The Smiley Smile Message Board

While Christmasing in Big Sur I stumbled upon Al's studio on the way to Pfieffer Beach.  I was aware the place was near by but literally drove right by the entrance by accident.  Anyhow - checking out the Red Barn website it looks like its now a commercial venture to some extent.  Does Al still live here or has he sold the ranch and studio operation?  It's a gorgeous location and very isolated.

Alan still owns Red Barn, and he still lives next to it.

Web site for Red Barn Recording Studios

http://www.redbarnstudios.com/

Other than Al's solo stuff - what's the most significant BB recordings made entirely or in part here?  Wasn't some of KTSA done here way back when?

KTSA - Livin' with a Heartache and additional stuff on Santa Ana were at the Barn according to the 2fer notation; I'm unclear re the rest.  I love the described image of Carl singing LWAHA, leaning against the wall after a couple of beers - a cool inclusion.

Al finished up his spatialised version of Loop De Loop at Red Barn.

This was recorded at Red Barn and became a bootleg:

http://www.bootlegzone.com/album.php?name=bb-ptr001


Was here on October 10, 2010, right up the road from Al's house:

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/2010/oct/10/al-jardine-plays-big-sur/


Love the slow version:

Cashmere hills filled with evergreens
Flowin' from the clouds down to meet the sea
With the granite cliff as a referee
Crimson sunsets and golden dawns
Mother deer with their newborn fawns
Under Big Sur skies and that's where I belong.

Big Sur I've got plans for you
Me and mine are going to
Add ourselves to your lengthy list of lovers
And live in canyons covered with a springtime green
While birds and flowers to be heard and seen
And on my old guitar I'll make up songs to sing.
Sparklin' springs from the mountainside
Join the Big Sur river rushing to the tide
Where my kids can search for sea shells at low tide
Big Sur my astrology it says that I am meant to be
Where the rugged mountain meets the water

And so while stars shine brightly and up above
Fog rolls in through a redwood grove
And to my dying fire I think I'll add a log.

Documented KTSA sessions at Red Barn (then called Jardine's Barn, and it was very makeshift, nothing like the facility you see today):

November 1979
  6 - KTSA session: Endless Harmony/Keepin' The Summer Alive vocals
  7 - KTSA session: unknown unreleasd title
  8 - KTSA session: Oh Darlin' vocals/unknown unreleased title
  9 - KTSA session: School Day vocals/unknown unreleased track
10 - KTSA session: Going To The Beach/Oh Darlin' vocals
11 - KTSA session: Endless Harmony/Goin' To The Beach [Dennis' last known session with the band - percussion on "EH"]

December 1979
10 - KTSA session: Goin' On/Sunshine (=Little Girl)/Endless Harmony vocals
11 - KTSA session: undocumented title
12 - KTSA session: undocumented title
13 - KTSA session: Going To The Beach vocals
14 - KTSA session: Endless Harmony/Surfer Suzie  

January 1980
  7 - KTSA session: (vocals)
  8 - KTSA session: (vocals)
  9 - KTSA session: (vocals)
10 - KTSA session: (vocals)
11 - KTSA session: (vocals)
12 - KTSA session: (vocals)

Also "Island Girl" from Still Cruisin'.

Thanks, AGD, for filling many blanks, gaps and grammatical gaffs in the published track annotations (vinyl and twofer).

Elliot Lott once told me the vocals for Crocodile Rock were recorded there.  Also, it is my understanding that the rehearsals for the 1993 box set tour were held there as well.

Both correct.

In terms of higher profile clients who have booked there, does anyone know of any names to speak of in the past few years? I'm just curious.

I seem to remember the Red Hot Chili Peppers had booked the studio to rehearse and ready tracks for their newest album, the one after John Frusciante had left the band, or maybe it was rehearsing for a tour? But I think that was for rehearsals only, and the actual tracking took place elsewhere.

I remember reading Fleet Foxes were recording there, though if it was anything that got released I'm sure we would've known by now.

Yes.  See my post above.

Didn't Band of Horses do some work on their last album there?  I thought I remembered Al mentioning that one some kind of promo video around the release of TWGMTR.

I read about that too, but as far as i can remember i think the Fleet Foxes were just visiting. I'm not sure if anything got recorded. I'd love to hear a Robin Pecknold/Al Jardine collaboration*.

*And i mean collaboration in a musical sense.

COMMENT:  These were recorded using a Heider Sound Truck (rented for several months), with tracking and sweetening sessions in the barn and most vocal sessions in the forest. There were more sessions than shown in the list above. The 100 year old barn was yet to be acoustically isolated and treated for use as a functional studio, i.e., The Red Barn Studio.

~swd