I finally found a version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" I can tolerate. Tolerate? I love The Elegants' version! What I don't understand is why every other recording of this simple, straightforward melody is a smack in the face of treacly, saccharine schlock. The kiddie versions, especially, seem to be all MIDI keyboards and condescending vocals. The solo piano recordings are over the top, overly ornamented elevator lullabies, with the exception of the more professional recordings of variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman." (We are talking about a French folk song by way of Mozart here). Notably, recordings of the ABC song, which is, of course, the same melody, do not all suffer from the babyishness inherent in "Twinkle, Twinkle" recordings. There are straight up cool versions of the ABC song. But hand it to The Elegants. They're the only group I've found that can sing "up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky" with soul.
Mastering
More Fall 2011 - The Mickey Newbury box set I restored and mastered for Drag City was named Reissue of the Year by Mojo magazine. It made #2 on Uncut's list. No small shakes! The New York Times ran a front page article about the debut album of 85 year old jazz pianist Boyd Lee Dunlop. And NPR aired a great feature about him. Boyd's Blues was produced by Brendon Bannon, recorded and mixed by Allen Farmelo and mastered by me, but the heart and soul is all Boyd.