The frequency I work, at celebrates a 25 year anniversary this year, though I’ve been there a few years longer. During this time, I have worked for 6 different owners, in 3 different building locations. Over these 25 years, I have mixed, recorded, and remixed hundreds of in-studio radio sessions. Some performances happened off-site, at venues and record stores.
Realizing all of my backups that remain are on varied media, I tore the house apart looking for a laptop with a CD player in it. Lacking one from work now as well, I borrowed one from engineering. I found master files on USB drives, hard drives, laptops, DAT tapes, and CD’s. I listened to all of them. I set the best ones aside, and remixed the older ones with the new knowledge and equipment that I have, after many classes and years of mixing. After weeks and hours of sorting and remixing, I presented it to work as an idea to continue celebrating our 25th anniversary. I wanted a way to thank our listeners on Thanksgiving weekend, for their continued support. I presented it to the bosses and held my breath, it was thankfully encouraged without hesitation! I was going to crash so hard, if it wasn’t.
We immediately got our first sponsor, Live Nation. My friend Kristine works there, but years ago she worked at our station. I invited her in to re-live some memories. This is the podcast you’ll hear on this page. She also helped me track down a missing song from EastMountainSouth, when they played one of our Concert For Cause events.
Most of these times were magical. A few things I can’t share on the air include one of my favorite jazz bands. It was a group we didn’t even play at the time that is huge now, with an epic female vocalist. I begged my boss to get them in to perform, even though we didn’t yet play them. The sound guy went out on a limb to intimidate me. I prefer mixing solo, so I can concentrate. He said they would refuse to play if he couldn’t be in the room. It’s a tiny room. I told him he can’t touch anything. He stood close enough to me I could feel his every breath on my hair. I could see the reflection of his crossed arms in the window, and watched him wave his arms around wildly signaling them various things. It was so distracting and discouraging. I went to their show later that night and watched him run sound. While listening closely, I noticed 4 voices. Only 3 people were singing. He had created a false harmony on one of his rack units. I could see how he’d maybe convinced the band he was irreplaceable, which was a shame because this group sounded stellar in an acoustic environment.
Sometimes bands you’ve never heard of are bossy and ridiculous. Sometimes you get someone like Emmylou Harris, who is grateful for you taking the time to mix her. Joan Baez, classy all the way. Edwin McCain spent nearly the entire day with us, so many hours we weren’t sure what to do with him! I had a boss who offended Lyle Lovett by making fun of Texas, and Lyle never stepped back into our studio. That boss, last I heard, is selling cars in Montana.
Some artists are no longer with us. We had sessions with Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots. Frightened Rabbit. The Portland band Amelia. They all signed our wall at one location or another.
Once I mixed Nickelcreek in the Cottage Room at Idaho Botanical Garden. I was interviewing them as well, and had schlepped tons of equipment all in one trip across the grounds. I set up 2 small cameras, my digital recorder, and a mic for the stand up bass. They wanted to use their own bluegrass mic so they could stand around it. The sound guy was like, “They’ll be here in 5 minutes, you better be ready.” Nickelcreek is a favorite of mine, so I was pretty nervous. At one point while they were doing a song, one of the cameras was starting to fall down. I grabbed it, trying to be discrete, and duct taped it to my microphone stand. I saw Sarah Watkins glance at it and give a little grin, but they said nothing about it. It’s one of my favorite performances.
There was a Jake Shimabukuru performance at the Record Exchange, but the audio engineer told me I wouldn’t be able to use it because of a ground hum he couldn’t get rid of on the ukulele. It took me about 40 minutes, but I fine-tuned a notch filter that completely removed it. There’s a lot of learning on the fly, which makes it so fun.
Suzanne Vega and this guitarist who had played for Bowie and some other epic groups, did a session at The VAC for us. I had everything set up and running great, but then the guitarist wanted something louder. I was nervous and said, “but everything sounds great on this end.” They switched his amp out for an old Fender with an output that shorted out off and on. It broke my heart. I had to edit some of his lead out and try to make it sound normal.
If you’re interested, I have a YouTube page (roxxboise) with tons of sessions I’ve mixed for both 94.9 The River, and 100.3, The X. That station is a whole ‘nother long story for another day. Check out the sessions HERE. The videos aren’t great, but the remixes are pretty good. I do not monetize it, so the artists can make money from their songs. As of today, it has 4,873,257 views!
The first version of our station eventually went on the market, and it was at a time I had a major surgery. We had a scheduled session with The Indigo Girls. I didn’t want to miss it, and was afraid of getting fired by new owners. I was supposed to stay home another 2 weeks via Dr. orders, but I drove the drive nearly to Kuna, holding my guts at every pothole. I even went to the show that night at BSU Pavilion, I took a pillow with me to protect my guts. My friend told one of the bouncers she was afraid I’d get hurt, they put us backstage on some VIP bleachers to see the show and it was amazing, and safe!
It was also at this time we had a catastrophic hard drive crash at the station, I hadn’t yet backed up a few sessions and they sadly seem to have disappeared. One of them was with Jewel, I’m so sad to not have those.
The early days didn’t have any videos, so Thanksgiving weekend will be a chance to hear many of those early songs. Some will be for the first time, as I have discovered many in the past few weeks.
At a Sheryl Crow Meet & Greet years ago at Idaho Botanical Garden, a listener asked me if I ever got tired of these things. I looked over at Sheryl Crow smiling in the sunshine awaiting winners, and said, “Never!” I felt the same away with Nathaniel Rateliff a few years ago, and The Head and the Heart this year. I hope you will enjoy the songs as much as I’ve enjoyed mixing them.
Rochelle Smith Productions 