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• 1 2022-07-31T17:10:19-07:00 Recording 12 plain 2025-06-30T22:34:15-07:00 Notes on the Recording by Scott Spencer
  
  We talked about how to record this album a few times over assorted beverages at Mona's, and in the basement of the Ireland House, but we didn't need to say much. We knew that the most important part of the recording process would be to catch both the music and the ambience that make Mona's what it is without filling the bar with microphones and ruining the session. We knew that the occasional explosive smack of cue stick, and applause from the pool league in the back room as well as the chunking and clanging of Emmett and Chris wrestling the business end of the antique cash register at the bar were all essential parts of the scene. I listened closely to the albums "Music at Matt Molloy's" and "Paddy in the Smoke," and found that the atmosphere of the session is found between the cracks in the music.
  
  I had heard stories about the taping of Matt Molloy's live session album in Westport, where on the first night of recording, a roster of mikes was set on the session table and the recording engineers were hovering closely with walkie- talkies. The liner notes from the album say that everyone was heartbroken when the regular musicians settled at another table. "They had instinctively avoided the microphones, angled like pointed fingers, and the bird-scarer-blue tape that strapped them to the table. The sound men immediately dismantled the system and re-hung the mikes inconspicuously from the ceiling, but it was too late. The mood was not quite right and none played as he would have liked to." I took the hint, and planned to hang mikes from the ceiling over the session table and remove the lurking technicians from the immediate area.
  On recording nights, I would arrive with two cases of borrowed recording equipment at a somewhat reasonable hour after work. Emmett and Chris would then hoist, balance, push and kick the imposing "Buck Hunter" video game from its usual corner at the end of the bar, and would set up in its place a small table that might seat four or five musicians. We would survey the ceiling for potential structural dangers, and I would screw eyehooks into the decaying plaster directly above where I thought the musicians would set up that evening. Eamon and Patrick would arrive and try to guess who might show up that night, and Mick, Autumn, John and the regular faces would filter in and settle along the bar for a long evening of music. As the tunes would start to spill out of the corner, Autumn would take notes on tunes and players, I would try to herd the music onto the CDs, and Emmett and Chris, trapped by the session table, would have to jump over the bar to gather stray glasses. Dan would always arrive at the last second with the perfect piece of recording gear to fill the crack in the system and save the recording yet again. Mick's students, pool leaguers, musicians and regulars would all stop by the mixing board, put on the headphones and listen in.
  
  I first tried to record from a single stereo mike, but as the session table could only hold four or five musicians, the majority of players on busy nights would end up lost or drowned out. I finally settled on using one excellent stereo mike hung directly over the table, and four or five workhorse mikes hung in a circle on the periphery. In this way, the center mike could pick up the bulk of the session, and the outlying players could be reinforced by a remote mike if needed. All the cords ran across the ceiling and around the corner to a mixing board just out of sight. The session was mixed on the board by ear as it was played, and was recorded straight to CD. We knew that this recording method allowed no second chances in the studio, but we wanted a documentary-style sound and an album with total transparency, We knew that this method could easily result in the best tracks being missed through bad mixing, so we developed the backup method of recording two different mike mixes at the same time. Greg, Patrick and Eamon managed to select and work with these mixes to make the final tracks, somehow overcoming the limitations of the recording method while still sticking to the intended documentary aesthetic.
  Throughout the recording process, we changed only a few aspects of the session. We tried to have Patrick play without the rhythmic beat of his feet under the table, but quickly found that it held part of the drive and was essential to the session. We would occasionally turn off the air system when someone would sing to get rid of extra noise. The pool league in the back room was always cooperative, even though they would suffer from the heat during songs. Our first night of recording was the first night of the new smoking ban in New York city, and the presence of recording gear made the players a bit nervous at times, but there were moments when Patrick would be slashing away while Eamon would be holding steady, when everyone at the table would be on the chase and the microphones wouldn't matter anymore. Those moments are the reason musicians come to Mona's, and I think we have managed to capture a few of them on this album.
  
  Scott Spencer
  April 4, 2004, Glucksman Ireland House, New York University
  
  Click on the date for field recordings
  March 31, 2003
  April 7, 2003
  April 14, 2003
  April 21, 2003
  April 28, 2003
  May 12, 2003
  May 19, 2003
  November 24, 2003
  December 1, 2003