ACCLAIMED recording artist and producer Ethan Johns - the man behind the recording desk for Laura Marling's sublime Once I Was An Eagle, released this week - comes to Cornwall next month.
Johns released the Ryan Adams-produced single Don't Reach Too Far last week through his own Three Crows Records label.
Taken from Johns' debut solo album, If Not Now Then When?, the track features Johns himself on vocals, guitar, harmonica; Ryan Adams on drums and bass; and Chris Holland on organ. It was recorded at Adams' Pax Am Studios, in Los Angeles.
Don't Reach Too Far is a foot-stomping, floor-pounding number.
"The recording was completely unplanned," said Johns. "Ryan and I were hanging at his studio in LA and I literally had books of songs on the table. This one came to the surface – a song birthed from a stream of consciousness. I had only ever sung it three times - once when I wrote it, and twice in the studio. Ryan kept the second take. It was so immediate – the energy was flying! Ryan just caught it right there and then - kind of like an instamatic photograph. If punk was invented by cowboys in Texas and beamed to a Sears and Roebuck reel to reel in a garage in Long beach in 1963, it might have sounded like this..."
If Not Now Then When? was originally released on 12" vinyl last November alongside a nationwide tour of independent record stores.
The Brit award-winning producer, whose vast production credits include The Vaccines, Kings of Leon, Ray LaMontagne, Laura Marling and Ryan Adams to name but a few, not only performed songs from the album, but also held Q&A sessions at each of these shows.
A wider release on CD and digital download came out earlier this year, followed by a hugely successful headline tour of the country.
"Gently majestic. Gutsy and evocative." – NME 8/10
"Goes a long way to pinpointing just why Laura Marling, Ryan Adams, and Ray LaMontagne keep calling on his services as musician and producer." – MOJO 8/10
"Detailed analogue sound, arrangements in which every note counts, and real-time immediacy. The only question is – what took him so long?" - UNCUT 8/10
"Bruised and brilliant. He's a class act on both sides of the mixing desk." – THE SUN 4/5
Ethan Johns comes to Calstock Arts Centre on Saturday, July 6 see ethanjohns.com and www.calstockarts.org
