GOING TO THE WEST
A Long Time Coming
Ed Littlefield, Jr. didn't set out to
start a recording studio. He just wanted to have artistic control over
his music. He wanted to be able to look in mirror and see who was
responsible for his album. This is the story of a small idea that grew.
From 1973 to 1978, Ed played pedal
steel guitar, fiddle and guitar with Lance Romance, a traveling C&W
six-piece bar band. They worked four or five nights a week in one bar
and then moved to another in a circuit around the Northwest. They
worked about 50 weeks per year. After five years this became a trifle
tedious, so Ed quit the band, built a farm on the Stillaguamish River
between Arlington and Granite Falls, Washington, and started a family.
In 1984 he decided to try using multi-track recording as an outlet for
his music.
"My idea was that since I could play
all these instruments and I could sing and do harmonies, here's a way I
could have my own band and pretty much get to make the arrangements the
way that I wanted without having to persuade the rest of the band to go
along with it and without having to make artistic compromises to make
the music fit into some category or make it short enough (under three
minutes) for airplay. I thought about cowboys sitting around the
campfire and wondered if they had ever worried that they needed to keep
the songs under three minutes. I thought that they well may have played
songs like we play square dance or contra dance tunes in that we played
them till we'd had enough or the dance was over. I was the "band"
leader, the tape machine was the "band" and they had to do what I told
them to do - and no back talk!"
Before getting into the state of the
art equipment that he has now, Ed first borrowed and bought equipment
just to test the concept. His first tape recorder was a MCI/Sony 1"
8-track. One of his father's favorite songs was "Jamaica Farewell,"
from the hit Harry Belafonte record. "I played several guitar parts,
bass, and several vocals and the whole thing sounded good to me and I
really was enjoying working in the studio and playing with myself.
Within a few months I had an hours worth of material recorded. I gave a
cassette to my family doctor, who was also a musician. He liked it, but
warned me that I might go blind if I kept playing with myself. I went
along with the gag and asked if it was alright to keep doing it till I
needed glasses?"
"My experiences with recording were so
positive that I felt it justified putting together a really good
studio. I became friends with Matthew Sutton, who was the best
recording studio techie in the area and who serviced most of the
studios. Matthew was simply brilliant and really helped me put the
studio together and keep it running.
"I had been asked by my old friend,
Dr. Bertram Levy, to play the bagpipes for the launching of his
homebuilt sailboat, Able. Later that afternoon, I played a cassette of
my recordings for him. He was impressed enough to ask about recording a
record at my studio. The record was called First Generation and
it was a delight. I now had confidence that the studio was capable of
doing first rate work."
Then Ed's music took a totally
different direction when his old friend Dan Wheetman came to record.
Dan, who had just finished playing with the John Denver Band for seven
years, decided to settle in the Seattle area and to do a solo CD at
Ed's studio. Danny brought Mike Phelan and Jon Wilcox up to sing backup
vocals. These three had worked for a few gigs as Marley's Ghost. When
Ed joined in, Marley's Ghost became a foursome.
"We just clicked," Ed said. "It was so
good that none of us could walk away from it." Dan's solo CD, Marley's
Ghosts CD projects and a number of other projects kept pushing Ed's
solo CD to the back burner.
A number of other musicians came to
record, including How's Bayou, Boys of the Lough, Sandy Bradley and the
Canote Brothers, Hank Bradley, Barney McClure, Rodney Miller and Bob
McQuillen, Cathal McConnell & Len Graham, David West, Jon Wilcox…
"During the production of Marley's
Ghost's third CD, Ghost Country, we hired Daniel Protheroe to
work as our engineer. We got along so well that we hired Daniel to work
at Sage full time. He's been brilliant. He has golden ears. He's been
great to work with. Several experienced musicians think he's the best
recording engineer that they have ever worked with. He has overseen the
several makeovers that the studio has gone through. It is through him
that we met Fred Forsell who is an amazing designer and builder of
custom audio gear and who has built our mixing consoles as well as
pre-amps, limiters, equalizers, etc.
Marley Ghost recorded six albums. A
seventh, Live at the Freight, was recorded live at the Freight
and Salvage in Berkeley then mixed at the Sage Studio. Dan and Jon
recorded two solo albums in the studio. During the course of recording
all these albums, Sage Arts sprung up as both a recording studio and as
a label.
Finally in the summer of 2002, Ed
decided the time had come. He made the big push and his solo album, Going
to the West, was born in September 2003.
On this album, he plays guitar, dobro,
pedal steel, mandolin, fiddle, piano, jew's harp and electric bass. He
sings harmony with himself with a range that is close to five octaves.
Check out the Wholy Ed Choir on "Standing in the Need of Prayer."
William Matthews created the cover art
of Going to the West, a portrait of Ed on the riverbank by the
swimmin' hole. Friends join Ed on a few tunes: Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum,
Phil Salazar, Jon Wilcox and Trevor Wheetman.
Going to the West has a
delightful, old-timey feel; it's soulful and honest. You can play it
for atmosphere or dig into it and listen to the intertwining of
instruments and to intricate guitar licks that really sing.
Though Ed has plans for more solo
albums, he's currently busy with Marley's Ghost, recording the group's
eighth album.
Now when Ed looks in the mirror, he
sees the guy responsible for Sage Arts: a full-time studio with fine
equipment and engineers and an independent label with a small marketing
and sales staff. He's helped many musicians make CDs and finally after
20 years, he's made his own. Let's hope his next solo album doesn't
take as long.
To hear samples of Going to the
West, visit Ed's page
in the Sage Arts Catalogue.
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