TREE OF LIFE - LIVE AT THE LIBRARY RECORDING STUDIO
I have launched into a brand new project, and I am really excited about where things are going. My writing began taking a different turn around fall of 2019 continuing into 2020. I began rediscovering my love of the acoustic guitar - experimenting with more finger-picking themes again - and tapping into inspiration from aspects of my life I’d not considered as much. I completed two wonderful records with producer Aaron Ankrum at Aerial View Studio, but felt I would need to take a slightly different approach this time around. I reached out to a guitarist friend who recommended connecting with a producer named Matt Patrick at The Library recording studio. We met early in 2020, and I layed out my vision for a more stripped-back, acoustic folk EP. I wanted to play as many things as possible myself, and harness and preserve the more raw elements of my sound and delivery. Matt is very sensitive and intuitive, and seemed to really be in support of this direction, and in favor of this approach - even though it’s quite in contrast to the overall production of my previous work.
The project is underway now, and I’ve made some great progress; though I’ve had to deal with some challenging setbacks and delays, so I’ve had to temporarily postpone production, but I hope to resume recording as soon as I’m able. Here is a live performance of a song called Tree of Life that Will Keeler from WhiskeyKilo Films shot during one of my recent sessions with Matt at The Library - featuring Matt on the bass. This song comes across as a somewhat soulful hymn, and is actually drawn out of my older archives. However the rest of the tunes on this project are going to be very fresh material. Enjoy this live session!
℗ by Jon Arthur Schmidt
(update Oct. 2021: the fully-produced album version has been released so I’ve inserted that here :)