Music CD Finally Home

Bob Gatewood has released FINALLY HOME, his second full length CD. 

It was produced by Nashville session ace and legend, Tom Bukovac. Gatewood was backed by a stellar lineup of musicians for the sessions, including drummer Joe Vitale, keyboardist Mark Jordan and bassist David Santos. In addition, on guitar was Grammy nominee Warner Bros. Recording artist Will Owsley. Paul Hager mixed the CD. 

From Bob Gatewood:

The band he assembled to record the album was no less than stellar. If you counted the million selling albums these guys have played on, you would be around 300! On drums was the legendary Joe Vitale. Joe became a rock icon playing drums on all the Joe Walsh records as well as several with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and The Eagles just to name a few. All the guys in the band were super nice, but Joe’s generosity towards my music was amazing. He brought the experience and creative force of 52 gold records. Furthermore, he helped us in the mastering process, and really believes in the project. Aside from his experience, he brought Joe Vitale Jr., his multi-talented son who not only played percussion, but also helped with graphics ideas. Joe Jr. is building himself a name recording and producing sound libraries for the computer age. The two of them laid down some grooves that could only come from a father-son team of this caliber. 

On piano and keyboards we had another legend, Mark Jordan. Mark has led a distinguished career on the road and in the studio with Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, Jackson Browne, Dave Mason again just to name a few. He has writing credits with everyone from Taj Mahal to The Carpenters. He’s played on dozens of hit records, written, produced, and arranged page after page of recordings in your music collection. He’s at the top of the game, enough said. On Bass- David Santos. When he’s not recording international jingles for Coca-Cola, HBO and Sports Illustrated in his spare time, he makes music with people like James Taylor, Jimmy Buffet and Elton John. He’s a member of the Billy Joel Band which is one of the best sounding bands in the world. He’s also a writer. I read articles in music trade magazines every month about him or by him. 

One of the greatest thrills was to work with Will Owsley. I’ll try and make it brief. I got a CD a while back that knocked me out. It was Owsley’s debut. It was as good a record as I’ve ever heard. It shot up my personal favorites chart to somewhere around Abbey Road or Dark Side of the Moon. It was nominated for a Grammy. It was how I wanted to sound- who wouldn’t? When Tom told me that Will was interested in being in on the session I could hardly believe it. Some of the coolest riffs on the record came right off his hands. Prediction by Bob: The next Owsley record will go platinum! 

Troy Johnson was the guy singing the harmonies and there are some great performances. He’s a real hot session cat in the Music City and I was very glad he could join us. To my ear he sounds a lot like Phil Talbot, and that’s fine with me. The middle section of Blades on the Water was beautiful and it was all him! A better band could not have been had. 

But how about the guys turning the knobs… The recording engineer was Rick DeLima, an acclaimed artist, a killer guitar player, a big recorder of Gospel music, the nicest guy and a great tracking engineer. It was in his lair that this thing happened. Mills Logan did some excellent touch up work and quick like a swat team. Tom Bethel did the mastering and as a great mastering engineer does- only what was needed. It didn’t need a lot, so rather than stepping on it heavily, he just cleared the footprints so you could find the path. Paul Hager mixed this record and the man is from another planet. If all records were mixed by him the world would be a better place to listen. This mix is as good as it gets. He took a great recording and made it way, way, way better. I never knew so much creativity could be utilized or that it would turn out this good. Well, enough of this give it a spin, I hope you like it. Bob Gatewood.