Many goings on @ The Ranch
Spring is here and we’ve got lots of new projects in the works.
At the top of our list is the Raccoon Gibbs Tribute Album Project. Raccoon was a mutual friend of both Ranch Records founders long before they met who passed away far too soon. He was a truly gifted songwriter who touched the lives of many musicians and listeners alike and whose message and music are more relevant today than ever. Together with several of Raccoon’s musical friends and collaborators we are working on producing quality recorded versions of many of his songs to be freely distributed far and wide.
During an initial 3 day session with Greg Gabor (Coastal Artists/formerly of the Jello Boys – Greg has been a performing professional musician for over 30 years as well as a concert promoter, record producer, studio musician) and Maryland based singer-songwriter Ren Rick, we started tracking on versions of Sit ‘n’ Think, Sparks, & Keepers of the Flame
Listen to Raccoon’s versions:
Keepers of the Flame – Raccoon Gibbs
Learn more about Raccoon at RaccoonSongs.com – a tribute site maintained by John Pedemonti (who will be making a musical contribution as well).
If you are interested in being involved with this project please email christineobx@gmail.com or call (252) 449-8355 for more information. We will be holding the next tracking sessions April 6 – April 10 2011 at The Ranch Recording Studio in Kill Devil Hills, NC.
If you can’t make it down to us we will also accept submissions of either single tracks or whole songs by mail, email, or ftp from anywhere in the world. As long as you have access to a way to make a high quality recording of your parts we can add them to our tracks or build on what you send us and then master it. There are lots of possibilities and we want to include as many people as possible who knew and loved Raccoon.
P.S. – There may be a little pre-production pow-wow at a secret location before the Hampton Coliseum Furthur show on April 1.
…We love fans, groupies, band-aids, & music lovers of all stripes. A big thanks to the very special young lady who took the time to email us looking for some good old THC (The Headstone Circus) shows. Scott used to play with them back in Richmond in the early 90′s and sure enough, we did find a few shows on VHS at the back of the closet. We pulled the one that looked the most promising and remastered it and put it up on the internet archive and YouTube. Groupies rock.
Cosmik Debris – Words and Music by Frank Zappa
Sugaree – Words by Robert Hunter, Music by Jerome Garcia, as performed by The Grateful Dead
Sailin’ Shoes, Hey Julia, Sneakin’ Sally Though the Alley – Words and Music by Robert Palmer, as Performed by Little Feat
We’ll be posting 3 more Headstone Circus shows soon along with some more old shows we found in the same closet – Scott Franson solo & the infamous Goombay’s Smashers featuring Mick Vaughan (bass) and Dan Martier (drums) of TR3
We’ve also been doing more tracking with singer songwriters Rick Yvonne & newcomer Alex Rice and overdubbing horns with Roy Murray and Dan Kozak on everything from free jazz to latin pop – wicked.
More live archives and spring concert update next time! Don’t forget to come see us at Open Mic Night – every Tuesday @ Barefoot Bernies!! Best – Scott & Christine
Hiya, I was reading another thing about this on another blog. Interesting. Your perspective on it is diametrically contradicted from what I read earlier. I’m even now pondering on the opposite items of view, but I’m leaning to a great extent toward yours. And irrespective, that is certainly what’s so perfect about modern day democracy and the market of ideas online.