Huell Howser was a much beloved Public TV travel journalist based in Southern California, and produced hundreds of shows under the names California’s Gold, and Road Trip.

In August of 2002 he traveled to Sonoma County to do a show on the Cotati Accordion Festival.
Blair Hardman, owner of Zone Recording Studio, has been a part of the festival from the beginning, as bass player in the Sonoma Swampdogs with Jim Boggio, co-founder of the festival, and later raising funds for the Jim Boggio Accordion Scholarship Fund.

Mr Howswer was known for his delight in discovering unusual paces and people.  He would often exclaim, “that’s amazing!”  When Mr. Hardman began to talk about the festival, Huell exclaimed, “don’t tell me anything until the cameras are rolling, I want to hear about it the same time the folks at home do.”

Huell passed away Jan 6th at 67.

Read more about this article from Sonoma County Recording Studio here.

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“Thursday Night Live from Zone Recording” is now available on iTunes and Podbean. Your favorite Sonoma County Recording Studio has released thirty, charming, half hour podcasts that feature both music and conversation with talented musicians. These local and traveling artists include so many noteworthy names!

Hold on to your seats as Teresa Tudury takes you on a musical journey of wild and powerful songs and stories from the depths of her incredibly rich and inspiring repertoire. Teresa Tudury is an absolute original. From her San Francisco roots to the Greek Islands to New York and LA, she wakes up the music scene. Teresa creates a loyal following and rave reviews wherever she performs.

Honey B and the Pollinators generate a lively blend of swing, jump/jive and jazz standards from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. They bring good times, good humor and great music!

Poor Man’s Whiskey is a ragged, spontaneous group that performs story-telling originals! With zany on-stage shenanigans you can be certain that they will produce a delightful high-energy live show. PMW brings a fusion of bluegrass/old
time, southern rock, and old school jam to stages and festivals world
wide.  Listen up if you are interested in a foot-stompin good time.

Alison Harris’ melodies are timeless and her voice is haunting. She sings with a smile. Her style is a mix of folk, blues, and Americana. Alison favors sweet minor lullabies, but with the help of local musicians well versed in many musical genres, she covers a wide variety of moods and styles.

After 28 years with Chicago, singer-songwriter-keyboardist Bill Champlin is parting ways with the classic jazz/rock band to focus once again on his solo career. Funky, soulful, and simply “kick-tail” Champlin entertains an array of audiences!

 Bruce Kurnow performs with talent beyond comprehension. He is a brilliant singer/songwriter but  also showcases his unique simultaneous combination of stringed harp and harmonica.

D’Bunchovus combines fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and ukulele to deliver the ultimate in entertainment! With no-holds-barred, soulful vocals this diverse group of performers wow their audiences and delight our talk show listeners!

Get the podcast  here and prepare for hours of entertainment at your fingertips.

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Our Sonoma County recording studio is located in City of Cotati, CA.  Easy access right off the 101 freeway makes Zone Recording Studio just a short drive from San Francisco and the Bay Area.  We also specialize in voiceover, recording, and audio mastering.

To set up your appointment, call us now or click here to contact us by email.

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The 2012 Canadian Country Music Association Awards forge ahead Sunday, with the celebrity-studded gala broadcast live on CBC-TV.

One of the highlights of the show will be the arrival of Taylor Swift, the American country star who has lived her life in the spotlight since her debut album in 2006.

Swift, 22, has scarcely put a foot wrong since, earning herself the title “America’s sweetheart” and writing hit songs with cross-over appeal such as Mean and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. She is about to release her fourth studio album, Red, on Oct. 22.

A multiple Grammy and Country Music Association award winner, she is to be honoured with the New Generation Award at the Saskatoon CCMA gala. Canadian rocker Bryan Adams will do the honours.

High profile U.S. artists Eric Church and Jason Aldean are set to drop by with a song or two. Miranda Lambert will also appear with her group Pistol Annies as as part of the CCMA ceremony.

CCMA awards race

Canadian country stars Johnny Reid and Dean Brody lead the race for CCMA Awards – Reid is defending champion of the best male artist category and comes into this year’s awards riding the success of his album Fire It Up.

Brody picked up three CCMA trophies in 2011 and has multiple nominations this year, including best male artist and best single for Canadian Girls. Both Reid and Brody are to sing as part of the star-studded ceremony.

Expect performances from Alberta artists Gord Bamford, Terri Clark and Paul Brandt and Ontario’s Jason Blaine, all artists who have multiple CCMA nominations.

Rising Stars The Stellas, Dallas Smith and Kira Isabella, are also planning to take the stage before competing for best emerging artist.

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Mariah Carey broke the news early Thursday morning sending fans a picture of her and Kelly in the studio (pictured).

“Me and Kells in the lab in Chi town working on a new song,” said the current “American Idol” judge. “OMG-his voice sounds A++.”

It’s unclear what they are coming together for, whether it be Mariah’s new album or Kelly’s next album, nonetheless, this is big news.

Speaking further of Kelly, Mariah Carey said his “Trapped In The Closet” saga is a “total classic.”

Both artists have a long track record of hits and a huge fan following.  The collaboration with undoubtedly garner attention from the collaborative followings and is sure to be a hit.

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He’s been supporting himself ever since, carving out several prominent niches in the pop culture consciousness as the voice of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Rapahel in the original animated TV series; Yakko Warner and Dr. Scratch-n-Sniff in Animaniacs; Pinky the lab mouse in Animaniacs and the spinoff show Pinky and the Brain; and the title character in The Mask animated series (for which he also sang the theme song).

Paulsen also has a long list of credits on shows including The Tick (where he replaced Mickey Dolenz as Arthur), The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Time Squad, Samurai Jack, Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom, Ben 10: Alien Force, The Fairly OddParents, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and the Tinker Bell direct-to-video movie series.

Recently, Paulsen was named to play Donatello in Nickelodeon’s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, the first to be produced since Viacom acquired the property from Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. He will join Jason Biggs (Leonardo), Sean Astin (Rapahel), Greg Cipes (Michelangelo), and Mae Whitman (April O’Neil). He has also launched a successful new podcast, “Talkin’ Toons with Rob Paulsen,” in which he’s talked with a list of luminaries in the voice-over world, and detailed the life of a voice actor in several solo podcasts. Toonzone was extremely happy to be able to chat with the extremely animated Rob Paulsen over the phone about these two of his latest projects.

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Music Studio 4’s interface is significantly improved in both appearance and the little details versus version 3. It’s exceedingly simple to use and navigates much like a Web browser. Speed is said to have been increased with multi-core and thread support, though I didn’t find the program particularly slow before. In general, audio files are tiny compared to the video that still chokes many systems today.

One oddity in the new organizer is that when you quit the process of adding files, it throws everything away. Most programs will keep the files already added instead of forcing you to add them again. Other than that, every tool in Ashampoo Music Studio 4 was easy and effective. The wave editor is nice, though it would be nice to be able to drag files to it rather than navigate with a dialog to open them.

Ashampoo Music Studio 4 handled WMA, OGG, FLAC, and 16-bit wave files easily, but it still has no support for iTunes .mp4 and AAC files. Vendor Ashampoo has added support for the 24-bit and 32-bit wave files produced by my high-end DAW software, which is nice. Most users will only care about the lack of support for iTunes-file types.

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It may still be in its early stages, but Van Leeuwen is excited about the record and the amount of new ideas the band have to choose from for what will become Queens of the Stone Age’s sixth album.

The guitarist told FasterLouder,

“We all love the blues, and we all love to boogie … On the other side, there might be some new scenes. It’s really early in the process and it’s not too defined what it is, but we’re all feeling really great about it and there’s no shortage of ideas. We’re trying to filter the best of the best.”

Despite rumours a summer release, the band is in no rush to finish the record and are happy to let it evolve naturally. Van Leeuwen explained,

“We’re at the early parts of the record, there’s still some writing going on. We’re a band that doesn’t push things, things naturally happen.”

He continued,

“We’re kinda sprinkling this year with some touring for the re-release of the debut 1998’s ‘Queens of the Stone Age’] and then doing some recording. It’s going to be a creative time, and that’s good, but we’re still early on.”

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Zone Recording Studio specializes in audio recording, voice overs, editing and custom music, mixing and mastering, and much more.

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 A music insider tells HollywoodLife.com exclusively, “John is spending more time in Los Angeles because he is building a studio here which is going to be cutting edge. He has even considered recording a song with Katy. Lets face it, they have a lot in common, especially their love for music.”

In 2009, John and his then girlfriend Taylor Swift recorded the duet ‘Half Of My Heart’. Is this John’s way of telling Katy that he wants their relationship to be more serious? Onlookers at The Little Door, where John and Katy recently has dinner together, agree that the singers already look like a serious couple. An eyewitness at The Little Door in West Hollywood tells HollywoodLife.com exclusively, “John Mayer and Katy Perry looked like a couple on their date last Tuesday night. They shared everything and were laughing non-stop. They seemed really comfortable with each other.” “John and Katy sat in the outdoor patio area and were really friendly to all of the servers. If you want to impress a girl, you bring her to The Little Door because it is so romantic and intimate. It is one of the most romantic restaurants in Los Angeles,” said the eyewitness.

The post John Mayer Wants To Record Romantic Duet With Katy Perry appeared first on Zone Recording Studio.

OK, so there is a bit of a full circle aspect to Thursday’s announcement from EMI and Apple Corps Ltd. that the Fab Four’s entire catalog of studio albums is being released once again on vinyl LPs, just in time for the all-important holiday shopping season.

It’s the dropping of the other shoe that began in 2009 when the catalog was brought up to sonic speed with the remastering of the Beatles’ 13 original studio albums, and the two “Past Masters” compilations of non-album tracks, which entered the digital realm a year later on iTunes.

At the time, audiophile and vinyl-loving fans asked whether the core catalog would surface on the original medium with which the world first fell in love with the Beatles. They were told, teasingly, “It’s a matter of when, not if,” by Apple Chief Jeff Jones.

“When” has officially become Nov. 13 in North America, and Nov. 12 for the rest of the world. The new vinyl versions will feature the stereo mixes of each album, which means the group’s first four albums will be available for the first time in stereo on vinyl in their original U.K. packaging and sequencing.

The EMI/Apple announcement also noted that the often significantly different mono mixes of the Beatles albums up through 1968’s “The Beatles” double album, aka “The White Album,” will be issued on vinyl next year. Both configurations were released in 2009 on CD and digitally, individually and in box sets.

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Zone Recording Studio specializes in audio recording, voice overs, editing and custom music, mixing and mastering, and much more.  

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I love making movies but…it feels so good to be in the studio working on new music for you guys!!!

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