An Intelligent Bandleader's Approach to Monitors
By Chris Kathman

Jerry Jeff Walker, Jonathan Richman & Morrissey

C.K., Winter Park, CO

When I reported to the House of Blues Sunset Strip one day, to mix monitors for Jerry Jeff Walker, I figured I was in for an okay day. I had worked with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Joe Ely, and Townes Van Zandt, so I figured Jerry Jeff would be another talented Texas troubadour. Within a few hours, I had revised my estimate, and now think of him as one of the most canny and aware performers I’ve ever met.

Because he does not play the victim. Jerry Jeff actually takes responsibility for the way his stage and monitors sound, instead of slouching through a soundcheck and breezily asserting that it’ll sound different later anyway, or complaining behind the back of that darn soundman who just can’t seem to read his mind.

After the stage was wired, the HoB house guy went to his position, picked up the talkback, and asked for the usual kick. Jerry Jeff interrupted him politely. “Here’s the way we’re going to do it today,” he stated. “We’re going to work on the monitors up here, and then when we’ve got them the way we like, you can turn on the house and we’ll pull that together real quick. Okay?”

And then we did just that. Jerry called upon each musician in turn, following a routine that they were obviously used to. I would get their channel clean and strong in my cue, and then Jerry Jeff would tell me which mixes it should go into, and ask that player if he could hear it okay. It was like a calm, beautiful dream.

You know what I’m talking about, people. You have all sat through chaotic wankfests with stagefuls of cretins who gaily noodle while one of their colleagues is trying to hear themselves. And FOH guys who are booming the mix off the back wall, trying out their reverbs and delays and experimenting with EQ, while the musicians are desperately wondering when the bombs will stop falling long enough for them to think straight, and remember that they will want to hear old Joe from across the stage later, during their set.

It is so frickin’ hard to EQ a stage while someone out front is blasting away with all that horsepower. Jerry Jeff understands that. He also understands the evilness of 160 Hz, and had me dry up each mix by adjusting EQ’s and hi-passes, as we added more elements to them, including the sidefills. When we were done, I was in awe, it was as good a stage sound as I have ever heard anywhere, nothing hurt, every musician could hear everyone else and had everything they needed to cue from.

Jerry Jeff genially invited the house mixer to put something up, implying that it needed to not disturb the sculpture we had in place up on stage. He is a total gentleman in how he asks for everything. Big old cowboy hat, song rancher!

You know, I have noticed in life that if someone aggressively claims to have the big picture, the overview, get your back to a wall and pull out your knife. Because the ones that really do, like Jerry Jeff, don’t need to proclaim their knowledge. He’s just a guy who has done countless shows and wants them to happen the simplest and most pleasant way that they can.

The only other person I can think of who is that much in charge of their sound is Jonathan Richman, who when I mixed his solo show at Slim’s in San Francisco, did not use any monitors. He actually feels the house coming back at him, and at points during the performance, cheerfully asked me to change the balance a little and give him more guitar, and kept strumming the changes until he liked the vibe, then thanked me, and resumed the vocal!

Professionalism is so much a perceived phenomenom. Jonathan is often portrayed by the press as a child-man, goofy or something, when he is actually a total pro, and even intently skips rope like a boxer after the soundcheck. And he too does not play the victim, but gently steers the audio in the direction he wants it to end up in, and then cruises through his set, playing to his devoted fans.

Jerry Jeff’s audience actually flies down to Belize every summer and has a big old time with the man and his band for a few days. He has taken the Buffett-style parrot heads a whole step further. But for absolutely insane fans, you can’t beat Morrissey.

He is a real rock star, with a traditional two-guitars-bass-and-drums backup group. People go to his shows with religious devotion and stack flowers and messages on the edge of the stage like he is the Dalai Lama or something. Chris, what does this have to do with audio, you may be asking …

My perception of Morrissey, from being his monitor mixer for the first Coachella festival and a few warm-up shows two years ago, is that he is secure in his art form. He is not trying to establish a career. He is not worried, I don’t think, about the house payments. I doubt he needs to work another day in his life. I could be wrong, but I think he actually performs because he loves the connection that he has with his audience. I’ll say this, he certainly appears to.

Every night, he would walk past my desk to start the show with a smile on his face. Hey, guys? That’s a leader. No fear, no fury, just purpose and confidence and the stamina to deliver his unique vocals. So, a guy like that? I did what I know how to do - put up a stagewide vocal, as loud as each day’s system could produce - center wedges, sides, and some nights a pair of buttfills that I shoved up against the drum riser. I took out the frequencies that honk and the ones that stab.

And Morrissey went out and did his shows. One wired Beta 57a, and another 57a spare coiled up standing by. No grimacing. No hollering and gesturing for more. Sometimes at a soundcheck I would get nervous and ask him if everything was okay. He would just smile and nod, and that night his voice would actually gain strength. Soaring over the arrangements, it made a total fan of me, someone who had never heard any Smiths records, only some punk band in San Francisco sing “Morrisssey Rides A Cock Horse.”

Well, I’ll tell you what. When he steps on that stage, Morrissey is a real man. So is Jerry Jeff Walker and so is Jonathan Richman. They are there to play. And I can work with that.

Check out Musing Part 1