About A Fix Back East

Credits and Recording Info

Musicians on A Fix Back East :
Michael Tarbox, guitar and vocals
Johnny Sciascia, stringbass and vocals
Daniel Kellar, violin and vocals
Alan Sheinfeld, drums
Howie Ferguson, drums
Rob Hulsman, drums

Producers: Jim Dickinson, and Messrs Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie
Mixing: Slade and Kolderie
Mastering: Emily Lazar, The Lodge, NYC
Assistant Mastering Engineer: Sarah Register
Art Direction: Steven Jurgensmeyer
Back Cover Photo: Walter Crump
Website Design: Christopher Najewicz

Most of the the songs on A Fix Back East were recorded at Sounds Unreel Studios in Memphis, with Jim Dickinson producing. Alan Sheinfeld plays drums on all of these tracks. The songs recorded in Memphis include: Were You There?, Country Blues, No Night There, Honey Babe, Cloth of Gold,  The Shining Sun and From The Algiers Station.

A second group of songs was recorded at Camp Street Studios in Cambridge, MA, with the team of Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie producing.  Our friends Howie Ferguson and Rob Hulsman played drums at these sessions.  The songs recorded at Camp Street are: Already Gone (Howie Ferguson, drums); A Fix Back East (Mr Hulsman, drums);  Last Month of the Year (Howie Ferguson, drums) and Ashes To Ashes (Rob Hulsman, drums).


About The Songs

1. Already Gone
A duo with Howie Ferguson on drums. I started the song in Memphis, but didn't have lyrics till we got back to Boston, where we recorded it with Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie.

2. Were You There?
This song is based on the old spiritual "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord." This track is part of a continuous take that I thought was us learning to play the song; Dickinson didn't tell us he was recording. He played back part of we'd done and said we had a track; we agreed.

3. Country Blues
This song was written by the great Dock Boggs, of  Daisy, Kentucky. Alan Sheinfeld on drums, Johnny Sciascia and Dan Kellar on percussion.

4. A Fix Back East
Elegy for what we thought we knew...  the unseen intruder, obedience in the dust.  This song happens at night. We did this in one or two takes at Camp Street, Rob's moody drumming underpinning all...Johnny and Dan knew EXACTLY what to play without having heard the song before the session.

5. No Night There
I first heard this song on a wild recording of DC Rice and his storefront gospel group. Trumpets blaring, rickety pianos, a back-and-forth duet with Rice and a lady with a high squeaky voice.  A good argument for why musicians might consider abandoning their tuning devices.

6.  Honey Babe
Another drum and guitar song, this one recorded in Memphis.  Stark amphetamine sound, with Alan's shuffle pushing everything on... This is a rough mix, meaning that this is the first mix we made, for use as a reference, with the intention of later creating a different, hopefully better, mix.  Listening back later, though, it seemed just right.

7. Cloth of Gold
There are few lines among these songs that are somehow what the album is about, and "Let the waves and the water lull my soul to sleep" is one of them. 

8. The Shining Sun
This song is based on a short story by Thom Jones.  It's about taking control - any kind of control - when that seems an unlikely possibility, and about what people will do to take control...

9.  From The Algiers Station
I played this on guitar for a long time before realizing that, without my noticing,  it had somehow become a song. I've always been drawn to circular, repeating instrumental passages....

10. Last Month of the Year
A traditional song... We'd played this a few times in the studio and were never happy with the results; after awhile we concluded that the song was mysteriously unrecordable. We taped this very much thinking that it just wouldn't happen, and I think we were all surprised when it did.

11.  Ashes to Ashes
A murder ballad/travelogue; I almost didn't include it, thinking it too harsh - I didn't want to take responsibility for writing it!


Michael Tarbox, 2004