Andrew McKnight

April 18, 2025

Long day today! We took awhile fixing a couple of technical glitches before retracking one of our earlier songs that we felt we'd done a tad too slowly. Then it was on to arrangement run-throughs and tracking for Stephanie's “Song for Pearl” and Les's “Sailing”. By the time we were done adding a little this and a little that, including a couple passes at the electric guitar break in Sailing, it was deep into the evening. A fun and productive day to be sure!

Here's a few images from the day to enjoy. Meanwhile, the overdubbing begins in earnest again this week on the songs we've laid down - stay tuned for a busy May!

 Stephanie did guide vocals and scratch acoustic guitar in the control room for the rest of us to record our parts.

 Dustin gearing up for the days session - a good one but a long day too! 

 Lisa says the waiting is the hardest part!

View from the guitar chair waiting for the tape to roll.

Less is more, but more Les is best!

Ready!

April 4, 2025

Today was back to the grindstone day in the studio! Now that we're through our March 30th show at Earp's (great turnout, thank you Fairfax!), we've got a few weeks open before we start rehearsing again for summer concerts and festivals.

We've already recorded the basic tracks for all of the “drum songs” we've been playing, so now we're back into the catalog revisiting, rearranging and polishing three songs that never really got as much airtime as everything else. Stephanie wrote “A Song for Pearl” for her grandmother at least 20 years ago, and she and Les have performed a lovely fingerpicked guitar duet version for many years. “Sailing” was Les's first original song in many years, and it's both incredibly catchy and a challenging arrangement at the same time. We did both during the 2010s some, and thankfully got a good live recording of both to use as a template as we bring them into the studio.

“Quiet Revolution” was one of our first co-writes, featuring Lisa on lead and Stephanie on secondary vocals. It's elaborately orchestrated even between the four of us, and we started co-writing easier songs that quickly bumped it out of our show. Topically it is ever more timely now, so we've been diving deep into deconstructing and reconstructing some of the basic rhythmic foundations as well as doing some lyrical work to really hone it into something fine.

We spent quite a few hours playing, discussing, experimenting and ultimately capturing the most up-to-date revisions on an iPhone before we called it a day. No pics to share because we were all using our phones for other stuff - lyrics, reference tracks, audio recording. These next couple weeks Les will start tracking his octave mandolin and banjo on several of the songs we've already “framed”, and vocal sessions probably not long after that.

But, we're set to head in and lay some tracks this coming Friday for “Pearl” and “Sailing”. We have both fairly well arranged for the basic tracks, but the arranging continues throughout the recording process, as we record other instruments and vocals, and ultimately sculpt away the excess and “didn't quite fit” bits into a finished mix. That's a fascinating process to share too, but we're a ways away from those blog posts just yet ;)

Stay tuned! Pics and maybe some video to come with this Friday's post.

February 18, 2025

It was good to have all five us back in the studio tonight! We laid down the basic rhythm tracks for “Steal Me Home,” one of the songs we were arranging last week. Per usual (unless he's playing bass), Les can't play along with us unless we set him in an entirely different section of the building or else his instrument mics will pick up drums. That left him with time on his hands, some of which he used wandering around with my camera! I hope you enjoy the between takes mischief he captured too.

And while we're still a long way from being finished, at this point we've recorded the basic tracks to over half of the songs - pretty good progress between our busy schedules. How lucky we are to have Dustin running our sessions smoothly and efficiently so we are able to get a lot done with great energy.

Are y'all ready in there yet?

You tell us!

The production team - so much planning goes into making digital recording projects go smoothly. The more you've thought it through from tracking to final mix, the more easily you can adept to spur-of-the-moment ideas. That allows us to focus on playing our parts well; free of delays and distractions. And perhaps a little sleight of hand along the way ;)

February 15, 2025

When we planned this project last autumn, our goal was to record as much of the material that we've written and performed together over the past 15+ years. Some of those songs are in our regular setlist, while others got left on the shelf for a variety of reasons - starting with a show can only be so long!

One thing they all have in common is that we've developed concert versions, often with extended jams, audience sing-alongs, and other elements that optimize the experience of being at a live performance. A studio recording is obviously different; there's no audience energy to include as a “5th member” of the band, but there are also no limitations on the amount of voices or instruments. Here we're limited more by our creativity than any other factors, but the end result is often a shorter, more concise and more produced version of the song. Arranging is really the process of developing a version of the song.

I often tell my students that a good song is like a nice car, and how you arrange it is where and how you drive it. I have recorded three very distinctly different arrangements of “Chemical Voodoo” from my 2nd album Where This River Runs. In addition to the original album version, I typically do it solo on the lap slide guitar, and with Beyond Borders we've done a more electric guitar and percussion arrangement.

So a big part of our work together is to collectively develop the studio arrangements, and it is an opportunity to revisit those “on the shelf” songs and change them up a bit. Yesterday's session we focused on “Steal Me Home”, which has a really cool Cajun groove with Les playing accordion, and Stephanie's “Song for Pearl” which is softer and more acoustic. We have a recording of a 2014 show where we played both songs, and we really loved the arrangements of both songs at the time - “Pearl” sounds sort of like a Cowboy Junkies or Cranberries type treatment compared to the two guitars and two voices version Stephanie and Les typically do together.

Arranging is a creative art too, and the give and take of collaboration is what makes a successful musical ensemble really gel. Using our 2014 versions as a template, we made some changes, did some experiments, and collectively settled into how we want the basic foundation to sound. Arranging songs for a lengthy project like this requires enough vision to leave space for other things we may or may not add later. Truthfully no one really knows how it will turn out in the final version until we're actually hearing it all put together. 

And to me, that's always exciting - anticipating the unknown and having little ideas drift into the creative conscious about various small elements to try, and especially hearing something larger created in the end.

Sunday February 9

With Les on the road out west a couple weeks with John McEuen, Dustin and I teamed up for several sessions to start laying down my acoustic guitar parts over the rhythm sections we've tracked. 

Prior to adding more tracks though, there is always some basic editing work to do on the bass and drums. There is a natural bit of imprecision with human tracks relative to programming beats, and that establishes the “feel” of a track. Every now and then we play a beat a little too much slightly late or early, or hit a wrong note - things that are easily edited, and in our case, usually by selecting another of our 2-3 takes for that short segment. Sometimes we do it because “I liked that drum fill on Take 2 better” - often simply a matter of taste! We edit those rhythm tracks before we add any more layers, so that rhythmic imprecisions don't multiply with successive instruments laying down their parts. Editing is an art and craft unto itself, and Dustin's skills make everything seamless and smooth.

Once we're happy that everything lines up nicely and “feels good”, then we start layering the other rhythm instruments. Because I've been in the same room with Lisa recording her drum tracks, I've done all my basic tracking with electric guitar - even on the acoustic songs because the drums would be heard all over any mics we put on the acoustic. Those “scratch tracks" help everyone know where we are in the song until we're able to add the other instruments and vocals, and if we don't need them in the final mix they are discarded once we're done. 

Recording with microphones is another studio art unto itself. Choosing the mics that capture the full range of sound, placing them properly, and finding the best spot on acoustic instruments to place them properly takes some time and trial and error. Humans move around a bit while they play, and it's important to try to get into the same position if you have to get up to get water or use the bathroom, etc. Science helps! Once we've got that set up the way we want, we measure distances and angles, and take a few pictures for reference too.

Dustin and I have worked together a LOT over the past 6-7 years! Once we're set up and ready to “roll tape” we slip into a really easy and relaxed workflow quickly and efficiently. We get a lot done in relatively short order; we'd get a good rhythm guitar on the first take, and then record a second pass as a “safety take" in case we find a moment that didn't sound or feel as good on the first take. Then I'd add another layer with my solos, breaks, fills and the other fancy stuff. I'm actually personally pretty jazzed about how our arrangement of the traditional tunes “Red Haired Boy” and “Salt Creek” are coming together.

We knocked out “Gatlinburg” and “Guitar Man” with its “Bill Cheatham” outro in short order over a couple sessions with my Martin guitar, then did the “Red Haired Boy” suite on the Fairbuilt. Different tones and different playability influence my choices, but truthfully I'm happy as a clam with either guitar in hand, and hopefully you can hear that on the final recording. 

More about arranging in the next blog post - another big part of our project.  

Dustin has his hands full between the audio recording and filming our sessions for future use too.

That face!

This all seems very complicated.

Let's just say Dustin is NOT a fan of “fixing it in the mix”; let's record it right from the get-go.

January 24, 2025

We missed a snow and minor injury recovery day a couple weeks ago, so the last two weeks we've been busy laying foundation tracks for several other songs. The studio does pose a bit of an access challenge in snowy weather, and we've not only had snow, but frigid temperatures turning every footprint and tire track into thick ice. Thankfully we've been able to work around those challenges with only one temporarily stuck vehicle and no frostbite. All in the pursuit of making art! 

These have been some musically interesting sessions for a variety of reasons. Last week we laid down the pieces of our medley of two traditional tunes, a nod to the influences of our elders including the legends with whom Les and his bandmates once upon a time made a record. Unlike a “traditional” approach like a bluegrass or oldtime band might take, ours involve some creativity in openings, segues and arrangements. While “Red Haired Boy” and “Salt Creek” will be familiar to fans of that music, our arrangement includes some quintessential Beyond Borders twists!

Because we are using a click track for all of the ensemble recordings, and each of these bits might be at a different tempo, we have to record them as separate pieces and then assemble them into a single production. If we screw something up in the pre-production planning, the ripple effect can be significant!

Each of us plays multiple instruments, but when we do shows we generally can only each manage one at a time (although Lisa and I both do change instruments mid-song on a couple of songs). In the studio, those limitations disappear. So today's agenda included two Lisa classics, her hilarious “I Love Lincoln” and the sultry blues of “Heavy on Your Lips”. In concert she takes center stage with her guitar and voice, but today she created drum parts for both and played them for the first time. And Stephanie, normally on bass, plays Lisa's drums set during “Lincoln,” so we actually have recorded two complementary drum tracks along with Les's regular jazzy bass line. On both songs, I did my best to cover Lisa's guitar parts adequately enough on a guide track to “feel” right for each of us overdubbing our parts later on. She's a fine guitar player, and her rhythms are obviously pretty sophisticated to copy!

We've also got the video cameras running now, capturing us at work and at play between tracks too. It sure would be nice if we had a couple people dedicated to helping us manage that content capture and crafting some social media clips. It was wonderful today to have Larry Zarobinski again helping Dustin running the recording and the filming.

My job, aside from making sure everyone is fed well when we break for lunch, is planning and managing the production schedule. We're being efficient, using the drum and bass set up we took the first day to dial in, and recording all of the songs that use that configuration first - get those 12 mics and triggers tuned into the drums once and record them for three months.

So I'm always looking at the next 2-4 week horizon and giving a heads up what songs are coming up on the schedule. Each session I have a goal and an additional song ready if we have time; a “stretch goal” that we've reached at each of our recording sessions. We've been good, but we've also been efficient; most everything is captured for final in 2 or 3 takes.

Coming up next: my first acoustic guitar overdubbing session of the record. Les will be busy doing shows with John McEuen quite a bit over the next month, so the big goal was to get to this point, where we could individually start overdubbing our instrument and vocal tracks. Since Les is producing the recording as well as playing and writing the music, not only is his to-do list of overdubs getting long, but the mice will play while he's away and he'll surely find we've left him some surprises ;) 

We're also happy to have your questions and comments - please feel free to ask away or just chime in to cheer us on!

LUNCH 1/17 - Steph's tomato soup and Lisa's chicken salad, fab!
LUNCH 1/24 - Sausage, sweet potato and kale stew, mmmmmm!

The man chilling while supervising.

What IS that chord you play there Lisa? 

It's this one. (Abm7b5, of course)

Our crew is SERIOUS! 

 And our band…..

is not!

Pretty fancy cameras capturing the day's work, and thanks to one of Dustin's Swiss Army Knife of high-tech skills, he's got them all synced to time code. That lines the different camera angles up perfectly for editing.

January 3, 2025

While we're front-loaded on the recording agenda with the 8 or 9 songs we've been playing a lot since summer, we are also planning to rework some songs that have been on the shelf for awhile. Today Dustin wasn't available to run a recording session, so we instead pivoted towards arranging and tweaking a couple of those songs.

It would have been an interesting session to film, because the four of us are each veteran songwriters on our own, with our own sets of tools and experiences. Collaboration can be a messy business, and I feel like one of my most important roles is to help navigate that process to a satisfactory end without anyone feeling like they weren't heard or respected. While we can each be a bit headstrong, we start with the desire to make something work better if we can.

So we got under the hood on a relatively simple song that Lisa and I both felt needed a bit of a different kick in a couple places for energy and dynamics. We tried a handful of different ideas and approaches, and after an hour or so we'd dialed in a couple of chord changes and very minor melody alterations that did the trick to our collective satisfaction. I find that it is easier to dig in when I'm able to voice a “big picture” question about how something affects the overall feel of a song, or sometimes how a song works within a set of songs. And my super-talented bandmates are always willing to discuss those questions, and most of the time something we like better results. It can literally be anything - an energy thing for me, a lyric thing for Lisa or Stephanie, often a “feel” element for Les.

It is quite a wonderful thing to be “in the room where it happens” with these three! I got so wrapped up in what we were doing on several levels that I forgot to take a single picture - even of the snow falling hard outside the studio window. It just added to the beauty of the creativity mystery.

Back to rolling tape next week - a busy couple months on the agenda.

December 20, 2024

Today was our last session for the year, and caps an excellent head start on our 2025 recording project. The tally at this point is basic tracks  recorded for the first four songs, and we've got a workflow and process taking shape to make headway on all of our drum tunes at a pretty good clip over the next couple months.

My personal goal for this blog is to give you a peek at one way of recording; what works for us as four veteran musicians with our own experiences and creative sense meshing together on music we've created and performed, but also framing it with our collective artistic vision. A big part of that is capturing a live feel to our music, and yet giving ourselves the flexibility to get our parts done well.

That means for this batch of songs with drums, we record them with the upright bass and guitar all at once, but on separate tracks. Since I'm playing in the main studio room with Lisa, I'm using my trusty Stratocaster directly into the console for everything, as any live mics will pick up drum sounds too. For the two songs we did today, “Guitar Man” and “Gatlinburg”, I'll have to track my acoustic guitar separately - the process we call overdubbing. Les's octave mandolin and banjo parts will all have to be overdubbed as well as the vocal parts. We don't even need to all be in the studio at the same time for that, so we're especially enjoying the “team” recording time. 

Stephanie's son Dustin has long been the house engineer at Cabin Studios. We first worked with Dustin on both video and audio for our One Virginia Night CD/DVD set over a decade ago. He engineered my Treasures in My Chest solo record and led the massive “forensic engineering” project that brought to life our late-1980's Nor'easter album Calm Before the Storm. Dustin has also done a lot of work over the last couple years with fiddler and singer/songwriter Kate MacLeod as well as the Orange on the Blue Ridge project led by Furnace Mountain Band. His combination of audio sensitivity, technical skills, attention to detail and diligence make him an incredible resource. Not only do the sessions run smoothly, but we never have to worry about backing up the recording data, or maintaining the software and hardware so integral to studio function. 

We get into a bit of a schedule now for the next couple months, and it's kind of amazing to imagine where we might be by the end of February. We've certainly enjoyed the process thus far, and we're hoping to do some filming soon a la the wonderful Beatles Get Back! documentary; the creative process behind the scenes as well as capturing some of the spontaneous magic that happens even with songs we've been performing for a decade. One listens with new ears in the studio, and that inevitably leads to new ideas and flourishes.

Next on the agenda? Our take on a couple traditional pieces and a bold new arrangement of one of the songs I cowrote with one of our wounded warriors as part of the Music Therapy Retreats. Stay tuned, and thanks for following along!

LUNCH - Drew's turkey chili.

Lisa getting ready for a take, and testing out a new drum fill idea.

Stephanie's always ready, especially when she's got the magic aura appearing in the booth with her!

December 16, 2024

The first day on any sizable recording project is largely consumed with set up - getting everything properly miked and wired, isolating the instruments from one another so they don't “bleed” (drums being heard on bass mics for example), getting all the recording templates set up in the control room, and mixing the individual headphone channels for the players in the studio. Once you have it set up, you're ready to roll, and you go in every day and roll until it's done.

Our situation is a little different since we're not doing the more traditional approach of go in and record an album in a week or two, then make way for the next project. We have our “home” at Cabin Studios - a fully featured studio belonging to Les and Stephanie; complete with Les's gold and platinum records for Will the Circle Be Unbroken hanging on the wall in plain sight. While we are set up, Dustin will still be able to record the occasional small acoustic project when we're not working, which is probably going to be a day or two a week over the winter months at least. 

Of the songs we're recording, we've been rehearsing and performing more than half of them for the last few months. We're playing them tightly and comfortably, and it makes sense to start with those songs to get our “studio bearings”.

Our plan is to lay down the basic rhythm tracks live as an ensemble for each song, then take our turns overdubbing the vocals and  “melody instruments” (acoustic guitar, banjo, octave mandolin, accordion etc.). That plan is a bit complicated by the fact that five of the 16 songs on our initial agenda have no drums; the four of us are accustomed to playing them together in a circle with our acoustic instruments and singing. It will be a significant engineering and production pivot when we are ready to turn our attention to that batch of songs, so the “drum tunes” are first on the docket. 

It takes a while to organize a workflow and a process, and organizing and planning that out with Dustin and Les is one of my big responsibilities. We're all seasoned pros with a lot of experience, but having a good plan and a lot of of conversation as we go makes it easier to get the best out of our diverse songs as well as varied personalities and strengths, while optimizing the pros and cons of various technical tools like the recording software. 

With all the planning and preparation, our first day in the studio was a smashing success! Thanks to Dustin's longtime friend and ace shred guitarist Larry Zarobinski lending a hand, between us all the drums, bass and electric guitar rig were miked, wired and ready to work right after lunchtime. Lisa, Stephanie and I laid down the basic tracks to “Til the Well Runs Dry” smoothly and we were done within a couple hours. I took the opportunity to lay in the lead guitar break as well. 

We're gearing up for the next session of basic tracking this week. We'll have more photos and videos, little teasers, and my bandmates will occasionally weigh in on this blog as well. We're glad to have you along for the journey!

LUNCH - Drew's homemade chicken tacos

Cabin Studios house engineer Dustin DeLage at the helm, aided by Larry Zarobinski

Studio work involves a lot of waiting around, and these two talented musicians do it in style; they are ready to rock when the production team says "let's go!"

The view from behind my seat - the Strat and the Line6 Helix ready to make some cool sounds together!

December 13, 2024

We're just a couple days away from our first recording session at our home base studio, the place that we've called home as a band for going on 17 years now. In that room we've practiced, recorded, created, brainstormed, and maybe most of all, laughed riotously. In a sense, what we're attempting to do here is capture and preserve the best of that work for you to enjoy anytime you want instead of having to be at one of our rare public appearances. 

In the olden days, just the base of songs we intend to record would have easily been a double album on vinyl. We've created and finished a lot of songs, many that we've “road-tightened” in rehearsals and on stage, others that we left a little raw for one reason or another. And there is an incredible wealth of iPhone voice memo recordings from rehearsals and creative moments on our own, holding seeds and saplings of a whole lot more music.

But, let's be real - the recording industry for us indie artists is pretty much a wasteland compared to even 10 years ago. None of us make any real money selling our albums or singles anymore; our relationship with music has been irrevocably changed by streaming. There's little hope of recouping recording costs through sales, and only the bands who are touring heavily are really generating enough revenue to offset it. That doesn't bode well for creating and producing great music going forward.

So why are we doing this? Firstly, because we can. We do have a studio at our disposal, and while recording costs money, it's a lot less for us than if we were having to go elsewhere. 

Secondly, because we've made some good music and we are all burning to not only preserve it, but produce and present it in a format that can be enjoyed anytime and many years from now.

Although none of us are magically getting any younger, Les in particular is a goodly ways along the road of life. He's survived cancer, several major surgeries and countless other career-impacting injuries and conditions. In spite of that, he's feeling better than he has in a long while, and his wrist pain that kept him from playing banjo the last few years has disappeared. He's also been touring pretty hard with fellow founding Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member John McEuen since 2013, and let's just say that they are a long way from the teenagers who started the band. Their tours involve a lot of airports, hours of rental car drives (sometimes after a show to catch an early morning flight), load-ins and sound checks. It's rigorous for musicians half their age! 

While the road and their fans are hugely supportive, their shows are centered around the Will the Circle Be Unbroken album and the early days of the NGDB. Our band has long been Les's primary creative outlet as a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, singer and arranger. It feels fitting for his legacy that we record these songs he helped bring to life to the best of our ability while he's still in fine playing and singing form. There's no reason to wait, and lots of reasons why we shouldn't wait. We're all old enough to know that nothing in life is guaranteed, and thus no point letting procrastination have a seat at the table.

As to the what we're doing, that's a good question. What I know is we'll record all of the songs, and we'll capture a lot of video in the process. The songs will be available in some format or another when we're ready. We'll certainly chronicle that process on this blog, so please do follow along! We will definitely have an ongoing social media presence for the project, at least at Facebook, YouTube and perhaps Instagram and Blue Sky as well. When the time comes, we will have a crowdfunding campaign to help us get the music out there to the best of our ability too. We don't have a hard deadline, but we're hoping to get a lot done before spring. 

What I believe is that we'll also create some new work along the way, and that's exciting. We intend to have some sort of release event at our hometown theater next November, and that would be filmed and recorded as well. We may make a film from the video footage in the studio. We may press some CDs; something to have artwork associated with the project. We may collaborate with some visual artists for certain songs. We'll certainly be pitching the music to film and TV as much as possible too. We're also open to other possibilities and ideas too, particularly from the people who are most “invested” in our art; our family, friends and fans who follow and support us. 

We've learned enough in our time together in the music business that the landscape may again look a lot different next year. So first we make excellent recordings of our songs, and then figure other aspects out as we go.

Most of all, we're glad to have you along for the ride! You are always welcome to comment on our blog posts, and we'll try to approve all of them as quickly as we can. We're all grateful for your enthusiasm and support, and we're looking forward to making a lot of art in this coming year that you will enjoy time and time again.