrass from the 60's for that matter too, and that
stuff seems to have a little more bass than the 50's stuff (in a good
way). Today's typical recording sound seems too pumped up to me, I
don't understand the technical side so much, but it seems artificial
and exaggerated. Bass seems too loud, highs seem too crispy, etc.
I question myself, wondering if I'm just being nostalgic about the old
records or if they do sound better.
It dosen't really matter does it?
-eric

Hi, Eric. Welcome to the rec.audio.pro news group and tap room.

In article writes:

I was talking to Mike Rivers about such things and mentioned to him I
like the sound of the 50's Flatt & Scruggs records, but that's a
little too "retro" for most listeners today I figure, but maybe I'm
wrong. I really like the 60's recordings of the Stanley Brothers, and
most country and bluegrass from the 60's for that matter too, and that
stuff seems to have a little more bass than the 50's stuff (in a good
way).

As you probably know, a lot of bluegrass bands today are performing on
a single mic, but I don't know that they're recording that way. I
doubt it. It looks cool, but when you're shooting for the perfection
expected in a recording today, most people prefer the safety net of
separate tracks and mixing later.

At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival this year, one of the bands in
the Appalachia program was the East Tennesee State Univiersity
bluegrass band. They played around one mic and the two times I saw
them, plus a radio broadcast (probably from the PA comsole at that
stage) they sounded like a bunch of individual soloists accompanied by
a bass - the bass had a pickup and was, IMHO, always too loud and too
"bloomy" for this sort of band. But the engineer mixing at that stage
has plenty of experience with this sort of music and I'm sure did the
best job he could with what came into the mic.

The old records sound great, but then so did the old masters. We have
some really great bluegrass singers and pickers today, but only about
as many good bands as there ever were (which suggests that a whole lot
of really good musicians are in so-so bands).



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )

In article znr1058397533k@trad, Mike Rivers wrote:

At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival this year, one of the bands in
the Appalachia program was the East Tennesee State Univiersity
bluegrass band. They played around one mic and the two times I saw
them, plus a radio broadcast (probably from the PA comsole at that
stage) they sounded like a bunch of individual soloists accompanied by
a bass - the bass had a pickup and was, IMHO, always too loud and too
"bloomy" for this sort of band.

Part of this probably has to do with the acoustics in that tent just
being really awful.

But the engineer mixing at that stage
has plenty of experience with this sort of music and I'm sure did the
best job he could with what came into the mic.

Was this Charlie? He's a good guy but there's only so much you can do
in a tent with an area mike.

The old records sound great, but then so did the old masters. We have
some really great bluegrass singers and pickers today, but only about
as many good bands as there ever were (which suggests that a whole lot
of really good musicians are in so-so bands).

So, why didn't you drop by at the Folklife Festival? You never left
Appalachia? Chakaal wound up giving an old computer to a fellow from Mali...
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."