Singer-songwriter-guitarist Justin Tracy has been recording his fourth studio album at The Woods over the last couple months, with Todd Adelman recording and co-producing. The album is called Five Fathoms and is slated for a 2024 release.
Justin was recently joined in the studio by jazz legend Don Byron, who added clarinet to the song “Simple Life.” Don has been nominated as a composer for both a Grammy and Pulitzer, has released a dozen albums as a band leader, and has performed with the likes of Bang A Can, Bill Frisell, Reggie Workman, Living Colour, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Susan Vega, and more.
A bit more about Justin: Singer-songwriter Justin Tracy was born and raised in London and currently lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is a multi-instrumentalist with a focus on acoustic guitar and voice. He is also a record producer, composer for television and film, arranger, and vocal coach who recently hand-built his recording studio, Hurley Sound Studio. Justin began his career as a jazz drummer performing with acts including Earth, Wind & Fire at the Nice And North Sea Jazz Festivals. Justin is a self-taught guitarist and recently worked with acclaimed tabla player, Nilesh Jhadav on his albums Bangla Motor (2011) and Mumbai Night (2017).
Suzy Thompson is a fiddle player who has have devoted her life to the pursuit of weird and obscure old-time American music – warped fiddle tunes in odd tunings, cinematic ballads, country blues songs that contain mysterious metaphors, early Cajun music with incomprehensible French lyrics and backwards chords. In addition to her rhythm-driven fiddling, she is a powerful blues singer, influenced by Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith, and a highly respected blues guitarist.
Suzy swang by the studio recently to record with a group of Woodstock legends — John Sebastian, Cindy Cashdollar, and Molly Mason.
John Valesio was the engineer.
We were super stoked to have Leif Vollebekk in the studio recently. Lief was recording some tunes with engineer John Valesio. Woodstock legend Cindy Cashdollar joined for some magical lap steel and dobro playing.
Leif is a Canadian indie folk singer-songwriter, whose 2017 album Twin Solitude was a shortlisted finalist for the 2017 Polaris Music Prize and the 2018 Juno Award for Adult Alternative Album of the Year. His fourth album, New Ways, was released in 2019 on Secret City Records
Cindy Cashdollar received five Grammy awards while playing for eight years with Asleep at the Wheel, and has also backed such noted performers as Bob Dylan, Leon Redbone, Redd Volkaert, Carla Olson and Ryan Adams as a member of his band The Cardinals.
We were lucky to have Kevin DeForrest at the studio recently, working on his new album, tentatively titled “One More Time Today.” Kevin seemlessly blends elements of blugrass, country, and folk into his timeless compositions.
Check out Kevin’s Kickstarter campaign and related blog post about the sessions here.
For these sessions, produced by Todd Adelman and engineered by John Valesio, Kevin was joined by a fantastic band:
Kevin DeForrest – Vocals
Jim Christie – Drums
Taras Prodaniuk – Bass
Doug Pettibone – Electric Guitars, Pedal Steel Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Dobro
John Putnam – Acoustic and Resophonic Guitar
Brian Mitchell – Piano, B3, Accordion and Wurlitzer Electric Piano
From Kevin: “The Band. That’s a whole lot of musical experience and expertise in one snapshot. The skill and creative insight they brought into the studio is evident on the recording – 4 days, 14 songs. Better yet, the kindness and friendship they shared with me is a gift I’ll keep with me forever.“
All the photos here were taken by James Kegley.
One of the many great things about the location of our studio is its proximity to Woodstock, NY, a town with a rich musical history. The area attracts some incredible talent. You can’t shake a stick without hitting a world class musician.
To wit, we’ve recently had the honor of hosting Larry Campbell, John Medeski, and Jefferson Hamer, who all tracked on Todd Adelman’s upcoming album.
Here’s keyboard maestro John Medeski (of Medesiki, Martin & Wood) wrecking our Farfisa.
And here’s Jefferson Hamer singing some sweet harmonies.
The new single “January” from The Century Band featuring Marc Delgado, recorded at The Woods recently, is now available on all platforms.
Marc writes: “A collaboration w a ton of friends!!! The whole thing was put together by our pal from NYC Dan Klug of The Century Band. He wrote the tune & played piano! It was recorded & engineered by Todd Adelman at his amazing studio here in Woodstock. Co-written & produced by Justin Tracy. He also played acoustic guitar, drums AND keys!!!! Todd Nelson played slide guitar and James Alanson Kirk played bass. Co-written & sung by yours truly!!”
The video footage was shot by Tim Geaney and edited by @l.ittle.bit, @richardhll and Mimi Young.
We recently had The Century Band (featuring Marc Delgado) at The Woods for a day of recording with Justin Tracy producing.
Marc said: “Fantastic day of recording at The Woods!! The vibe was spot-on. Everybody had a great time and the sounds and gear are second to none! Best studio experience I’ve ever had… period!”
In addition to Marc, the band featured Justin on drums, Dan Klug on Piano, James Alanson Kirk on Bass, and Todd Nelson on guitar.
Todd Adelman engineered the session.
The Woods was truly inaugurated in late April, when Todd Adelman recorded his Seventh full length album with Danny Blume producing. Tracking was for Todd’s forthcoming release Western Soul, due out in late 2022.
The band recorded live to 16 track 2 inch tape at 15 ips on an Ampex MM1200. Todd and Danny were joined by engineer Nic Hard, as well as Jim Christie on Drums, Taras Prodaniuk on Bass and BGVX, Doug Pettibone on Electric Guitar, Resonator Guitar, Dobro, Pedal Steel and BGVX and Pete Rubens on Piano and BGVX.