THE MAKING OF STARS AND CHANDELIERS
Stars and Chandeliers features McCormick's songwriting and production at its absolute best. From his slide guitar playing and acoustic finger picking to his blistering Santana style lead guitar, the listener will be captivated by the beauty and contrast of his musical sensibilities. McCormick's vocals shine through in a unique blend of Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earl on the country side, meets Lowell George, Don Henley and Sly Stone on the Rock/Funk side. Other instrumentation includes Hammond B3, Rhodes, mandolin, banjo, drums and percussion.
These songs cover the gamut of Americana in a broad sense, mixing genres with facility and taste. The listener will hear everything from Bluegrass and Country to Blues, New Orleans Funk and Jazz. McCormick turns a phrase like no other, with an ironic and sophisticated wit. Also included is a gorgeous interpretation of Lucinda Williams', "Fruits of My Labor".
McCormick brings his full weight of production skill to this record, recording many tracks with his custom McCormick Audio recording gear, which includes tube microphones, tube pre-amplifiers, tube compressors, and passive summing arrays, to combine old-school analog sound with clean signal path. The result is exquisite ear-candy that leaps off the speakers and tantalizes in the headphones.
McCormick also hand picked his collaborators, including some of the very best to ever record, such as drummer Richie Hayward (Little Feat), bassist and singer Daryl Johnson (Neville Brothers, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris), pedal steel player Eric Heywood (Jayhawks, Calexico, Ray La Montagne), harmonica player Stanley Behrens (Canned Heat, War, Willie Dixon), as well as some of the best and brightest rising stars, singer Heather Donavon (Keb' Mo', Melody Gardot), keyboardist and engineer Eric Lynn (Shangri La Studios) Amilia K Spicer, trombonist Dave Ralicke (Dengue Fever) recording and mixing engineer Kevin Smith and mastering engineer Ron Boustead.
These songs cover the gamut of Americana in a broad sense, mixing genres with facility and taste. The listener will hear everything from Bluegrass and Country to Blues, New Orleans Funk and Jazz. McCormick turns a phrase like no other, with an ironic and sophisticated wit. Also included is a gorgeous interpretation of Lucinda Williams', "Fruits of My Labor".
McCormick brings his full weight of production skill to this record, recording many tracks with his custom McCormick Audio recording gear, which includes tube microphones, tube pre-amplifiers, tube compressors, and passive summing arrays, to combine old-school analog sound with clean signal path. The result is exquisite ear-candy that leaps off the speakers and tantalizes in the headphones.
McCormick also hand picked his collaborators, including some of the very best to ever record, such as drummer Richie Hayward (Little Feat), bassist and singer Daryl Johnson (Neville Brothers, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris), pedal steel player Eric Heywood (Jayhawks, Calexico, Ray La Montagne), harmonica player Stanley Behrens (Canned Heat, War, Willie Dixon), as well as some of the best and brightest rising stars, singer Heather Donavon (Keb' Mo', Melody Gardot), keyboardist and engineer Eric Lynn (Shangri La Studios) Amilia K Spicer, trombonist Dave Ralicke (Dengue Fever) recording and mixing engineer Kevin Smith and mastering engineer Ron Boustead.