Tune in to KALW RADIO at 2pm TODAY! It’s been a number of years since we’ve had the pleasure of visiting KALW and JoAnn Mar and we’re so glad to be coming back. JoAnn is one of the hosts of their program, Folk Music and Beyond and as well as being a veteran radio announcer and producer, she is also an acclaimed investigative journalist. It’s always a real pleasure to talk music with JoAnn and also play some live songs on the air, be sure to tune in at 97.1 FM or online at https://www.kalw.org/
Postcards From The Studio...
Postcards from the studio...
(excerpts from Sam's journal)
Sept. 29th, 2022 (pre-production)
"The new album begins…We’ll see what working title emerges from the work of being in the studio, but these songs have certainly been born at least partly through some tears and ink. And some perseverance, and doubt, and celebration, and defiance, and hope. And a two-year pause while the world went inside and distant, and we grew with this music in our living room.
Today was devoted to trying out a couple of different ways to approach recording these songs. Essentially, do we try and strip the songs down to their basic parts and build each piece from the ground up, or do we get our basic tracks (guitar, bass and drums) live in the studio and then build off of that? There are pros and cons to each approach, but no matter which way (or ways) we go, no matter what we add to the songs in terms of instrumentation, we want to make sure that the essential nature of what the duo does as a unit is at the heart of it all: the energy, the synchronicity and dynamics, and especially the blend of the two voices, which is where everything is centered...
Because drums will have a bigger presence on this album than on our previous records [...] but we also want to be open to discoveries in the studio, and open to letting the songs grow naturally in ways that still feel connected to their heart. After all, we’re not here to make a live album. We’ve always imagined these songs to be fuller than we what can do with only our two instruments and voices, and so we want give them space to expand and breathe and grow into themselves, in a way.
November 10th, 2022
First official day in the studio, a day later than planned because we needed to say goodbye to good ol’ Arv [Sam’s family’s sweet old lovable dog]…but we carried all that love into the studio with us as we launched this new project. I’m too tired to go into all the details of the day, but here are the broad strokes:
— Started with basic tracks for Threadbare, Anthem, and then Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind.
— We played through the songs in separate rooms, Megan on bass in the bigger room, Sam in the smaller room on guitars. We decided to record the instruments first, in isolation, so that we have separation and therefore the ability to adjust/replace/fix each part in different ways if we want. It’s no easy trick to play the songs with the same drive and vitality and dynamics without singing at the same time. The connection between playing and singing at the same time is hard to duplicate, so that is the main challenge in building the instrumental tracks. It’s easy to lose your place when you’re not singing, so mouthing the words was really helpful in keeping the same energy in the playing, so that that would transfer to the vocals once we overdubbed them.
— Once we got the basic instruments down to our satisfaction we did the same thing with vocals: Megan in the vocal booth and Sam in the bigger room, singing at the same time to the instrumental tracks we laid down earlier. One of the benefits of doing the vocals separately is that we can concentrate fully on singing, and because we could make eye contact through the glass we could stay much more connected to each other and to all the nuances of each song.
— After dinner we got back into Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind. During the vocal takes we felt like we weren’t quite capturing the feel. They sounded pretty good, but somehow the song just wasn’t lifting off. Bruce asked us to pause and went into the house, reappearing with some incense for each of our rooms, and then dimmed the lights. Something about the shift of mood sparked some life into the takes after that change, and we suddenly felt more connected to the song. The contrast between the later takes and the earlier ones was clear, and we finally found the vocals we were looking for.
Tea is always a must …
— Called it a day after listening back to the songs we’d done so far and felt really good about this approach to capturing the basic tracks that we’ll hand off to the drummer. We’re really excited that even though we’ve broken the songs down into separate pieces to build them back up again, they still sound like the songs as we play them live—just incredibly well miked and recorded with a clarity that is impossible to capture anywhere but in the studio.
Watch Our Aurora Connects Interview
**Check out this episode of Aurora Connects** and get your tix for our shows December 16th and 17th in Berkeley!! BUY TICKETS HERE
We spent a wonderful afternoon talking with the amazing Dawn Monique Williams for the Aurora Theatre Company series Aurora Connects, check out the interview about 6min into this video. We talk about how we first started playing together, our relationship with theatre and music, and what influences our songwriting. And there's even a cool story about how Sam serenaded a a crowd in the glen at Santa Cruz Shakes one night when all the lights went out during a production of "Much Ado About Nothing" back in the day! Hope you enjoy!
2018 Pacific Northwest Tour Begins Sept. 22 - Sept. 30
See you out on the road dear music lovers!
Stellar review of 'headwaters' from NO DEPRESSION
It's been just under a year since we released our album, headwaters, and we just got a stellar review from our favorite online music mag! Click the image below to read this lengthy study of our latest work full of praise by No Depression's John Apice. To read the full review click the image below!
headwaters - "perfectly rendered...a delight...of performance and song."
New review of headwaters all the way from across the pond receives the album with "delight"!
Read the full review by clicking the image below.
NPR's Capital Public Radio Interview on "Insight"
We always have a great time talking with Beth Ruyak and the good people at Insight! You can hear our extended interview as well as check out the two live videos we shot that day here. Thank you CapRadio!
'Best of' nods from afar ...
We're thrilled to share that our music has been included on two "best of" lists in 2017. First off, the east coast music blog Cover Lay Down has listed our new album, headwaters, as one of the year's best 'coverfolk' albums!
"Headwaters, the fifth album from California duo Misner & Smith, and their first covers compilation; a homespun collection that finds Sam and Megan, a pair of actors-turned-folk rock/Americana band, yawing wide as they bring diverse songs and influences from The Talking Heads and Dr. Dog to Gram Parsons and The Lovin’ Spoonful into their own sharp and distinctive harmonic register."
Second, the Chicago-based online magazine Consequence of Sound, has singled out our album, Live at the Freight & Salvage in a short list of "Five Great Albums Recorded in Coffeehouses".
"This folk duo is the least-known act on this list, which makes their live set at Freight & Salvage Coffee House the perfect introduction to their work. Over 11 tracks, they treat an appreciative audience to the evocative lyricism of their first two albums—rife with narratives that blend history, fictional characters, and of course, Misner & Smith’s immaculately braided vocal harmonies."
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Photo: Jesse Baldwin
North Bay Bohemian Write-up
If you missed the recent write-up on us in the North bay Bohemian check it out!
NEW ALBUM "headwaters" OUT OCTOBER 3rd!
Here's a little peek at our new album, "headwaters" which will be officially released on October 3rd, 2017. It is our first 'cover album' and it is full of music by bands and songwriters that have and continue to influence us as we create and shape our own songwriting and sound. Get your hands on a physical copy at one of our shows or wait for Oct.3 when it will be available online through CDbaby.
Graphics and design by Kyle Monhollen at 2407 Graphics
With their fifth album, Headwaters (Release date: Oct. 3rd, 2017), Sam & Megan have compiled a collection of songs from some of the songwriters and bands who have and continue to influence and inspire their musical journey. Stripping their sound back down to where it began, this selection of songs was recorded live in the studio and features the duo doing what they do best: creating an incredibly textured and rich sound, full of tight arrangements that cut to the quick of each song's heart, and the lush vocal harmonies that have become their trademark.
As Megan and Sam relate, “At the heart of every actors job is to interpret someone else's words, trying to get to the heart of what it is the playwright is expressing, whatever that particular truth may be. Similarly, a great role, like a great song, has built into it stepping stones to get to the core of the character, or the emotion of the tune. For us, approaching covers is about capturing the essence of the song in our own way. We didn't feel any need or desire to drastically change the songs, or do any sort of radical departure from the original versions. If anything "our stamp" was performing the songs in the most emotionally truthful way we could. We wanted to stay true to the originals because it was the originals that first inspired us, after all.”
Throughout the album, the central focus is the duos stunning harmonies and vocal blend, emphasizing the emotional underpinnings, lyrical songwriting, and poetic language that lie within each song. “America,” and “Return of the Grievous Angel,” two timeless duets made famous by Simon and Garfunkel, and Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris respectively, stay true to their roots, while also receiving a fresh infusion of musical alchemy. Megan takes the lead on Patty Griffith’s painterly portrait of a woman’s thoughts and reflections on her own life on “Making Pies,” while Sam ushers in “City of Dreams,” a brilliant acoustic rendition of one of the rock band Talking Heads slower tempo songs. The ease, warmth, and comfort in Megan and Sam’s delivery is palpable, on “It Make No Difference” by The Band, a well honed staple in Megan and Sam’s set since the duo’s inception.
By focusing on the work of other songwriters, and revisiting some of their influences, Megan & Sam found that it filled their wells back up, reinvigorating their songwriting with a cache of new originals that will find them in the studio before too long. As Megan & Sam write in the liner notes, “Every river has it’s source, fed by countless streams along its way. These songs are just a few of the streams that have inspired our music, and continue to shape us as we roll down the canyon…”
"Next Time Around" Video Premiere by Folk Radio UK
Northwest Songwriting Retreat Tour Announced
Here's some good news for those of you in the Pacific Northwest, we're heading up your way at the end of April for a little songwriting retreat tour. Come out and see us while we're in your town, we'd love to see your smiling faces! Check out our dates below!
Misner & Smith at Kate Wolf Music Festival 2016
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! We are excited to announce that we will be making our debut at The Kate Wolf Music Festival this year! We're so honored to be asked to be a part of the stellar line-up at one of California's finest festivals honoring one of our finest songwriters! So mark your calendars for June 23-26, 2016! Catch our sets on Saturday and Sunday, plus we'll be joining in on a Kate Wolf song circle on the main stage Sunday morning. Hope to see you there! Get your passes and all info about the festival at: http://katewolfmusicfestival.com/
Misner & Smith's Artful Balance - No Depression featured interview with Deborah Crooks
Read up about upcoming projects in the works, balancing our theatre and music careers, and all other manner of little tidbits about our lives as independent artists. Big thanks to No Depression and Deborah Crooks for this featured piece!
The Bluegrass Situation features "Lovers Like Us" for video premiere
Check out the write-up and video premiere for Lovers Like Us featured on The Bluegrass Situation. Video by Pint of Soul shot on location at Little Vineyards Winery in Sonoma County.
