Gary Powell, Composer/Producer

by Gary Powell

One of the best aspects of working as a producer for Walt Disney Records is the variety of song styles and orchestration they ask for. Sometimes this calls for discovering talent such as a new Pink, or Julie Andrews, or Jiminy Cricket or, in this case, Johnny Mathis. Believe me that it is much easier to identify a current-day pop singer than a fabulous crooner like Andy Williams or Johnny Mathis. In this case, the song was the 1963 Christmas tune, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Eddie Pola and George Wyle. They also wrote “I Said My Pajamas (And Put On My Pray’rs)”. George Wyle also penned the theme song from “Gilligan’s Island”!

I’m very open to discovering talent…..not press release talent……not headshot talent…..but the real thing. Enter Craig Johnson, sometimes known in the professional conducting world as Craig Hella Johnson, who is the artistic director and founder of Conspirare, a nationally prominent and professional choral ensemble based in Austin, Texas. The recording session took place in my Austin recording studio on July 13th, 2005.

I knew Craig had a broad interest in popular and varied vocal styles. We’ve had several conversations on that subject since meeting in 1990. Our paths run in non-conincidental circles, so this was our first time to work in the studio together. Most singers from the classical world don’t fare well when asked to deliver stylistic nuances not usually present in the classical genre. Popular singing is more about what happens at the intersection between notes and classical singing is more about what happens on the note itself. In the studio, all rules are off and every vocal nuance comes under negotiation.

And what a negotiator Craig is! He moves in and out of beautifully round tones with ease and poises a musical phrase for expression like a cat ready to pounce. This is what makes my job exciting. Craig and I had fun sculpting his Johnny Mathisoinan performance and it was a pleasure working in the studio with this consummate musician and singer. I think we’ll be conspiring together more very soon.

by Gary Powell

Last night was just plain fun recording Meredith McCall, Alicia Jones and Laura Benedict. All three singers have been working here at Powell Studio Productions for decades and will have their rich histories documented here soon. Together we arranged the parts for two songs on the spot with the girls in front of the mics. With no notes written, we call this a “head-chart”. I had worked out some ideas before beginning the session, but nothing was written down. It’s an exciting way to create group vocals. I have a midi keyboard at the mixing console and together we create the voicings (how the notes of each chord are stacked and who sings which one) and then the singers deliver the performance on the spot. It’s dazzling how quickly this process goes forward with experienced and talented singers with studio experience.

The first song was a remake of “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”. Laura Benedict reminiscently sang the lead of Brenda Lee’s signature performance. Laura then stayed to sing the background vocals with Meredith and Alicia. We decided not to reproduce the “choir-like” squaresville vocals of the original. We went with a three-part texture that was sung with a more typically modern pop vocal sound.

The second song was one of my new Christmas songs for children. The arranging technique became more interesting as we progressed through this theatrical piece. In the song’s prologue the BG vocals were used to accentuate the interesting harmonic changes (IE, the single line melody was sure to include the augmented 5th of the augmented five chord.)

It made for a nice etherial element emphasizing the harmonization choices. Next the girls picked up on the fun bass guitar part of the choruses by doubling the bass two octaves up with their best upright bass thumping vocal sound. Next, we found a few lines of the lead vocal that we harmonized in a single part a third above. At the end of the song we sang in three parts for the first time to support the big ending. None of the three parts doubled the lead vocal as we decided to keep the voicing tight and underneath the lead melody line.

We cut all three girls using a mid-side micing technique with two AKG-414’s running through Mark McQuilken’s RNP (Really Nice Preamp). I have found this mic configuration only works when using very experienced singers who can manage to learn their part on the spot, deliver a perfectly in-tune performance and “mix” themselves as it all goes down. These skills can never be taken for granted just because someone is an awesome singer. It’s something entirely different from being a solo performer.

Thanks you guys for a really fun night.