This Crooked House Project Log
- Zach Miller
- Feb 21
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 22
Artist: Morgan McHugh
Project Type: EP
Location: Bellingham
Year: 2024-25
Role: Producer, Engineer
The Backstory
In may of 2024, I sat down at Stones Throw Brewing on the roof with Morgan McHugh to chat about music and get to know each other better. We connected on our similar upbringings, love for americana, songwriting and the heroes of folk rock. Before long, the conversation led us to a new batch of songs he'd been working on and the prospect of getting them recorded. I'd been aware of Morgan as one of my favorite singers in town after seeing him fronting a now defunct band called Atomic Affair, and then seeing him playing solo with some friends at Odd Fellows. After a pitcher of beer, I invited Morgan to check out my studio. As I showed him around it was so cool to see his eyes light up talking about his songs. Looking back I am still so thrilled to have been Morgan's choice for getting his music recorded and released.
Process & Approach
For this project, I knew I'd be starting out at my place in Fairhaven to get the basics down. I was feeling really confident with the results I was getting in my booth for acoustic instruments. Morgan had also expressed a love for my old upright piano I had gotten for free and opened up the front of. It definitely fit the aesthetic Morgan was going for and had just the right amount of slightly out of tune charm.
The big challenge I knew I'd be facing throughout the middle stages of this project was that my wife and I were moving in the fall. The lease on our cute little Fairhaven spot was up at the end of August and we were deep in the hunt for a house. I loved my recording setup at our old spot and was nervous about the results I was going to be able to get in a new space. We ended up getting a house in Sudden Valley, and it needed a full remodel. We're talking everything. New HVAC, new roof, new Kitchen, new floors and all new fixtures. Woof. Nevertheless, music must be made.
Tracks & Session Notes
"This Crooked House"
Morgan always described this one as the crowd favorite. We would commonly quip that upbeat tunes are rare in Morgan's catalog, so a driving rhythm like this song offered was a clear anchor point for the project to build on.
Four of these five songs were started with a scratch vocal and acoustic track. We all knew this song was going to be full band, played by the guys Morgan had recently started doing shows with. (Jonny Roberts on drums, Callan Nus on bass and Brett Strizich on lead guitar) These guys would proceed to play their instruments as necessary on the rest of the project as well, keeping the sound organic to how they did a lot of it for Morgan's shows. We started by putting together guide tracks for the various sessions we knew were on the way. At the time, Morgan was switching back and forth between an old 50s Gibson LG0 and a Martin acoustic. Both of these appear on Crooked house, with the Gibson on the left and the Martin on the right.
I was experimenting with acoustic recording techniques and for these songs, I had 3 Mics set up, but the most interesting and best sounding (for the Gibson at least) was an audix SDC which I had taped to the body just north of the sound hole on top of a piece of foam. I've since found micing techniques I prefer, but I stand by my decision for this particular instrument. For Bass, I had Callan's custom running straight into the Summit MPC at Alpenglow. I frequently used that for bass when I was tracking there, because I could plug a DI into the front, get a sweet tube preamp and a compression stage with one patch cable straight to the pro tools input. Bill has recently told me
that pre is in "gear jail" for lack of space, but is available from storage upon request.
Lyrically, Morgan laments how he feels stuck in his hometown. Which I wore him out about because that theme pops up across his writing. But to his credit, he has escaped and now lives halfway across the country in Colorado. Lines like "Someday I'm gonna kick this town" and "I don't wanna be a hopeless hear
t just passing through" outline Morgan's desire to take his music far beyond Bellingham.
"Angelina"
During the process of this project, Angelina was definitely a tune Morgan was anxious to get right. The depth of the storytelling and imagery in this song still impresses me. We had discussed at length what the various elements on this song could be, but Morgan was quite sure that he wanted Claire Willow (a fantastic songwriter in her own right) to play cello. They had been getting together to play music and he was really loving her playing on these songs. All the strings you hear across this project come from her cello. Claire's solo on the back half of Angelina is such a perfect fit and still gives me chills every time I hear it.
The drum sound on Angelina is an aspect that I'm really proud of. Drums for this project were done at Alpenglow Sound using Bill's Yamaha Recording Custom kit with a Ludwig Acrolite snare. The points of interest here were the snare mic setup, and the 28" kick drum????
The kick was super loud due to its size, but I knew once we muffled it, I would get the sound I was looking for. In retrospect, I may have gone with a classic AKG D112 for more warmth and woof vs the Bright Neumann U89 I ended up using on kick. For the snare, I wanted a really subdued and crunchy tone. Jonny played with brushes, and I put my all time favorite mic, the EV 635a on top, and an Oktava mk-012 with an omni
70% of the final snare sound.
Morgan paints such a detailed lyrical picture of deception and anger in this song. Lines like "cutting off the branches in a family tree" and "Is it too late to reconcile when your kids are up and gone" shoot straight through the heart. Songs like these live at the very core of American songwriting and folklore.
“Northwestern Sky”
This song was a later addition to the project, but nestles quite nicely into the middle. In contrast to the other songs so far, this song simply features a two part acoustic guitar instrumental, supporting Morgan's solo vocal. Once again you hear the Gibson and Martin split out to the left and right. If I remember Correctly, The Gibson plays the part Morgan wrote the song with, while the Martin plays a capo'd arrangement of the chords. I had suggested this to Morgan during the acoustic tracking session as we considered ways to fill out the song a bit more without overdoing it. I think this was the only guitar part Morgan played on the project that was formulated in the studio. Everything else I know he came prepared with exactly what he wanted to play. I personally love coming up with parts during studio sessions. Exploring options and recording quality takes as you go is such a luxury and I always appreciate when artists allocate studio time to the unknown.
“Putting On Faces”
This is another tune similar to Angelina that Morgan really wanted to get right. Other songwriters he had played it for thought it was one of his best and I have to agree. Thematically, this song fits right in with the rest of the project, with Morgan's introspective lyrics outlining his awareness of the unknowns in his life and grappling with where he's going at what he's leaving behind.
Originally, we really badly wanted pedal steel on this song, but after multiple attempts to get a player in for a session, we decided to leave it up to Brett. The volume swells played on his telecaster blend so very nicely with Claire's Cello to make up the ambient bed of this song. I usually have some selection of samples or recordings that I collect for any given project that give the project a personality and a recognizable sound. For this one, that folder was all Cello and Tele samples that I chopped up, looped, reversed and arranged to suit the songs. This is also the only track on the record that features Morgan's skill on harmonica. Strong instrumental melody is so important to a good song and Morgan absolutely nails it on this one. Harmonica was tracked a couple steps back from the glorious Telefunken 251 at Alpenglow that we used for Morgan's vocals across the project.
"South Ave"
South Ave came alongside Northwestern Sky later in the fall of 2024. I had just about finished the renovations and things were a lot more cozy and moved in for the studio and for this session. Being a piano ballad, the focus here was entirely on the piano and doing everything I could to add to the intimacy and emotions Morgan was pulling on in this song.
Having got this piano for free, it initially needed a decent bit of work to get it sounding clean and playing well. There were some sticky keys, some felt that needed replaced, and joints that needed dampened to avoid rattling. While having it open to work on it, I fell in love with the look of it with no coverings on the front. I also adore recordings where you can here the mechanics of the instrument and the players fingers moving around as they are playing. That was my target for how I wanted this piano to sound, and it was such a perfect fit for south ave.
I had installed short mic stand holders in the top cover of the piano, allowing it to be mic'd up without cables and stands crowding the player. The stands slip in between layers of foam, so no body resonance is transitioned to the mics. Obviously, my 635as are the winning mic for this instrument. The omni(ish) pickup pattern catches the perfect amount of the room. When we were setting up mics, I captured morgan warming up, just sitting at the piano singing into the 635s I had facing the hammers. You can hear him drifting back and forth between the mics as well as a couple alternate lyrics. While I was doing this write up, I found the original file and Morgan has approved it for inclusion here. Enjoy!
Takeaways & Reflection
This project came at a time when I was feeling pretty confident in my capabilities as a producer and engineer. The friendship I had built with Morgan allowed for the sessions to flow freely and for creativity to run mostly unaffected by logistics. This project was my escape from all the renovations I was doing on the house, and it really kept me going. There were days where Morgan and I were editing his tracks on a table in the garage because Alexandra and I were basically living out of that space while I renovated the house. I'm so grateful for all the musicians involved in this project and for Morgan's trust in me even when the sessions were just a laptop surrounded by moving boxes. In a way it was fitting. With all these songs about change, I was taking on the biggest adjustment of my life becoming responsible for this house. I look back really fondly on this project, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I still do. Listen Here
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