My wife Kim and I met in the music business and have worked together with several artists and bands. Co-writing, playing, and/or producing. In 2011 we first collaborated with Emperors Of Wyoming, who have a long history together. One of the members is Butch Vig, the well-known producer of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Siamese Dream’, among countless other albums. He’s been one of my favorite music producers since I discovered what a music producer was.

A few months ago, Butch randomly heard an EOW track called “Drinking Man’s Town” on Spotify. He commented, “…man it sounded cool!”

This prompted a conversation about revisiting the multi-tracks and re-doing parts of the song. The original recording presented some challenges, and we didn’t know the full scope of work involved. Singer/songwriter Phil Davis recorded it on a handheld recorder one evening in his backyard. That’s right. Outside. The lead vocal and acoustic guitar were captured as a single track, with the recorder’s built-in limiter ‘pumping’ when things got too hot.

Luckily, things have progressed with noise restoration and AI-assisted software tools to the point that we could now ‘re-balance’ and isolate different instruments in the recording. This technology was used during the making of Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” 2021 documentary to isolate conversations and instruments, and improve the audio quality of certain film footage.

Using Izotope software, I was able to almost completely separate Phil’s acoustic guitar and vocals, allowing me to EQ the vocal for more body and definition, without affecting the acoustic guitar. Making these adjustments to the base recording allowed everything to shine.

Before revisiting “Drinking Man’s Town,” I had to be mindful of making our overdubs sound too ‘studio’ alongside Phil’s charmingly lo-fi track. The lead and backing vocals sound so much better now and the percussion has more width and depth. This thing breathes!

It’s a vibey, loose, imperfect recording. I love it. Check out the new version below.

Emperors Of Wyoming – Drinking Man’s Town (2023 Mix)

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