All Wood And Led
NEW RELEASE!!!
The long-awaited collaboration of James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro, ‘All Wood And Led‘, an acoustic treatment of the music of Led Zeppelin, is finally here!
The idea for this project was Dan’s. He loved what I did with the Stones and the Doors and thought that Led Zeppelin would be a great next project. For myself, I had no familiarity with the catalog until Dan sent me their entire set of releases which I listened to only once for reference, after which we went after the reinventions.
Deconstructing and reconstructing the tunes in the manner of the CD’s All Wood and Stones and All Wood and Doors. This is the fourth recording in the series.
We sincerely hope you enjoy listening to this recording as much as we did creating it.
– James
Who Dunnit?
James Lee Stanley – Guitar & Vocals
Dan Navarro – Guitar & Vocals
Chad Watson – Bass
Washington “Smowdown” Tahr
– Drums & Percussion
cello by Phantom Airman
Tool Box
Guitars:
2001 Taylor 810 CE
1996 Martin D28H
1995 Collings D2H (Brasilian Rosewood / Adirondack Spruce)
1974 David Russell Young Dreadnaught
1941 Gibson J-50
1999 Martin Backpacker
1964 Guild Classical Mahogany
Ibanez Bass
Fender Jazz Bass
Various percussion thingies and drums
Plug-ins:
Universal Audio
Cockos
Sonic Foundry
Native
TC Electronics
Microphones:
AKG 414 EB ULS (Stephen Paul Mod) Beachwood
AKG 451 condenser
CS15E Cardiod Condenser
Octava MK 219
Espresso Machine:
Solis Crema SL90 / Switzerland
Recorded at Beachwood Recording using Reaper DAW with a Dayner mixing console from D&R of Holland – 48 input, floating subgroups, 8 sends
Track Notes:
- We wanted to start the recording really simply so that folks would know that this wasn’t going to be just covers of raucous rock and roll, but acoustic reinventions of the tunes. Love when the harmonies kick in. And Dan is singing great.
- This was the first one we did. Dan came over and we sat in the studio and put this together and then just recorded it into my phone. Then two years went by and I found the recording but didn’t know who it was at first.
- The ethereal stinging guitar in the background is actually the guitar from our session at Dan’s home which I recorded on my fon. We recorded each tune on the fon as we figured out what we were doing to it. Upon recording the tune, I missed the way that one guitar sounded, so I recorded it right off my phone and that made it even more other worldly. And then I wove it into the song here and there.
- Took the title from the notes that Dan made and couldn’t read his writing. Did the best I could with it and we sent it off to mfg. When we got it back we saw the error. So the first run has the typo, but subsequent runs will be correct. Our reggae ganja moment.
- Somehow in the studio, after I had done my lead vocal, Dan said, how about if I put an astenato underneath. So that’s Dan doing his best digeridoo, on the bottom, occasionally aided by a real cello.
- We decided right off that we were not going to do this one, but somewhere along the line we did, and I went crazy on the guitars. It might be my favorite cut. It seems to have it’s own atmosphere.
- The Willie Dixon tune re done as a samba. This was the first thing I ever heard by Led Zepplin. Didn’t ponder it for a second. Just started playing it as if it were written by Antonio Carolo Jobim.
- I remember when we were coming up with this arrangement, we just kept playing that guitar figure for hours and singing over it. Really a pocket full of gold. Romantic piece.
- Dan had written Hey Hey Luck on the top of the lyric sheet and that’s what I thought it was until he corrected me. Lots of harmonies, which I love doing.
- Loved the melody on this so much. Tried to invoke something that I hadn’t ever done on a vocal. And Dan and I did all the harmonies, on the whole CD of course, but something special happened here.
- Love the way Dan sings this. Great voice. I put that major guitar figure in the intro and then thought that it might be fun to change it to a minor figure on the tag. Love the drums too.
- I remember putting down that first guitar lick and really digging it, and then I remembered a really surprizing figure in a Michale Jackson hit and thought I would try something funky to go along with the Travis picking. We didn’t want to stop playing this puppy, it was such fun.