Stephen Mejias

I brought a bag of tapes to work today.

It's really serious. I mean, in the beginning, you might give yourself a $25 spending limit, knowing very well that you'll find a little spot on the floor, alongside several others who'll be furiously rifling through the dollar bins. You'll almost certainly come away with a nice little stack of a dozen or so beautiful vinyl LPs. And that's all you'll need, really. That's all you'll need.

In a way, I started writing that Ryan Adams piece at the moment I dropped the needle on the record—around two, or maybe closer to three weeks ago now. Words, however, weren't typed onto this computer screen until last Monday. Normally, I don't spend so much time on a blog entry. For better or worse, these entries usually end on the day they begin, but other things—work, Thanksgiving, life—kept getting in the way of my completion of the Cardinology piece. I think I could have finished it all in one day had I had the opportunity, and I also think it could have been a better piece if I had, but I am nevertheless happy with it.

My ears had been bothering me. First my right, then the left. A low-level high-pitched ringing, followed by a congested feeling and a popping like what you get when flying or taking an elevator way up to the 29th floor. Then, one morning in Las Vegas while attending the Consumer Electronics Show, my left ear went whooooooooosh. And my hearing was momentarily dulled—not completely gone, just dulled. Outside sounds were farther away, my own voice sounded distant and muffled. It freaked me out.

Even though my own band has recorded and released a handful of CDs and EPs, the act of making music remains mysterious and awesome. I love it. I’ll never get tired of watching musicians create.

Here, we get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s upcoming album, What the Brothers Sang, inspired by the music of the Everly Brothers.

The problem has not been solved.

When asked how to create a good recording, John Atkinson will tell you to use good musicians in a good room. The people behind Benchmark Media Systems, makers of some of today’s most highly regarded digital audio converters, headphone amps, and mic preamps, agree.