Greg Leisz is an absolute heavy weight artisan in the studio & on the road. He's worked along side most of the apex greats in the music business over the last forty years and he's earned the Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalists by the Americana Music Association. All Music Resume 

In the Studio

I was honored to get the call from Greg to record this track (in which he also sings lead and harmony on) for the compilation tribute album for one of his mentors the great Buddy Emmons. 

I seem to recall we began with a low pulsing drone for a rhythm created with the pedal steel & then recorded the acoustic guitar, weisenborn , mandcello , harp guitars & then Greg played the pedal steel from the control room. I recorded the steel with 2 Coles 4038 ribbon mics. Last Greg put down a vocal , layered it & added a harmony and that was that.

Biggest lesson learned from Greg - whenever possible (which should be always) do not rush the hunt & don't get frustrated or question what the hunter is hunting for. Just OBSERVE what they're hunting for and OBSERVE how they hunt for it (that is to say - what you do not or can't see yet). 

 A couple of weeks later Jay Bellerose & Jen Condos added the drums ,bass & shaker at their studio. After that Greg returned and brought in Sara Watkins to add a sweet harmony vocal & fiddle. 

I suggested to Greg  "hey why not reach out to Jim Scott to mix?"  Knowing that Jim and Greg are good friends and that we'd all worked together before, Greg agreed and fortunately so did Jim.

Working with Greg in the Producer capacity is where my production skills really began to be cultivated. My musical taste, style & interests all changed after working with Greg and the many artists he has brought through or referred over the years.