Produced by Van Dyke Parks;  Cover Art by R. Crumb!

Reviewers Get Spooked

Early reviews are coming in for Spooked, the latest and greatest album by Marley's Ghost. Reviewers are lovin' it and you will, too.

The best place to get Spooked is straight from the band at a CD Release Concert, see the list, left. Or you can order now from Sage Arts.

Meanwhile, here are review excerpts:

• “No parlour tricks, no 'bits of undigested beef,' just solid musicianship and imagination.” – David Kidney, master reviewer, music production editor, GreenManReview.com
  

• “The first thing that drew me in for this CD was the incredible cover design, drawn by legendary underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. That and the involvement of Van Dyke Parks. The music is eclectic, ranging from old string band style (a favorite of Crumb's), to straight up country, to good ol' fashioned gospel. All played with skill and heart. This one just begs for a press of the "repeat" button.” – Michael Buffalo Smith, Gritz.net
  

Of course we've saved the best review excerpts for last...continued on page 2

Van Dyke Parks

Van Dyke Parks  Photo: Auston James

“...They're really a fabulous group, and they have great individual merit, so the priority on the record was to show everyone's strengths the best I could.

“I tried to strengthen the groups conviction. For example, I insisted that they do things to bring enunciation to the parts that they played. We’d double guitar parts with an attack on another instrument using techniques that I’d learned from people like Brian Wilson.

“I mean, I dragged these guys through the production mud. I’ve never worked harder or had more fun on a record. I never have.”

Sound Rated at 11

MusicAngle.com rates CDs for music and sound. Spooked scored 10 for music and 11, the very highest, for sound.

Sage Studio chief engineer Daniel Protheroe tells why Sage Studio gets such great sound:

The recipe for a great sound is always to start with something that sounds great, like Marley's Ghost. These guys have spent a lot of time and care in choosing fine instruments, and they know how to play them.

Then add some killer arrangements. Van Dyke Parks took the Ghost's natural ability to milk the most out of a tune and ramped it up several notches. Van Dyke's layering approach gave us a vast, deep and dense forest of sonic timber to harvest (no trees were hurt).

With so much good sound coming at us, it was our role to stay out of the way as much as possible. We've always taken a minimalist approach to our recording gear and techniques. Our philosophy is to get the best gear we can find and use as little of it as possible.

Start with some great DPA, Nuemann and AKG mics. The next and probably one of the most important steps is ...