Ambient Sound

This blog I have been writing would not be complete if I didn't mention the man that had everything to do with the success of Blue Steele. Mr. Ray Tilkens was the recording engineer that recorded and mastered both of Blue Steele's albums. The son of a talented professional pianist and a seasoned musician himself, Ray Tilkens' diverse musical gifts have enabled him to thrive in an industry not particularly known for its fairness and virtue. Despite the competition, and time itself, Ray's "Ambient Sound" studio is still the pro's choice, having been established in 1979 in a homey setting just 2 miles off the Washington Beltway. When we got the time booked to record with Ray we would practice every night for weeks on end "wood shedding" every tune over and over until we were all having nightmares about the musical notes. This was done so when we went in the studio we would spend the time recording our tunes and not spend the time fixing our mistakes because time was money. So we attempted to use the recording time wisely. There were a few mistakes made anyway and a few redo's but they were few and far between. We all had day time jobs so the only time we could go into the studio was at night after work. I would just take the week off because I wanted to be on top of my playing and not be tired. I remember we were going to record an original tune of ours called "No Tootin." The tune was based on the fact that occasionally on stage I would stand there and just play the harp with no feeling or energy, the guys called it "tootin." So we decided to give Ray a chance to be on our second album. At the very beginning of the song we wanted Ray to say "Remember Ernie NO Tootin." It was so funny he did and we all got a kick out of it. So listen now to "NO TOOTIN" , featuring Me playing two harmonicas and Ray with the spoken words.