I have been an active studio guitar player in Los Angeles since the 80’s, working on a variety of albums, movies, television shows and commercials. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s I used my Eventide H3000SE to get a great “produced” guitar sound on pop & rock.
As Etta James’ Musical Director and Guitar Player for 25 years, I’ve won Grammys for co-producing two of her Blues albums. Working on Etta’s album, “All the Way” in 2006, we had an unfinished version of “I Believe I Can Fly.” Normally I left the “rack gear” at home when working with Etta—she was the Real Deal and we kept everything pretty raw—but this album was an exception because we were doing more contemporary material.
While Ed Cherney worked on mixing the rest of the album, I added some direct/clean arpeggios at my home studio using my guitar and the H3000SE. Ed approved the tracks and mixed them nice and loud. With Dave Mathews’ great sample-based orchestration and Etta’s always stellar vocals, we wound up with an inspiring version.
“All the Way” was released in May 2006 on RCA Victor. Etta James passed away in January of 2012.
Guest Blogger
Josh Sklair
Guitar Player, Composer, Producer
http://joshsklair.com/
