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Nokie recording 2
new CDs with The Light Crust Doughboys: Adventure
In Country Swing and A
Surf 'N' Swing/Fret 'N' String Christmas.
Producers Art &
Smokey and their featured artist, Nokie Edwards, recording the two
"Nokie meets The Light Crust Doughboys" CDs in Veneta,
Oregon.
"How The West
Was Swung" with The Light Crust Doughboys, Art and Nokie.
Two views of The
Light Crust Doughboys with Art on Mosrite bass guitar and Art's idol
on guitar, Nokie Edwards, on Mosrite lead guitar.
Art with Smokey playing a
world-famous guitar, Hank Thompson's Gibson Super 400.
A Texas Trio: Smokey, Hank
Thompson and Art.
Photos by Barbara C.
Wetter
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RECORDING
WITH MY IDOL IN GUITAR, NOKIE EDWARDS
by Art Greenhaw (producer/bass guitar/vocals — The Light Crust
Doughboys)
It was a hot day in Veneta, Oregon (arranged, no doubt, to make us
Texans feel right at home!) when noble Nokie Edwards pulled up in his
classy Chrysler loaded with an UltraSound amplifier and 3 glorious
guitars, all Nokie artist signature models. A quick set up and tuning
followed, and then Nokie proceeded to record enough world-class material
with The Light Crust
Doughboys to anchor two soon-to-be classic albums: one country
swing, one Christmas.
I knew my
hero, mentor and teacher wouldn't disappoint in his precision playing;
I'd carefully followed all phases of his inspiring career with keen
admiration and interest since I was 8 years old; And having shared the
stage with him the weekend before as he added signature Nokie leads and
fills to our "Miss Molly", "Faded Love" and other
western swing classics, I knew he was better than ever! (Thanks to our
new pal and hero, Bob Saxton, for joining us!...also, thanks to Gretchen
Christopher for her talent, beauty and songs with us!...) But what
so impressed all The Light Crust Doughboys were Nokie's total
concentration on the material at hand, his professionalism and his
unwillingness to move on to the next song until everything was as good
as it could possibly be. The Doughboys were recently called by TEXAS
HIGHWAYS magazine, "some of the hardest-working musicians in show
business", so we're somewhat qualified when we say that Nokie's a
soldier in the guitar army — never complaining, never making excuses,
just playing with beauty and perfection, lick after lick.
A little
after 1:00 am — with neat diversions from the task at hand for a
"Nokie chopped steak Special" at Yukon Jack's Steakhouse and a
historic Equus Productions photo shoot (see our preview at Nokie's
web site and check out www.womeninwaders.com)
— the 3 Nokie guitars and amp went back into their cases and back into
Nokie's automobile trunk. Then Nokie Edwards was off into the night,
reminding all of us of the classic Lone Ranger episodes where the
townspeople end by saying, "...and we didn't even get a chance to
thank him..."
Would that all recording sessions would go as smoothly and as
rewardingly as ours with Nokie... Do I hear a "Nokie For
President" movement growing at the grass-roots level... or at least
a "Nokie For Governor"...?
I can't wait
to put into heavy rotation on my players, along with my other Nokie CDs,
our two new Nokie/Light Crust Doughboys collaborations!
God Bless
Nokie and all our neat, new friends from The Nokie Northwest
Celebration, both musicians and fans! Y'all are tops! |
