Two producers walk into a bar — a chance encounter with producer Miles Wilkinson led to a live recording gig for Scott Nolan
Co-Dependents’ producer brings his mobile studio back to Alberta
It’s a songwriter’s wet dream. Your second album No Bourbon and Bad Radio soaked up the No. 1 spot on the national campus radio folk-blues-roots chart ahead of Corb Lund and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. You’re touring the album sound-checking at the first of 40 road gigs when in walks a pair of guys just looking to grab a meal. Next thing you know you’re chatting with Nashville producer Miles Wilkinson and booking yourself back into the venue for a live recording.
In spite of the years Winnipeg musician Scott Nolan spent scratching out a living while the yellow lines of the highway matched the red ones threading his tired eyes as he troubadoured ’round the country it was a rumbling stomach that brought him face to face with the acclaimed producer. By way of career highlights Wilkinson engineered Anne Murray’s massive classic “Snowbird” worked on The Band’s legendary The Last Waltz and captured Calgary’s beloved Co-Dependents at the Mecca Café. Those Mecca recordings remain two of the most listened to albums recorded within Calgary’s city limits.
Nolan’s trademark smoky witty grit was ahem music to Wilkinson’s seasoned ears. Those ears earned a reputation while producing or engineering for Guy Clark Willie Nelson Long John Baldry and Great Big Sea among others. “Tim Leacock (Co-Ds National Dust) and I were heading to the Ironwood for a bite to eat and Scott happened to be playing there that day.” Wilkinson says. “I said to Tim ‘This is exactly the type of music I want to record.’”
Some might wonder why one of Nashville’s most experienced producers was even in Calgary and what it is about Alberta that keeps drawing him back. “Well it’s really hot in Nashville in the summer so I learned it is much more pleasant to be out of town then” Wilkinson says with no trace of irony. If you were to look at a stack of albums with Wilkinson’s name on the credits there’s a suprising number of Alberta-based musicians. “It does seem like there is a concentration of outstanding talent within the province in general” he says.
Wilkinson created a Transportable Audio Work Station (TAWS) to record talent in their accustomed settings just like the Co-Ds at Mecca. Inside three large cases on a truck he transports equipment that combines the warm sound of analog recording with modern digital methods. The TAWS has travelled from Austin to Alaska and Wilkinson says he has a broker to pre-arrange all border crossings ahead of time. “I learned that one the hard way the first year after being stopped and having to explain too many times.”
He and the TAWS were in town recording The Fates when he went for that crucial meal. Because it is a lot of work to set the mobile studio up Wilkinson figured he might as well get two nights of recording out of the deal. Thus as a bonus Tuesday night sets by Calgary’s Lorrie Matheson and Jasmine Whenham will also make it to tape.
Wilkinson’s yen for Alberta sounds comes naturally. The Canadian-born producer’s home base was Toronto where he was Anne Murray’s guitar player for years before moving to Los Angeles in the ’70s to work with Emmylou Harris producer Brian Ahern. Ahern had acquired an early form of the mobile recording truck which Wilkinson helped design. During this era he engineered remote recordings for the soundtrack to the movies A Star is Born and The Rose . He moved to Nashville about six years ago to continue the tradition.
For all his involvement with these legends most Calgarians are curious about his work with the Co-Ds. “Well of course it was amazing working with Billy just because of all he’s done in his career” Wilkinson says. “He was always so professional when we were recording a real veteran. But the thing about The Co-Dependents was you had three strong songwriters and singers in one band; it wasn’t just Billy.”
Wilkinson says that in getting ready for the upcoming Ironwood recording of Nolan he has not listened to the two live albums previously recorded there Kris Demeanor’s Party All Night recorded in 2003 and Tom Phillips and the Men of Constant Sorrow’s King of the Broken Heart recorded and released in 2004. Instead all he needs is a few minutes alone with the room to gaze at it think about it and understand its aural secrets. “Usually when I get to a live venue I just study it study every surface in silence for about 15 minutes and then I know how it will sound” he explains. “At the Mecca the only change I made was to put up a curtain along the wall behind the band.”
