Tag Archives: 21st Century Rock'nRoll

DownTown Blog – Creating A Classic Rock’n’Roll Sound

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Rock and Roll is what made America great. The music that was created in the USA back in the 1950s was the sound heard around the world. It inspired a generation of British teens who would bring it back to new heights in the 1960s and beyond, inspiring a new generation of American teens to rediscover their own roots. I was one of those American teens who heard that sound and never looked back. I started playing guitar and writing songs, while buying and listening to the greatest records ever made. It was a golden age for 20th Century music, with Rock and Roll front and center.

In 1967 it started to be called “Rock” to give it a more serious image. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band transformed the world of popular music. This wasn’t I Want To Hold Your Hand anymore. FM Radio was giving Radio a facelift with hipper DJs and cooler sounds not heard on the AM side. New publications like Rolling Stone and Creem began to cover and give voice to the artists and take them seriously, no longer fodder for the Teen magazines. The term Rock and Roll became a cliché, used to describe the Oldies shows.

Like most things retro, Rock and Roll has found its way back into the lexicon. Thanks in part to Americana artists keeping the flame alive and those ageless wonders, The Rolling Stones, Rock and Roll is alive and kicking in the 21st Century. The late great Tom Petty shared his thoughts on rock’n’roll in his Musicares Person of The Year speech in 2017. Tom said “I was collecting records—Rock and Roll records. Not rock; this was Rock and Roll. The roll designates a swing—there’s a swing in the roll.”

Yes, for those who are serious about their RnR, there’s a “feel” to playing it that differs from Rock. Some might call it a “backbeat” or a “groove” that is not found in modern rock. I’ve been at this for a while now and I’ve been recording and producing music to make my contribution to keeping the sound alive and hopefully, inspire a new generation to play Rock and Roll and make it their own. With that said, here are some tips:

TIP #1: THE PLAYERS

This is where it all starts. For me it’s about finding the right musicians who know how to play Rock and Roll. I’ve had the privilege to record and play with some great musicians like Garry Tallent and Max Weinberg from The E Street Band. (Hey I’m from Joisey!) I’ve done most of my studio work with the great rhythm section of drummer Steve Holley and bassist Paul Page. These guys know how to play RnR! I know that it’s not that simple and it took me years to get to this point. Like most, I started playing RnR by forming a band. I could probably write a book on this subject. Bands by nature are something special. There’s a certain camaraderie and excitement playing in a band. When it’s working it’s as good as it gets. When it’s not…needless to say, there are not too many RnR bands that make it to the “toppermost of the poppermost”. This doesn’t mean you can’t create classic RnR by yourself. Just check out Maybe I’m Amazed by Sir Paul.

TIP #2: KISS (not the band): Keep It Simple Stupid

Rock and Roll is a simple style of music. It’s best played with a band or group of musicians. Don’t overthink it. Let the rhythm be your guide. Try to keep it loose, allowing yourself to feel the beat with the other musicians. You’ll know it when you’re all in sync and when you are, the fun begins. When I’m tracking in the studio I try to keep the number of takes on a song to 3-4 takes at the most. You want it to sound fresh and not rehearsed to death.

TIP #3: RETRO IS WHERE IT’S AT

courtesy of @markmaryanovich

Rock and Roll is all about the electric guitar and it started in the 1950s when Leo Fender introduced the Telecaster and the Stratocaster, two of the most iconic guitars ever made. Add to that the Gibson Les Paul and ES-335T, along with the Gretsch Duo Jet and 6120 (I can’t forget Rickenbackers), and you have the beginning of the Golden Age of RnR guitars. A new Strat in 1956 cost $175. I have a 1964 Strat that I bought for $150 in 1972…ok, it’s probably worth around $10-20,000 today, but the sound is classic and that’s what you want to hear. I know the prices are crazy now, but you can still buy a good Tele or Strat at a decent price. Also, there are great new guitar makers and modern technology is always improving with plugins and effects pedals that can give you the sound of classic guitars and amps that can be very impressive sounding.

TIP #4: SuSuSTUDIO

Joe DeMaio and SG

Of course, recording on 2” analog tape on a Studer 24-track machine is a sure way to get a classic sound, but Pro Tools has pretty much made that extinct. Nevertheless, if you really want to create a classic Rock and Roll recording, then you owe it to yourself to record in a studio. I feel sorry for the younger generation of musicians today who will not have a chance at recording in the great studios that once dotted the RnR landscape. So many incredible and fabled recording studios have gone the way of the dodo, but there are still some around. Your best bet is to find a studio with a “Lifer” running it. These are the guys that will never quit and are always looking for vintage gear like an archeologist looking for that rarest of finds. They know how to get that classic sound. The early studios like Sun or Chess were primitive compared to what came later, but back in the day, they cut killer tracks. Today, vintage outboard gear like compressors and limiters are highly sought after, along with vintage mics. There’s your classic sound. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore! I’m very lucky to record at Shorefire Studios in Long Branch, NJ. It boasts the last Helios recording console ever made. This was the console used at Trident Studios in London, where all those classic records were made by The Stones, Led Zep and many others. Also, owner and engineer (“Lifer”) Joe DeMaio has all kinds of vintage amps, keyboards, and drums. It’s like working in a RnR museum! lol

TIP #5: EXPERIMENT

Some of the coolest sounds on classic records were created by experimenting. Sometimes trial and error are the way to go. The goal of any classic recording is to create a “Vibe”. That’s a certain feeling a track has that’s just undeniable and undefinable. I like trying to create magic in the studio whenever I can and sometimes that occurs by paying attention to the little things like mistakes I like to call “happy accidents”. You never know when it’s going to happen, but when it does, try to be alert and willing to go with it. Garry Tallent once told me a story that when recording with Bruce Springsteen “mistakes” would occur. Bruce would go home and listen to the recordings, and after much listening, Bruce would not hear the “mistakes” anymore. To him they were now part of the song, and Garry said, the band would have to learn the “mistakes”. 🙂

Rock and Roll has a rich tradition and I’m honored to be part of carrying it on. But this is also the 21st Century with a new generation that can take all the new technology and information at their fingertips and create something that’s never been heard before. All it takes with Rock and Roll is a little inspiration.

DownTown Blog – Fly

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With the release of the 21st Century RnR album, I felt like I had made peace with the end of an era. The songs represented the best of the work I did with my engineer of 20 years, Ben Elliott. It was time to move on and I was ready to do it. The release of the 21st Century album was timed with going into the studio to record new material in a new studio with a new engineer.

For 20 years I had recorded at Ben’s Showplace Studios in Dover, NJ. The studio was gone with Ben so I had to find a new place to record. Change was in the air. I sold my house of 40+ years during the Covid Pandemic and had moved 80 miles south down the GSP. A year after Ben’s death I closed on my new house and realized I was only a half hour from Shorefire Studios in Long Branch, NJ where I had recorded the On E Street sessions with Garry Tallent and Max Weinberg. 

Shorefire Entrance

Garry was a co-owner of the studio then and I hadn’t been back since he sold his interest in it. A guy named Joe DeMaio had bought the studio. I didn’t know Joe, but as it would turn out, we had many things in common, including being guitar players. What was amazing was how we had managed to never meet before I walked into the studio in January of 2022. My fellow compatriots in the enterprise were 2 old friends–Steve Holley and Paul Page. It had been a while since we had played and recorded together.

Paul, Robert & Steve

What I didn’t know was that Steve had been working with Joe at Shorefire for 20 years! As is usually the case, we picked up as if we had just seen each other yesterday. Covid had surely changed everything but some things never change, and as far as I was concerned, that was definitely a good thing. 🙂

I found out very quickly just how fast and on target Joe DeMaio is as an engineer. Setup was a breeze and Joe had the sound of the drums down with very minimal sound checks. We were recording from the word go. That was something I was not used to. But Joe knew the sound of his room. Having briefly talked beforehand, Joe told me he had set Steve’s drums up like Ringo’s kit and that was no exaggeration because they sounded great! Also, Joe had replaced the original MCI board with a classic Helios console, one of the last to be made. This was the console used in all those classic 60s and 70s recordings in the UK. It had THE sound!!

Joe DeMaio at the Helios console

I was originally planning to work on 5 songs but we ended up recording10 tracks. One of the songs had different versions. I was not a real fan of a song called Fly. I mean, I liked it but it wasn’t exciting me in its original form. What was exciting me was doing a different version of it ala Buddy Holly. Paul was very much for doing it but Steve was a bit reticent about it. He thought it was a great song and was afraid I would release the Buddy Holly version instead. However, he finally agreed to record a BH version, setting up his drums like Jerry Allison, the drummer for The Crickets.

Now you’re probably thinking, Buddy Holly?? Yes Buddy Holly. In fact, the original title of Fly was Buddy Holly. That was before I had any lyrics. For some reason, I kept hearing Buddy Holly influences in the music on the demo. So much so, that I wanted to record a version that was based on Buddy’s Peggy Sue. And we did! I still have some work left on it before I can mix it, but this track will be released someday! 🙂

Robert on the Breedlove

It was the original version of Fly that we cut that would take me by surprise. I knew exactly what acoustic guitars I was going to record on it, including the 12-string Rickenbacker. What I didn’t know was that the 12-string Ric would be recorded through an early 60s white Vox AC30 with the Blue Celestion Alnico speakers…a Beatles geek orgasm if there ever was one! The Ric sounded amazing through it! The song took on a whole new character for me after that. There’s a bit of a laid-back Tom Petty feel to it that works really well. Recording the vocals was a breeze and it would be the 1st song I ever had Steve Holley sing harmony on.

The day before he came down to record vocals, Steve had lost one of his oldest friends. He seemed to be in a sad place but I think having him come down to record vocals helped to lighten his load a bit. He had some ideas for the harmonies that made me rethink the parts of the song. One was in the main refrain which acts like a bridge in the song. I had recorded a high harmony on the demo but Steve didn’t hear it that way. He heard a lower harmony for it and I was glad he did because I wasn’t sure about the harmony on the demo.

By not singing a harmony over the lead vocal on that part, it allowed me to keep the focus on the main melody and that was helpful. But in working on the song, it took on a zen-like quality for me that I had never experienced before. The mix was one of the easiest I’ve ever done, which owes a good deal to Joe DeMaio’s engineering. But it also had a very calming effect on me, which was odd. The song somehow transformed into something I really dug and I decided I had to release it as the 1st Single from the sessions! 🙂

Fly was recorded in January and February, mixed in March, and released in May. To date, it’s getting airplay on 100+ stations in 25 countries around the world. I also decided to make it my 1st single release at AAA Radio in the US in over 6 years. That just might be too long a time to be away but I also decided to release the song When The Angels Sing as a AAA Exclusive and part of the Fly single release. Steve also sang harmony on that track, but I’ll save talking about it for another day.

Fly just seems like a song for this point in time. I wrote it during the Covid lockdown and I think it speaks to a lot of people around the world who just want to get out and about again. At the time I wrote it I was just trying to lighten up a bit from some of the more intense songs I was working on. But as I played it for people, their feedback made me look at the song in a totally different way. It’s not easy trying to put complicated ideas in a simple straightforward way, which is what Fly seems to do. It’s one of my favorite tracks now.

All in all, I’m having the time of my life working with Joe D. at Shorefire. I’m a retro-sounding artist that has to deal with “classic rock” comparisons but that’s what you’re going to sound like if you’re trying to compete with recordings made 50-60 years ago. It comes with the territory. In doing so, I don’t sound like anybody else and having the chance to work with a Helios board only enhances the sound. Also, these are much different recordings from any others I’ve done before and a challenge to me as a producer. I could not ask for more! 🙂

DownTown Blog – 21st Century Rock’n Roll

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I decided to make a statement with the release of 21st Century Rock’n Roll. I’m releasing it the day before my 70th Birthday…so how’s that for a statement? Being an artist is not what it used to be, or is it? It’s not like it was in the 20th Century, that’s for sure. More importantly, I wanted to make a statement with regards to the current state of Rock’n Roll.

Right now, as far as the venerable genre goes, the only thing I can see out there are The Rolling Stones, speaking of venerable. I look at this as a good thing because it helps me make a case for 21st Century Rock’n Roll. The Stones are really the only band keeping RnR alive. Why 21st Century Rock’n Roll? Well, despite being compared to classic rock artists like Tom Petty and sometimes being classified as classic rock (really?), I don’t think my music could exist at any other time than now. There might have been a few years in the early 80s for a few of the songs, but on the whole I don’t seem to fit in any other time than the 21st Century.

The truth is I don’t really sound like anyone out there. My shorthand for my influences is Buffalo Springfield meets Rockpile. These are not 2 bands that sound like each other and were certainly not as big in their day, but both were highly influential. From the 60s, Buffalo Springfield spawned Stephen Stills and Neil Young and led to CSN/CSNY. Richie Furay and Jim Messina left to form Country Rock pioneers Poco. All of these artists and groups had a big influence on my playing and writing. In the 80s, Rockpile, formed by Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, were at the forefront of New Wave. It was at a Rockpile show in Asbury Park, NJ that inspired me to create DownTown Mystic, albeit years later.

To make my RnR statement on 21st Century Rock’n Roll, I chose what I would consider to be my most rocking songs. These are not necessarily all my best songs but they are mainly my most rocking ones. Most are up-tempo. I like to think that I probably put out the most up-tempo tracks out there. Up-tempo tracks are generally considered harder to play and require a certain amount of skill from the musicians. Rockpile was an up-tempo kind of band, with great players, which is probably why I favor them. Of course, The Beatles were also a huge influence and I always looked forward to what new up-tempo songs they would record.

Ben Elliott

The other thing about this release is my chance to honor the late Ben Elliott, who was my engineer for 20 years. He sadly passed away in April 2020 as did his beloved Showplace Studios. Ben’s as much a part of 21st Century Rock’n Roll because his sound is on display. Our goal was to make records and I know we succeeded with these tracks. Just ask anyone who has tried to write and record Rock’n Roll. It’s not as easy as it looks. It’s all about great sound and getting that sound. Ben was a master at it. It’s definitely the end of an era for me, which is probably the main reason for releasing 21st Century Rock’n Roll.

To have these tracks that Ben engineered, at this point in time, is truly a blessing. It’s no surprise that Keith Richards name would also come up now. I mean, why wouldn’t Keith Richards name come up when you’re talking about Rock’n Roll? Keith Richards, the architect of The Rolling Stones brand of RnR and myself, have something in common. That something is actually someone, namely Ben Elliott. Keith met Ben at Showplace when Ben was working on Howling Wolf’s guitar man, Hubert Sumlin’s album About Them Shoes. It was sort of a tribute to the guitarist featuring Keith, Eric Clapton and Levon Helm among others.

Ben & Keith (photo courtesy Arnie Goodman Photography)

Ben must have hit it off with the Stone s legend because soon after, Keith hired Ben to be his personal engineer at his Stamford, CT home studio. Ben’s stories about working at Keith’s were hilarious as well as interesting. I think the other thing I have in common with Keith Richards is our love of all things GUITAR. My recordings are all about GUITARS as are Keith’s. The other thing is the SOUND. You can’t have one without the other when it comes to recording them. Keith knows something about sound, as well as guitars, and that’s why he had Ben as his engineer.

To me, Keith Richards is synonymous with RnR. If there was only one photo to have next to the definition of RnR, it would be of Keith’s face. Even before Chuck Berry and that’s saying something! Keith has doled out far more riffs than anybody I can think of that have any meaning. Yes, Chuck is the Father of RnR but it’s the Son who took it further. Keith took it to another level as an artist, particularly as a Recording Artist. That’s also something Ben Elliott gave me. I became a Recording Artist because of Ben and I will always be grateful to him for that.

Ben & Robert