We left off in the year 1978, when I was still doing quite a few demos for various songwriters. As I previously mentioned I was doing work for arranger/producer Don Costa. Don had a small studio in Hollywood where we recorded lots of demos for a songwriting team that he…
Posts Tagged with Benny Hester
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 7
So we are now entering the 80’s where I did the bulk of my session work. As I said in the last installment, when I did the Yvonne Elliman session for Steve Barri, my buddy Jay Graydon who was also on the recording date was essentially getting out of the…
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 21
Well, today we are going back in the time machine again. This week I am compelled to tell you my Jeff Porcaro stories. The Porcaro family had moved to Los Angeles in 1968, moving to the San Fernando valley. I was in high school at the time, and had a…
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 22
Hi all, here is installment #22 After the Benny Hester sessions with Jeff that I talked about last week I just kept booking what I could. The Supertramp and John Fogerty gigs were certainly in the rear view mirror at this point and I was really not looking to go…
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 23
Ok so here come the 90’s. Big changes afoot. First, the session world while still viable in LA, was thriving in Nashville. There began this mass exodus of LA studio musicians to Nashville. It probably started in the late 80’s but really took off in the early 90’s. Did you…
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 24
So we left off with the last sessions I did for Michael Omartian in 1990. The record was for Raymone Carter. The dates were at Omar’s studio in the valley. At that session I remember having a conversation with Michael about the state of the LA music scene. He was…
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 26
So here we are in 1992. Survival time. Our son Eric was born in 1991 and I remember a saying my good friend Rob Dekarr said to me before Libby and I had children. Rob is a great guitar player and we had a band way back in the late…
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 27
So on Thursday June 25th and 26th of 1991 I did a live recording for Maranatha Records with Tom Brooks producing. I had been working for Tom for awhile and this particular gig was in Dallas TX. Abe Laborial was always on these gigs, but was busy on these dates…
The Life and Times of a Second Call Studio Musician Part 28
Last week we visited the “Roundhouse”. That show ran for 4 seasons from 1992 through 1994 and was on air from ’92 through ’96, 52 episodes in all. Great gig. Life saving to be quite frank, as sessions were somewhat limited. While I was able to keep doing some sessions,…