Rob Mathes - Flesh and Spirit (2013)

In talks with drummer Joe Bonadio Rob had constantly returned to a dream he had of recording a set of songs live in the studio. He told Joe he wanted to make a record with the same sonic quality of Evening Train and other things he's done that are documented in an audiophile manner, yet a record recorded with all the musicians playing together at the same time and where he is singing the final vocal while they do it. Rob's goal was to never overdub even a single vocal line later with the exception of some background vocals. The reason many of the great old records, from Sinatra to the early Beatles stuff and ALL the truly iconic blues recordings, sound so immediate is because the musicians respond to each other and play off each other, each one inspiring and cajoling the other onto something better than the sum of their parts. Rob finally made good on that discussion with Joe and recorded four songs live at Avatar Studios in Manhattan. The process was so thrilling that the writing on Rob's part, for this kind of driven live music making, became more visceral and on edge, more intense. Rob felt these four songs were the most immediate and rock oriented recordings he had ever done. He had to act on this. He wrote another 8 songs and went to The Carriage House in Stamford, CT and finished it up.