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RUSSELL KUNKEL ON TAIT RADIO     

Nov. 30, 2009

TAIT RADIO PRESENTS - Legendary Drummer and Producer Russ Kunkel

Russ Kunkel is perhaps the most legendary drummer in modern music. He has played drums on countless hits ranging from James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Carly Simon, Jackson Browne, Linda Rondstadt, Bill Withers, Bob Dylan, Dan Fogelberg, Harry Chapin, Karla Bonoff, Lyle Lovett, The Bee Gees, Stevie Nicks to B.B. King, and many, many more. Aside from Mr. Kunkels massive recording and touring credits he is also well respected for producing many great albums from artists ranging from The Derek Trucks Band to Dan Fogelberg. He has also been the most prolific producer of Jimmy Buffett's discography, with the exception of Michael Utley. Russ Kunkel has a new album on Mailboat Records entitled Chateau Beach. The record is 8 classic songs that Russ Kunkel performed on, including songs by James Taylor, Bill Withers, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and Graham Nash. These are stunning, fresh renditions of the songs you love.

Listen in from anywhere in the world online. 4 Days a Week at www.Radio.JimmyDreamz.com Airing Times For Each Station Listed Below *Eastern Standard Time*

www.radio.jimmydreamz.com
Monday - 3:00 PM - November 30, 2009
Wednesday - 9:00 AM - December 2, 2009
Thursday - 11:59 PM - December 3, 2009
Saturday - 8:00 PM - December 5, 2009

Produced by Paul Leslie and Jeff Pike www.taitshow.com www.myspace.com/timeafterislandtime www.timeafterislandtime.blogspot.com www.jeffpikemusic.com

Correspondence may be sent to:
ATTENTION: PAUL LESLIE TIME AFTER ISLAND TIME PRODUCTIONS
PO BOX 86, OAKWOOD, GA 30566-0002

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CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR 2010
'TROUBADOUR REUNION' WORLD TOUR     
:
Nov. 10, 2009 - Iconic musicians Carole King and James Taylor announced today that they will embark on a "Troubadour Reunion" world tour. The world tour will kick off in Melbourne, Australia on March 27 and will travel to New Zealand and Japan before coming to North America and Europe. This once-in-a-lifetime event brings together two of the most beloved singer/songwriters for a rare concert experience. The set list will include a breadth of material including songs they performed during their 1970 debut show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, which helped propel them both to the world stage. Tickets for dates in Australia and New Zealand and The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles go on public sale Nov. 23. Tickets for dates in Japan go on sale Dec. 12. Additional dates in North America and Europe will be announced soon.

"When James and I first played together in the early seventies we connected almost immediately, both musically and personally, with an effortless, comfortable familiarity. After we reunited in 2007 with Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel and Lee Sklar, the original band from our early Troubadour shows, none of us wanted the fun to stop. We can't wait to bring our Troubadour Reunion tour to Australia."

Carole King
November 2009  

The idea for the "Troubadour Reunion" tour came together in 2007 after Taylor and King performed at the famed Los Angeles venue for the first time since 1970 to celebrate the Troubadour's 50th Anniversary. The shows sold out immediately and garnered rave reviews from fans and critics alike. The Los Angeles Times noted "the sense of occasion [and] weight of history in the evening" and Variety said "Taylor and King reminded us about the intensity of song, that the artistically-rich and commercially-viable are not mutually exclusive and how one tiny club continues to be a birthing room for some of this city's most memorable music."

Now fans outside of Los Angeles will be able to experience what was created on that magical evening in 2007. Nearly four decades after helping define the singer-songwriter movement, King and Taylor will tour together with their original bandmates guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, famous in their own right as "The Section".

"This tour, our 'Troubadour Reunion' has been waiting to happen for a long time but the years seem to have vanished. Where does the time go? When we reunited for the Troubadour's 50th Anniversary celebration in 2007, it was, and still is, all about the music and the celebration of performing together."

James Taylor
November 2009    

Carole King performed with James Taylor at the Troubadour in November 1970. This historic show marked King's debut as a solo artist after penning 22 Top 40 hits for artists ranging from Aretha Franklin to the Monkees, while James was supporting his self-titled Apple Records release featuring classics such as "Carolina In My Mind" and "Something In The Way She Moves." Both have since become multi-platinum-selling artists, GRAMMY winners, and members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2010 Tour Dates:       
Sat    27-Mar    MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA    Rod Laver Arena       
Wed    31-Mar    BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA    Entertainment Centre       
Sat    3-Apr    HUNTER, AUSTRALIA    Hope Estate       
Tue    6-Apr    SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA    Entertainment Centre       
Sat    10-Apr    AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND    Vector Arena       
Wed    14-Apr    TOKYO, JAPAN    Nippon Budokan       
Fri    16-Apr    TOKYO, JAPAN    Nippon Budokan     
Fri    14-May    LOS ANGELES, CA    Hollywood Bowl       
More dates and cities to be announced soon!              

BIO - RUSSELL KUNKEL

The past few decades technological revolution has touched us all, but few more deeply than the musician. Technology has permeated and altered every aspect of making and capturing music in not merely the tools we use, but the very nature of the creative process itself. And none have been more profoundly affected than the venerable drummer. Once the essential backbone of every band, drummers now compete head-to-head with their own digital doubles for a piece of the ever-dwindling musical pie. Those who have survived and flourished have done so by continually reinventing themselves.

Russ Kunkel is one of those survivors. His sound is a staple of American music, gracing thirty years of classic recordings for the likes of James Taylor, George Harrison, CSNY, Carole King, Steve Winwood, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Lyle Lovett, Jimmy Buffett and so many more. Still one of the industries most in-demand drummers, Kunkel is gifted with a deep musical understanding that goes well beyond simply keeping time. It's this understanding which, as an award-winning producer, has helped him to tap into the creative psyches of powerful artists like Bonnie Raitt, Aaron Neville, Graham Nash, Dan Folgelberg, Jimmy Buffett and Carly Simon. It's this intuitive musicality which, as a songwriter, has helped him to pen hits with folks like Graham Nash, The Neville Brothers, Clannad and Joe Cocker, as well as film scores for movies such as Heartburn, Smooth Talk and Certain Fury. And it's the unflinching, inquisitive spirit of a consummate artist that has kept him not just going, but going strong through both personal tragedy and an increasingly inhospitable music industry. This is a man who lives and loves music.

Not surprisingly, Kunkel has maintained a personal studio in his home since the 70’s. Recently, though, he decided it was time to make a change. “After twenty-five years, I decided I wanted my house back”, he tells us. So he rented a room in a San Fernando Valley building that plays host to a number of busy songwriters. "It’s a really great working environment. We all help each other out and play on each others projects it’s very inspirational."

Kunkel has never been one to shy from technology, and logically it made sense to update much of the studio to coincide with the move. The way technology works now, you can buy state of the art and in two or three years it’s outdated. We rebuilt the whole system about four years ago, so we got a good long run out of it. It was time to upgrade.

Sensibly, the plan was to put the whole system into the computer. A long time Digital Performer user, Kunkel decided to make the leap of faith and upgrade to MacOSX, still in its infancy at the time. "We got a new 1.42 GHz G4, and waited for Digital Performer 4. Just the Mac and the (MOTU) 2408 and 896. I’m using no outboard effects, just the DP plug ins and waiting for the new firewireTC Power Core."

Transitioning to a fully virtual setup was eased by Kunkel’s familiarity with Digital Performer, mused Kunkel. "I’ve done so many projects on DP. I know my way around it and I can work fast. If I need to work with someone else who’s running, say, Pro Tools, I just make stems and put them on a CD. I’ve never had a problem working that way."

"One of the main reasons I like working in DP is that the GUI feels like analog. I like to work old school and treat it like tape. I don’t try to fix too much - it’s got to feel good when it's played, then it feels good when it’s played back."

Another upgrade Kunkel enthuses about is the addition of a Mackie Control and a pair of Control Extenders, giving him 24 channels of hands-on control over DP4. "I got really good with a mouse, and the software will allow you to do whatever you want, but a mouse isn’t always delicate enough. I kept seeing ads for the Mackie Control, and when Dave Roberts at MOTU mentioned that Mackie and MOTU had worked on the drivers together, I was really inspired to check it out. The implementation is simple and straight ahead, one song and I had it down. The marriage between MOTU and Mackie on this control surface obviously shows the mutual admiration the two companies have for each other. The P&G faders feel wonderful, and I can move through the song so much faster with it; It’s really gotten me to rethink the way I work."

And Kunkel has been instrumental in bringing other old-school analog friends into the digital realm as well. Currently he’s been working with CS&N drummer Joe Vitale, producing the upcoming Stephen Stills album. "Stephen’s been working on the record off and on for about ten years now. My son Nathaniel and I produced Graham Nash’s record last year, which won a surround recording award. Stephen called shortly after. we’ve been friends for years, and said 'Rusty, we can’t see the forest for the trees, will you come and help us finish this record?' They were doing it all on two inch, and it was all recorded brilliantly. But there was a lot of stuff we needed to organize, guitar parts and vocals, and they had A reels and B reels, and it was quite a bit of stuff. And I said, okay, first of all you’re buying a computer. I got an iMac and a DP setup for them, and that freed us up to go in and get to work. Once we got all the info into the computer (and most of the time it was way more than 24 tracks), we could go in and organize, edit, etc. Then we’d bounce back to clean tape via the 896. It worked great, and the reprinted tape sounded better than the original master."

When we visited, Kunkel had also recently added a pair of Mackie HR626 powered monitors to the studio. "I’m really impressed with the sound of these; they’re very transparent. The idea of putting two woofers in a single cabinet is great, because it’s dispersing the sound better. As the load gets bigger they share the load; there’s no crapping out."

So what’s next for one of the busiest players in the industry? With as many projects as he’s got in the queue, a portable system may be in the plans. His son Nathaniel recently recorded a live Robin Williams album last year, and it won a Grammy. "He did the whole thing on the road with a Titanium Power book, DP3 and a MOTU 896. What a great little setup."