Tuesday, April 19, 2022

CANADIAN TV: Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb - Wichita Lineman

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Three minutes of Canadian TV, 1988.

Below, a CHCH-TV staffer remembers... 

I was fortunate to be the recording engineer on this show, recorded at CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario on Dec 9, 1988 as part of the incredible "In Session" series. Glen also recorded an episode in 1983 with Leon Russell. He was a pleasure to work with on both occasions. No star attitude whatsoever, and a great sense of humor. The musicians were all Toronto studio session "A" team players: Kevan McKenzie on drums, Peter Cardinali on bass, Bob Mann on guitar and Lou Pomanti on synths. These shows had almost no rehearsals. The band learned the ten or twelve most famous songs by each artist the night before and musical director Bobby Edwards would write out chord charts. We would arrive around 10am the following day, tape about three hours of music with a one hour lunch break in the middle, and hope to get two half-hour episodes out of it. Other pairs of performers on the 26 episodes were Stevie Ray Vaughan with Albert King, Johnny Winter with Dr. John, Emmylou Harris with Rodney Crowell, Spencer Davis with Dave Mason, Chet Atkins with Liona Boyd, BB King with Larry Carlton, Mickey Newbury with Larry Gatlin, Brenda Lee with Owen Bradley, Richie Havens with John Sebastian, Steve Cropper with Eddie Floyd & William Bell, Burton Cummings with Don Everly, and many more that featured great Nashville songwriters who were not household names. Many of the shows have been posted on YouTube by fans. Just enter the pair of artists' names and "In Session". The producer who put all these talented people together and came up with the concept was Ian Anderson, who passed away last year. The shows were directed by the late Ron Meraska, a brilliant director of music specials here in Canada. 

 

 

 

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