Early James

Early James' Album Journey

Early James recorded his first two Easy Eye Sound albums, "Singing For My Supper" (2020) and "Strange Time To Be Alive" (2022), at the studio inside the renowned label's Nashville headquarters. However, for James' third release, "Medium Raw," producer and Easy Eye Sound label head Dan Auerbach envisioned something quite different for the Alabama-bred singer-songwriter-guitarist's rawboned, sometimes scarifying music.

A Surprise Recording Venue

On the day of the first session, James had his GPS routed to Easy Eye. Encountering some traffic, he texted engineer M. Allen Parker, saying, "Hey man, sorry, we're gonna be about 15 minutes late." Parker replied, "It's OK, we're still getting set up at the house." This surprised James, who was unaware of the new recording location. "It felt unusual in the moment, which I think makes you play the songs differently. But I'm really happy with and proud of the results," James recalls.

Auerbach's Vision

Dan Auerbach reflects, "I wanted to try to find that power of when I first saw him when it was just him and his guitar. After working with him a couple of times in the studio, I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do it in the same kind of way. The comforts and luxuries of the studio, where you're able to hear everything and make adjustments and changes, weren't right for this project. Some of my favorite albums are those Arhoolie records produced by Chris Strachwitz that were recorded in houses, by Fred McDowell, Lightnin Hopkins. I felt like we might get better results if we did it in a house."

The Honky Chateau

The house in question, known as Honky Chateau, was an old Nashville property owned by photographer and artist Buddy Jackson. Auerbach describes, "It's a house with a lot of character. I've always loved it. I always felt inspired when I was there. I knew it would be a fun place to do something. It's over a hundred years old. It's got the old plaster on the walls, plaster ceilings, old wallpaper. There are big oak floors and an oak stairwell. The first floor has twelve-and-a-half-foot ceilings. It's pretty awesome. But it's not a recording studio by any means."

Recording Setup

"We had to drag all the gear in there. We set the little mixing console upstairs—this crazy, wild old 50s Universal Audio tube console that I'd just gotten and fixed up, which was built by FAME Studios' Rick Hall for his studio in Memphis—in a spare bedroom, and we ran the wires down the stairs. We set up James and everyone in separate little rooms downstairs. James' little Princeton amp was right behind him; there were no baffles or anything, and so when he was soloing, it was all bleeding into his vocal mic. Adrian Marmolejo, James' bassist since the beginning, was in the hallway, peeking around the corner. We had these beautiful microphones sucking up the soul of the house. It sounded amazing. When you have headphones on, you can hear that room. You can even see the room when you close your eyes."

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