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"Welcome to Bob Egan's humble cyberspace."
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| Souled American - "Fe" I had just moved to Chicago in the mid 1980's and hooked up with Chris and Joe who were recording their first record as Souled American. I knew them from their previous band, the Uptown Rulers, who were based in my college town of Normal, Illinois. I don't remember much about the actual recording of my steel guitar parts but I do remember a couple of special shows we did - one at the Metro and the other opening for Buddy Guy at Phyllis's Musical Inn for about 40 people. Years later on the first date of my first European tour with Freakwater I finally heard the finished record. We had just come off the stage at a club in Hamburg and the D.J. put Fe' on. At first it sounded strangely familiar. I thought someone was covering one of Chris' songs. Then I heard this real twisted steel guitar and realized this was the Souled American I had worked on years before! It was pretty surrealistic. Freakwater - "Old Paint" This was the first record that I played on more than just a few tracks. I remember it as a real relaxed few weeks as the producer Brad Wood set us up to play live in the studio. Most of the steel guitar was recorded live as Janet and Catherine sat facing each other while Dave (on bass) and I accompanied them. It was kind of a buzz for me to work with Brad as he had just finished Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville (a favorite). Around this same time Brad also mixed a few of our live Freakwater shows. It was an honor to work with him and Freakwater on this record. June 6, 1994 This record was recorded on the last date of my first European tour with Freakwater. We had spent a month in an Iveco van driving 5 to 10 hours every day across Germany. It was pretty brutal. I remember having a "meltdown" before this show - I was just so burned out and beat up. I was not a pretty sight. Fortunately my mood doesn't show up on the CD! It is a good document of that tour. Freakwater - "Springtime" By the time Freakwater recorded this record, multi-instrumentalist Max Johnson from Wilco and I had traded places. They invited me over one night to overdub steel on a few songs. I remember being nostalgic and envious because they sounded so good with Max on mandolin, fiddle, banjo and dobro. Max even got to sing a song on this record! Wilco - "Being There" I had met the Wilco guys a few months back when Freakwater opened for them for a couple of weeks. They were recording at CRC in Chicago and called me up to come over and "hang out." I was quite busy at the time and didn't get around to hooking up with them until one of their last nights in the studio. And, being naive, I didn't realize "hanging out" meant bring your pedal steel and National guitars! I overdubbed steel on Far Far Away, then the whole band plugged in for Dreamer in My Dreams and we played the song in all its rawness for several takes. Jeff kept pushing it harder and harder until that final take that made it onto the record. You can hear him coughing and putting his guitar down and walking into the next room to sing the final verse into the piano microphones as Jay improvised. That was a lot of fun. It was also the start of my professional relationship with Wilco.
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