Malcolm MacWatt releases his third studio album, ‘Dial It Back’.
The Scots songwriter is now based in London where he was the driving force behind country band The Glass Mountains, and has released two acoustic albums ‘Anywhere But Here’ and ‘Three Truths and The Chord’.
However, in the new 12-track release, MacWatt has attempted, he says, to “redress the austerity of previous solo acoustic productions with a classic country rock soundscape.”
“It’s not a tribute to the past,” he says, “more a celebration of a time when rock music was happy to embrace harmony and melody without any sense of irony.”
To get the feel of one band performing all of the songs in one session, engineer and producer Phil Dearing at L-Sound Studio, insisted on using the same guitars, the same Fender amps, Hammond, Rhodes and the same rhythm section set-up for every song.
Dearing also contributes keyboard, bass, programming and guitar in addition to his production and engineering skills.
“I first seriously picked up the guitar in 1975 so that era has always been a huge influence on me, whether it was pop, rock, country or soul,” he says. “We just imagined Gram Parsons, Keith, Ron & Charlie, Duane & Eric, Nicky Hopkins and Ron Blair getting off their faces and jamming together.”
“It’s digitally recorded of course,” he admits, “but a selection of plugins of famous desks and classic mic preamps were used for added mojo with the final mix running through an official Abbey Road Studios mastering plugin.”
‘Dial It Back’ is available on CD, Bandcamp and all digital platforms including Spotify.
More at www.malcolmmacwatt.com
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