On the Digital Edge

I am now enjoying my eleventh year mixing FOH sound for James Taylor and his Legendary Band. I have come to believe the word “Legendary” doesn’t begin to describe the musical talent present on the stage each night. Throughout his career, James has always assembled an astounding group of musician’s musicians who each contribute their wondrous virtuosity to the performance.

Today, I am enjoying a Sunday off in a hotel room outside of Youngstown, Ohio. As I write this article, the NASCAR race from Pocono Raceway is just getting underway. My laundry is now done. After finding the nearby Starbucks, I then enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the bus in the hotel parking lot. Sounds idyllic enough, doesn’t it? Actually, today is only notable when viewed in contrast to yesterday’s workday at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. However, before discussing yesterday’s events, I need to skip backward in time one more day.

Coinciding with the June 16 release of the Before This World CD, the James Taylor organization scheduled a series of television and radio performances to showcase many of the new songs. Before This World is the first collection of all new material written and performed by James Taylor since the release of October Road in 2002. The level of anticipation was very high and the pre-release reviews had all been extremely positive. We were prepared for a very busy and exciting week in New York that would include appearances on the Today Show, The Tonight Show, Live! With Kelly and Michael, Late Night with Seth Meyers and a live Sirius/XM concert broadcast from the Apollo Theater.

My good friend, Professor Ken Lopez, often asks me to appear as a guest lecturer for his classes at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. In his music production classes, Ken and I customarily discuss career path vectors, both in my specific case and for employment in the music business in general.

While the title of this column is “On the Digital Edge,” there are times when everyone needs to jump away from the edge and relax a bit. Days off while on tour provide this necessary refuge. This precious time is often reserved for sleeping, doing laundry, hitting the hotel gym or doing the little things that help one privately recharge during a 24-hour respite from show day pressures. However, while on tour in Europe, the opportunity to experience many beautiful places and art masterpieces on our days off is, by far, the more attractive choice.

Last month, I wrote about the projects and events that keep me busy when I am not out on the road working behind a mixing console. However, over this past weekend, I participated in a project at home in California that truly got this year off to a great start.

Traveling around the world and performing in a different city each day, it’s somewhat difficult to establish a lasting sense of continuity within one’s daily professional experience. We consecutively encounter venues that vary in age, size and architectural design — with each structure presenting its own unique set of physical and acoustical challenges. One of the few constants on a world tour with a major artist is the presence of those few pieces of essential gear that we carry everywhere with us. For example, I have been mixing on the same DiGiCo SD5 console since this tour began last May. It is both the cornerstone and the centerpiece of my mobile office.

The James Taylor tour recently completed its seven-week European itinerary in London. My original intention was to spend a few extra days in that familiar and beloved city following the final show at the Royal Albert Hall. During that stay, my day-off-buddy and monitor engineer, Rachel Adkins, and I had planned on hitting up some museums, eating great curry, taking a drive out to Stonehenge and catching up with old friends. That appealing script, however, had to be altered before we even left the USA.

Preceding our European tour in the summer of 2009, with the lyrics of Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Sea Cruise” floating through our minds, the James Taylor crew boarded Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 for a transatlantic crossing. As romantic as this ocean voyage adventure seemed before we cast off in New York harbor, reality presented a rather different version of the story for those of us on the crew. For the majority of the time spent on this legendary luxury ocean liner, we were confined in a cramped salon on the lowest deck of the ship, setting up and working rehearsals with the band. Aside from the two shows James and the band performed on the final days of the voyage, the most memorable highlight of the cruise turned out to be a lengthy tour of the engine room given to us by the chief of engineering.