It has taken far too long to get this session edited. It is our hope, dear Hill-sider, that you will accept this offering a suitable reparation. Today we present to you River and the Tributaries.

They arrived from Chicago. Two of them were sisters. One worked a coffee shop. Met his wife, the pianist, and married. There was a fifth member, as well, and that made what together they called Willowfair. Read the rest of this entry »

People come and people go, but there are some who come, leave an impression, and then continue on with their goings. Such was the case The Gunshy during ITH session 13. Read the rest of this entry »

by GREGORY TANACEA

I arrived at the studio just in time to catch the tracking of the final song of this session. Pulling a team together to capture this experience was no easy task. I had to call in my dear friend Daniel - front man of The Ineloquent - who, when it comes to live tracking, is still a bit wet behind the ears. Our usual director was not available, so Aaron, our Renaissance man (I mean it, he is amazing), came up with some visual ideas in less than 24 hours. Despite lack of time and limited experience, the team delivered not only a beautiful production but an experience. When I mixed the session I was blown away. Daniel tracked like a true veteran and Aaron’s visuals were beautiful, perfectly capturing the mood and tone of Aaron Lee Martin’s bluesy folk rock. Read the rest of this entry »

There are times when a good situation takes a bad turn, then turns again. Then again. Each turn bringing you to a new low and with each low you look to the sky and ask what could possibly come next. In the end, you learn — or should I say experience — that just around the corner from your seemingly dismal situation, a moment of beauty was to be born. You learn to step back, breath deep, shake your head, and with a slight smile on your face, acknowledge that the orchestration of such circumstantial extremes, ending as beautifully as it did, could only be the handy work of someone greater than you. Such was the case with IHT session #11 with Eric Nicolau. Read the rest of this entry »

I left a good book Tuesday for the studio a little more hopeful “the boys” could fix my (apparently, it’s not unheard of) crashed Mac than sure of a shoot in a warehouse we third-handedly acquired. But following a truly grueling and moderately costly three and a half hours of shuffle, what pained us to put together turned out to be wildly cool. Read the rest of this entry »