Recording Equipment at the Fiddle House - Click here for more
Early in 2000, as they were working on the first Nashville Swing Band CD, Buddy and his partner, Jim Peters, figured it would be helpful if they had their own recording facility. "Buddy works a musician's hours, and getting him into the studio at times convenient to all the others involved, was quite a challenge," Jim explains. Better to take the studio to Buddy.
Buddy
insisted on achieving a classic quality of recorded sound,
so they sought the experienced engineering help of his son, Matt Spicher and Kurt
Storey. Matt has years of experience as engineer for Johnny Cash,
Marty Stuart, and Pam Tillis. Kurt has worked with scores of Nashville
artists, including the great fiddler Mark O'Connor, Bluegrass legend Bill
Monroe, and more recently the Grammy nominee, Victor Wooten. Since
2000, Buddy's son David has " honed his chops" as a producer and
engineer, and has produced almost a dozen albums at The Fiddle House. Both
David and Matt have "mirror" studios in their homes, allowing them
fantastic flexibility to work on projects in between live engagements.
Kurt and Buddy came up with the studio name "The Fiddle House" after completing the CD, "Front Porch Fiddle"; the first album completely tracked, mixed, and mastered in the studio. Kurt was so pleased with the sound he was getting that he began bringing in other clients. Word got out around Nashville, and soon Buddy was being approached by a wide variety of artist-friends, who loved the sound that was coming from The Fiddle House.
"The Fiddle House" has been very busy lately with the production and mixing of several fantastic aritists. Nashville "Super- engineer", Kurt Storey has been working with Ginger Boatwright, Kathy Ciavola, Larry Perkins, and Victor Wooten. Buddy also appeared on Victor's Grammy Nominated "Yin Yang" double album, which Kurt engineered, mixed and mastered.
Kurt recently recorded the incredibly talented Billy Contreras performing six of his own original jazz compositions. Last year Billy was selected for the Kennedy Center's symposium in jazz composition in Washington DC. These recordings serve as "working essays" for this year's program. Its great stuff, and hopefully Billy will release a CD of his original music. Billy performs with Buddy and The Nashville Swing Band every chance he gets. His "new job" as a freshman at the University of Miami, (Jazz Studies Program) keeps him away from Nashville, but big things are brewing for this young man. We're really happy to have him play twin fiddles with Buddy on the CDs.
In addition, Buddy's new Nashville Swing Band albums, he just finished producing an album with his long time friend from Kentucky, Bill Griffith, that includes an eclectic selection of Bluegrass and fiddle tunes. The great bluegrass dobro player, Josh Graves appears with Bill and Buddy on that recording.
David Spicher has been producing CDs for a couple "Fiddle House" projects, including a Rockabilly group wonderfully named "The Dashboard Hula Girls", and the popular Nashville jazz trio, "The Gypsy Hombres", with whom David has performed on bass, including a remix of their Christmas CD, "Django Bells". David has also recently toured with the highly acclaimed trio "Nickel Creek", and tours often with Pam Tillis and Crystal Gayle.
David Spicher Buddy and David at the old Bluewind in Franklin, TN
David produced "Front Porch Fiddle" on which he also bass, and the wonderful talent Shad Cobb plays mandolin and banjo. They capture a beautiful, old-time sound on favorites like, "Get Along Home Cindy", "Liza Jane", "Back Up and Push", and about a dozen others. In addition, he produced Buddy's "Rags to Waltzes" CD, and co-produced "In the Vernacular", and "Nashville Fiddler ". Check out the Recordings link for some MP3 samples.