Mt. Diablo String Band Recording

Hey, wait a minute! Somewhere in the midst of all the ‘mayhem’ here at Squirty Records, we found time to finish recording Mt. Diablo String Band’s first effort; in two days! (First entry about the first day of recording is below.) In fact, this blog is being written literally as the final mixes are being [...]

Oregon Fiddle

We spent the last couple of days up in beautiful (and cold!) Oregon recording “Depending” fiddler Mike Eisler. Mike, as well as Ed Neff (see previous blog entry) are important figures in West Coast Bluegrass, Ed having played with California’s ‘heavy hitters’ such as High Country, True Blue, Vern Williams Band, as well as many [...]

RoseBud Blue “Crunch Time”!

Pleasant Valley artist RoseBud Blue has hit the final stages of production of their forthcoming recording “Depending on the Glass”. Ed “The Legend” Neff just spent a day at the studio recording fiddle melodies. Boy we had a blast! Here’s Ed “working on his double stops”
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Pleasant Valley Music signs Rick Harris

Well, you may have seen earlier in this blog that Matt has been asked to produce Rick Harris’ forthcoming gospel recording. Besides being handsome and charming, Rick is really a down-to-earth good guy, and a world-class, born entertainer. Matt has been sitting in with his band on bass and mandolin for a couple of years [...]

Jake’s Legacy Still Burning Bright

On February 16, 2008 the late Pleasant Valley Artist MacRae Brothers’ Jake Quesenberry will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northern California Bluegrass Society at the innaugural Bluegrass On Broadway festival held in Redwood City, CA. Slated to present the award is Jake’s late-life singing partner, and fellow MacRae Brothers band member, [...]

Pleasant Valley Music Signs Natural Drift

Good news! Placerville’s own Natural Drift has signed with Pleasant Valley Music and their new recording, She Planted the Evidence On Me, has JUST come out on Squirty Records! Of course, PVM’s good buddy George Goodell plays banjo with the ‘Drifters’, and the good folks in the group have been friends with us for years. [...]

Rick Harris “Stayed on Jesus” Arrangement

Here’s Matt Dudman, Rick Harris and Denis Colleret in the Pleasant Valley Music showroom today working up an arrangement for “I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Jesus”. This song is to be included on Rick’s forthcoming gospel recording on Squirty Records.

Still Reeling from ROMP

Surfed by the International Bluegrass Music Museum webpage today and found this lovely piece. Turns out the good folks there at the IBMM have dedicated this year’s ROMP festival to ole Jakey. Check out these screenshots from their page:

Upgrading the Studio

This week we (and when I say “we”, I really mean mostly Jenny!) put in new flooring in the studio. Conventional wisdom on recording acoustic music holds that such instruments sound better, or more live, on reflective surfaces. Most of the nicer studios prefer hardwood to other types of reflective surfaces, so that’s the way [...]

Motivated Diablos

Hi folks,
Well, some nice news for today. Pleasant Valley Music old-time artist Mt. Diablo String Band is now a Squirty Records recording artist! Yesterday we had a visit from the band, consisting of ‘Meistro’ Harry Liedstrand (fiddle), Carl Pagter (banjo), Harry’s wife Cindy (guitar) and son Terrell (mandolin), Carl’s son Corbin (mandolin), and PVM’s [...]