Gardener's Rain (2026) Re-Mastered for Vinyl

In 1991, Gardener’s Rain was officially my fourth album but first to be released on CD, so it’s only appropriate it now becomes Quartz Recordings’ first ever vinyl record. There were many hurdles to overcome before this became a reality including a remix of the title track, a re-mastering of the pristine all-analogue final mixes, and a full graphics overhaul.Let’s take a closer look at those three elements:

The album was recorded in Barnard, Vermont from July 1990 to January 1991 using the Otari 1/2” reel to reel tape deck that I’d purchased from Rooster Records.

Otari 8SD reel-to-reel recording deck

I’d attributed much of the the success of my best selling second album In the Bosom of the Green Mountains to sweetening the master at Burlington, Vermont’s premier studio White Crow Audio, so I decided to bring the Otari into their control room and do a full multi-track mix using their Neve 8068 MKII mixingboard and mastering to their Studer A80 with Dolby SR. Maybe these model numbers mean nothing to the casual listener but this is nothing short of legendary analog glory: the Neve board is widely considered one of the best vintage analog consoles ever made yielding sonic characteristics like warm, airy, punchy, and a 3-dimensional soundscape. Rounding out the sound was the iconic Lexicon 480L with its lush, dense reverbs that my violin loved. These were the days when mixing was a performance in itself, with no automation or digital recall, and all the moves had to be rehearsed.

Original song titles for the album and mixing notes for the “Gardener’s Rain” track

“Go With the Slow” mixing sequence

As I knew the music well, studio owner Todd Lockwood did the fader strip adjustments and I ran the faders, all except the title track that was too complex a mix for me so I asked his assistant Doug Jaffe to do it. It featured my synthesizer, guitar and the rain which I wanted throughout the song. Time was not kind to that one particular track as I felt the rain got in the way of the music itself even as I understood why the decision was made at the time. Since I haven’t had my Otari up and running since the mid 90’s, I sent the original reel to a studio in Indiana to archive the tracks so I could remix the song in Pro Tools, my current method of music production. I was beside myself to turn back the clock and dive into this mix myself, having abdicated that task during the original mixing session. I discovered some of the synthesizer tracks, made on my Casio CZ-101, one of the earliest digital synthesizers made, were not all used and subsequently, I found some gorgeous harmonies never heard on the original. I then added the rain, but only at the beginning and the end, yielding a better flow to the song.

Then I went over every note from start to finish, not re-mixing of course, but doing spot frequency edits of notes that had haunted me these many years. Most if not all of these discrepancies were because my famous Gurian J-B-3 guitar had simply too much power for the dynamic mic’s I was using (Sennhauser 421’s in stereo), and some frequencies couldn’t be tamed without sacrificing the tone of the music as a whole. But in today’s digital world, I was able to eliminate these trouble spots which freed the music from the chains of these minor flaws.

There’s also a certain empowerment I’ve discovered about releasing an album I made 35 years ago, a chance at some overdue recognition that may have been lost in the wake of the 20 albums that followed, including its sequel and most popular album A Sense of Place.

The graphics layout was re-imagined by Pappy Biondo, musician and artist from Hinesburg, Vermont using the original artwork made by legendary artist/designer David Powell, a visual collage artist and retired graphic’s design professor from Plattsburgh State University. Legendary, because one of his first projects was doing the cover for the Allman Brothers’ Eat A Peach record back when he was a college art student in Georgia. David also did all the album cover design for Will Wright’s Rooster Records, both my neighbors in a small hamlet off Route 12 in Barnard, Vermont in the early 80’s. When we needed an image for the cover of Gardener’s Rain, I thought about what he would’ve come up with, suggesting a ‘hoe in a sky’ while David, ever the artist, added the rain.

Pappy and I went through the usual crucible of design using David’s original artwork for both the front and the back, and by updating the liner notes and credits, we provided enough juicy tidbits of information to fulfill the focus for the discerning followers of this most special medium.

So, for the first time ever - a Spencer Lewis album on a 33 RPM Long Playing (LP) vinyl record.

The original cover

Of Spirit and Friends

Tributes and inspiration from those who have been in my life these past 72 years.

As every album is a crucible, this one is no exception having started in 2019 and finally completed this past summer.

Sharing sacred words, profound, and insightful, from friends who gave council through texts, songs, art, and their caring, be they lovers or friends. There are tributes of those who died tragically or time just ran out, whose role in my life became more fully realized in the writing of these songs.

It started with back and forth emails with former partner Rosemary up in Toronto that prompted me to write Everything is on the Table. She was then in the throes of fighting ovarian cancer yet offered me eloquent words about her struggle as she contemplated the end of her life, me borrowing words verbatim with her blessings. Then there are my own dues, paid to the road and myself on display in Expecting Rain. Written in the mid 70’s with a few upgrades to the prose, it’s the only song on the album with a complete folk-rock accompaniment and all the conviction of my ’70’s innocence intact, also featuring Eric Graham’s eloquent fretless electric bass. I pay homage in Davis & Victoria to the renaissance Vermonters who died in a tragic house fire, to my close friend Lorna in Route 14, and through Reflections honoring the beloved painter George Lawrence who did so many of my album covers. Pappy Biondo came on board to put the grass into the 'free folk cosmic collision' that is Open Fields and the salute to backcountry skiing Breakin’ Trail; Pappy also added his 5-string soul into May It Always Be So, another song to honor a plethora of lost and found relationships. I asked central Vermont’s newest talent Jess O'Brien to sing harmony on a song I wrote when I was 16, We Love To Sing when my songwriting buddy Jared and I were street-singing through Canada and the west. I also penned Green Mountain Home as a teenager, as every refugee folksinger needed one of these ballads to allow us over the Vermont border in the early 70’s. I’ve been playing it for 50 years yet this is its first official recorded debut. Steady Inward Pull reveals the resignation of the times. Finally, the last crucible were the mandolin tracks Dan Haley sent me from Portland, Oregon to interpret the depth of my grandfathers sadness and triumphs in Morris' Blues, Dan being a veteran of many of my studio albums and gigs when he was a Vermonter.

Cairns, Patreon and Bandcamp

New Album: Cairns

Cairns is a new album of Lewis’s signature sound of exquisite violin and guitar folk chamber music. Spencer’s intimate, detailed performances on the violin accompany his riff-based guitar tracks yielding dramatic passages, meditative calmness, and stirring musical surprises both in tone and execution. Listen now wherever you stream music or click to download the album on Bandcamp.

Bandcamp

I started a Bandcamp page because I found myself buying music from other artists on their pages and I liked the simplicity of downloading their music directly. It's also a place where I can sell previously unreleased material that I am not ready to share with the world (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.) but still want to make it available. For those who want to follow on Bandcamp, I am planning to post the original Hands of Love album originally released on cassette in '92 and my 2001 singer-songwriter album Open Road. Bandcamp is also a one-stop-shop for CD's, and other merch as I plan to re-stock the popular A Sense of Place T-shirts and begin producing LP records; Quartz Recordings on vinyl, stay tuned.

Patreon Launch

Finally, I've created a Patreon page that will allow me to better communicate with both casual and ardent followers of my music. Years ago when I started my record label, I was often face-to-face with my audience when I sold cassettes and CD's all over New England and upstate NY at craft fairs, expositions (The Big E), winter and spring flower shows, and even Art in the Park in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I might even surmise some folks who are on this mailing list are from that era, while many have signed up recently having purchased CD's on my site, seen reels on Instagram, heard me in a mix on Pandora, hired me for weddings, or seen me perform at clubs and concerts. Lately I've realized there is more to offer than the latest news on my website and I hope those who engage with this new medium will find it worthwhile. If you are able to add it to your entertainment budget, you will be privy to a plethora of stories told though video, audio, and graphics, exclusive to the Patreon site. I recently purchased a used DAT (Digital Audio Tape) machine to archive the hundreds of mixes I made using that medium from 1994 - 2004. Patreon will bear the fruit of a thorough re-examination of my artistic process that led up to my first album Weeding the Garden in 1988 and all that has followed since. 

Ruins & Foundations: Duality Reigns

Lao-Tzu once wrote:

'Yield and you need not break:'

Bent you can straighten,

Emptied you can hold,

Torn you can mend;

Therein lies the theme running through Spencer’s latest album Ruins & Foundations and its title track offers the clearest illustration: light and dark, minor and major, in two keys and two distinct parts, all held together with Jeff Berlin’s river of drums. The viola and mandolin take turns to highlight the spare melodic parts while the acoustic guitar’s fluent separation define its baselines and melodies.

Similar themes pervade, like the ever spacious “The Unraveling,” which signifies an unveiling of a deeper understanding of life juxtaposed to the downward slide that can undermine our personnel existence. The fast paced “Burst” implores the expansion of joy if not an implosion into chaos. “In Full Retreat” is actually a full speed ahead pop melody with fiddles and mandolin while the title reminds us of the need to resist getting lost in the rising tide of 21st century life.

The guitar piece for “Waiting For a Leaf to Fall” was recorded after a meditative hike on my back 40 mountaintop. The searing richness of the Richelieu viola from Vermont Violins, (also used on the title track) follows every poignant turn the guitar makes.

“North of November” is one of Spencer’s folk-rock anthem’s of simplicity. It features another boundless Berlin drum track with the Americana folk chamber sound to honor the starkness and introspection of the season. One of those kitchen sink mixes where everything is going in different directions yet flows into one unending stream.

“Cold Snow” was titled after a backcountry ski sojourn, made more special by gliding over snow in its purest form, pristine, fluffy, and predictable for turning. Touching the earth on skis is a special connection that keeps me grounded and inspired. The song starts with a simple riff played on my Froggy SJ guitar and winds along its groove oriented way. The viola, violin, and mandolin execute the counterpoint and harmonies in the expansive folk chamber music production that personifies this album.

The guitar part for “A Candle for Vera Miles” and its sequel “#2” was a stream of consciousness in four parts. In each there is a pause about halfway through, yet the tape keeps rolling as I play on. Take #2 was recorded only minutes later while in the same compositional space. Both possess a certain 6-string articulation I’ve been searching years for, while the added viola, violin, and mandolin meld into the ambient Americana chamber music accompaniment that pervades throughout. The title was a small way of honoring Vera Miles, the actress who provided understated grace and beauty to many of my favorite films. My favorites are the westerns The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Wichita, yet most know her from Psycho.

“Ramblers Sonata” is one of those anthemic folk-rock pieces with no words, maybe one of the reasons I added some non-word vocals towards the end.

Finally, “Down the Road” is a song I recorded in 2013, after A New Path but too far away from Souls (’16), and subsequently forgotten. The guitar and violin are tuned down a step, highlighting their richness, while the woven violins shimmer over a single guitar loop. The pace and message just seem a fitting way to end this album.

Click the image below for all the links to Ruins & Foundations

Winter Concerts 2020

Winter 2020 Concerts & Club Dates

Concerts in Burlington & Chelsea

Spencer Lewis will perform two solo concerts of guitar & violin instrumentals and songs on January 25th at Congregation Ruach haMaqom  and North Common Arts in Chelsea. The Burlington Concert has tickets at the door while the North Common Arts concert features limited seating and online tickets provided from their website.

Souls - The Inside Story

Souls: The Inside Story

I’ve often said that every album I make is a ‘peeling off of the layers’ so to speak; in this essay I’ll offer to shed some light on the process.
 
Souls encompasses every method I have ever used in my 25 CD catalog in the realm of production, engineering and composition. It began with recordings I made with the inspiration of the moment at hand at my kitchen table with my trusty D- 50 Sony handheld recorder, the same recorder that captured “September One” from Vermont Resurrection,one of my most popular songs on Pandora. These ‘stream of consciousness’ sketches held up for over a year, maybe even two, as I found them to be comforting in times of confusion, or when I wanted my brain to just empty. Often, that is what I need from music, beyond the stimulation or thought provoking reflections playing in the background of my life. After these sessions that yielded the “Grounding” series, it seemed that every time I picked up my guitar in the days thereafter I seemed to flow back into the same musical mantra, which is why the songs “Souls” and “Soul Synergy” are cut from the same cloth. As my liner notes to Souls reveal, four of these original sketches made the final cut for the album as I found it harder to try and recreate the exact feeling in the studio.

I then revisited a song I’d started almost 6 years earlier - "The Eagle Has Flown" and listened to the single violin track that seemed to float freely over the power guitar loop made by my Taylor 910ce-L7. Once I added another violin track, the song just opened up into that cacophony of symphonic texture that seems to magically appear when employing the ‘kitchen sink’ method of mixing (individual tracks played to the guitar parts but with no thought to how they fit together until they are mixed). This is how my earliest albums In the Bosom of the Green Mountains and Gardener’s Rain were made. It contains some of my signature violin phrases where certain arpeggios climb and descend in rapid fluidity, ones that are familiar yet still sit freshly within the composition. "Solstice Porch" and "Crows" emanated from the same meditative recording session but in contrast to the kitchen table recorder, this was a traditional session using white-hot pre-amps and great microphones. These are, of course, similar to the solo guitar work on In Stillness and virtually half of my instrumental catalog. They showcase the magnificent nuances of a Brazilian Rosewood custom made Froggy Bottom SJ with it’s depth of tone and bell-tone clarity.

"Looking Back To Another Now" offers many precise harmonies and counter melodies in this nine minute odyssey. This harkens back to the first songs with composed violin overdubs starting with “Quechee Serenade” from A Sense of Place or “Hands of Love” from Close To Home.

“Red Maple Waltz” contains an engaging guitar part with equally inspired violin tracks. I stopped working on it when an arpeggio danced into nowhere. Although it just needed some extra work,  it just wasn’t the right time - so it sat through the making of four other albums! Sometimes what is needed is focused time and energy that I once took for granted when making a record. Now, with so many distractions in my life I forget that is often all it takes. This winter I was ready to continue composing and it flowed like a river. I mixed the violins slightly lower to allow the guitar’s story to be heard.

In similar circumstances, the “The Knowing” got left off A New Path, I don’t know why as it was on all the early iterations I made for that album in 2013. I guess there was a flaw in the intro section of the guitar part and I may have been going through my ‘flawless’ stage when recording that album and am I glad that is over.

A few more stories to tell: “November Morning Song” was a solo guitar piece from 2007 that I always loved and as my editing skills weren’t as good then, the sound of an alarm clock somewhere in the background always stopped me from releasing it. Then I decided to learn how to play it (a novel idea) and lo and behold, found out the mechanism that made the song tick. After a few simple edits, it begged for a melody line and turned into one of the most satisfying songs on the album. Why one song is mixed only once or twice and others 34 times, I don’t know. “Unknown” was a song that was recorded so serendipitously that I'd forgot I’d recorded it! I recently began working with fretless electric bass player Eric Graham and asked him to add a bass part; then during a session for some other songs, asked drummer Brett Hoffman to contribute. Eric’s bass part inspired me to re-recorded my violins, I mixed it all accordingly and we have an ensemble folk-rock piece like both Vermont Resurrection and the early instrumental folk-rock pieces that were on The Silence Between the Words. “In Morning” was a solo guitar piece that needed a violin part to extend its meditative slowness. “Stonelight Serenade” just came together with the right blend of violins and lead acoustic guitar with a guest appearance by a bird to be named later.

In the making of Souls, I was a witness to the unraveling of the revelations that often accompany the artistic process. Although there are no credits to the liners notes, I will say that my daughter Sage edited them and also came up with this great ending: “Taken together, Souls is a collection that embodies those moments at the kitchen table and in the studio, as they have occurred though the seasons, and across years of wood stoves and open windows, with life changes and souls passing through. “

Calling in the Winter

To my long-time listener's and those who have recently discovered my music on Pandora, Spotify and the plethora of opportunities on the digital pipeline; yer still out there - thank you.

To commemorate my first video from Calling in the Winter, I offer the album as a free download on CD Baby until January 1st. Happy New Year to all.