Around the Campfire at the Old School Music House #1

Getting there

Richard lived his life for aviation. His safety awards as a helicopter pilot exceed 15K hours. Richard even has a picture from Igor Sikorski holding an extremely detailed model helicopter he built for Dr. Sikorski. It is personally signed by the aviation pioneer. Richard’s love of his craft was so intense that when he lost his physical ability to fly, his desire to fight his illness passed away too.  The illness eventually won.

Donnie, Richard's brother, is a longtime friend and recording engineer of many years, answered his phone “…Scotty, yeah, drive South out of town …you’ll know when you get to your turn, it looks like an old stagecoach trail through the mountains. Follow that to the Valley …it’s up over the pass”.
 Donnie’s invite to Richard’s ranch to watch the sun go down over the desert mountains was a welcome rest from the world I was traveling away from. As I found the stagecoach trail and started working my way over the pass, I was preoccupied with one thought “…I love me here”.

As the isolated valley emerged before me my cell phone beeped to say I once again had cell service. Donnie’s final directions were “…and when you come to the fence with Huey rotor blades on it, you’ll know you’re here”. It is not hard to find a fence with Huey rotor blades attached to it. 
Attached between the open gates are two swash plates. I assumed they were used to control the rotor blades hanging on the fence before them. I knew that I had successfully reached Richards Ranch.

Around the dogs and through the gate I parked on what looked to be a set off of the movie MASH. Sitting behind a 1941 Jeep and trailer is a Quonset Hut Richard hand built complete with an American flag blowing in the soft desert wind. I truly expected to see several old Bell 47 helicopters parked by the hut.

 This was my first trip to Donnie’s Old School Recording Studio; the plan for the evening was to simply vibe. Assembled around the campfire either by body or conference call was well over 200 years of recording arts and science knowledge. 
…more on the vibe in Session #2 

 

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