New Album, FARM LIFE is being mixed

Our brand new full-length album FARM LIFE is being mixed now. We started the process last Sunday, worked well into the night, PBR, IBC root beer and cookies to give us strength. The album is being mixed by Jake Westermann, who also did all the engineering work and helped produce the project as well. Jake is a house engineer at Engine Studios where we recorded the entire album. The process was long, sometimes challenging and frustrating, but we're done. 

Jake, who we've come to trust and love, has the reins now and we just have to sit back and wait for the mixes to come down the pipe. We've got a new page for the site, FARM LIFE, which explains our little mission for this album. Please check it out and be a part of making this album come to fruition. This is our finest work.

Burn It Down!

A big thank you to all the people who have downloaded Raw Flowers from the website. We've gotten some really cool emails from people all over America telling us how they've been enjoying the album and letting their friends know about it.  Please, continue to do so. We're happy to see the list of downloads grow every day.

We worked hard to create an album we feel is special and we want to share it with you! Burn it, use a marker and write Flame Shark on it and give it away. I've discovered many bands I know and love and listen to because someone gave me a burned CD...Dr. Dog, Jennyanykind and Pearls and Brass to name a few. So, help us spread the word about Flame Shark and we'll keep making the music we love to make. Thanks!

Get FREE Flame Shark Songs Now

We want you to have all of our music for free! We want you to share it with your friends, conspirators, like-minded music enthusiasts, just enjoy it and please, please burn it, pass it on and help us spread Flame Shark to others. Come to our shows and meet us. More than anything we want to keep making music, so please help us by taking it for free! Visit the treasures page and go nuts. If you want a FREE copy of RAW FLOWERS just sign up for our email list. 

Tracking on Farm Life is DONE

Of all the recording projects I've been involved with in the last ten years, this album has been the most challenging and the most intimately created. I've always relied upon my gut instincts to inform my musical and production decisions, but this album has pulled something else out of me and forced me to question how I've been making music. These are good questions, sometimes painful and shaded by a shadow of self doubt, but without going down these roads, we would never grow or evolve as a band.

I am happy to say all the tracking for our new album FARM LIFE is done. The last note to ring out was the blunted, ghostly tone of me beating on a gas can with marimba mallets. Listen for it in "Season of the Swine". Jake Westermann, our faithful, diligent, amazingly cool under pressure engineer for this entire project also contributed some gas can and cymbal sweeps on "Deny". It was sort of a full circle moment to see him come out from behind the studio glass and into the live room.

Our original plan for FARM LIFE was keep things simple and as organic as possible. We tried to maintain that, but when you've got the keys to the candy store, it's hard to keep from eating the chocolate frogs. Not to mention, Marc Ford. I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around that one. Marc Ford (ex-Black Crowes guitarist, producer of Ryan Bingham) played guitar on five of the nine songs. That was truly a dream come true and he brought the songs to a new and unexpected level. The songs still have their organic, rustic quality, but they shimmer in places we never intended them to. Our friend, bandmate and drummer Doug Gay played drums on this record that nearly bring me to tears--the drums break my heart in such an amazing way.

The songwriting process on this album was totally different as well. Mike "Goldenwings" Meske (bassist, singer and songwriter) wrote and produced three of the songs ("New Beginning" "A Fossil" "Straight Thru Your Heart"), Rusty "LaRue" Lee (keyboards, vocals, songwriter) wrote, produced and sang "Red Wine" and I wrote and produced four of the tunes ("Wild Magnolias For Us All" "Keep On Looking Out For You" "Season of the Swine" "Deny"). We wrote one song called "Hold Out One More Week" as a band, which is sort of a first for us. Making this album has pushed us into new simpler, bolder more directions as far as songwriting and made us determined to cut the fat.

We probably won't be in a studio for another year or so. We want to get on the road, introduce these songs and road test some of our newest material. Until you see us out there, keep your ears peeled for these new songs. I'm done making predictions as to how the albums will be perceived, but I can say I'm proud of what we've created and proud to work with such talented musicians.   





  

Marc Ford On Our New Album

Marc Ford, yes THE Marc Ford, one of my all time favorite guitar players, former lead guitarist for The Black Crowes, played the lead parts on Amorica, Southern Harmony & The Musical Companion and Three Snakes And One Charm, played with Ben Harper, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Widespread Panic and just got off a tour with Booker T. Jones (of Booker T and the MGs), Marc Ford. And now, he's played with Flame Shark.

Marc (I can call him Marc now) played guitar on six of the ten new songs on our in-progress album FARM LIFE. We went into the studio, he brought out every available amp, about six or seven total, and adjusted them until he found the sound he was looking for. He brought two fuzz pedals and his Gibson Les Paul. He used a variety of amps, a giant Marshall stack, a crusty old Gibson with tremelo and even this little Sears model, probably built in the 1950s. The sound was somewhere between Memphis, Dusty Springfield and Led Zeppelin. We were working out a part for a song called "Hold Out, One More Week" and out of nowhere he comes up with this amazingly slinky, funky, chicken-picking type of part. I say, "Stay with that Marc!" He says, "You want to stay in Memphis and keep out of Fresno then?" I say, laughing, "Yup, keep out of Fresno and stay with that Memphis vibe." Amazing.

He is a gracious, generous, kind, intense, laid back, deep artist and a true master craftsman. He is a rare, rare musician and one who brings depth of emotion and complete control of his instrument. We learned a lot just being around him. We can't wait to unveil the ten new songs and the album featuring Marc Ford. Who would've thought, I've been listening to him play for over ten years and now he's played on the new Flame Shark record. If that doesn't say something about karma or the vibe of the world, I just don't know where your head is.