Richard Wiegel

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Kristy Larson

Richard Wiegel

press release: The Midwesterners, Madison's long-haul roots rockers, recently released their fifth CD “Pecatonica Mud”. There will be no release party per se due to Covid, but Richard Wiegel will have CDs available at upcoming solo shows at Lakeside Street Coffee House.  

The story of the CD-Richard Wiegel:  “We recorded 12 drum tracks in the summer of 2019 at Mark Haines studio Williamson Magnetic Recording Company (an all analog recording studio, no digital); bass player Tom McCarty played bass on two tracks; and then Mark (also the drummer) had to close his studio. With the closing of the studio, and different family responsibilities, we were put on hold. And then Covid hit.

(Richard continues), after waiting another six months I decided I had to finish the album. I was already feeling a bit mortal being 72 years old, let alone heading into the covid winter, so I started to work at home on my Pro Tools system.  I convinced Mark to try digital recording, which he surprisingly took to it after a lifetime of analog recording, and we got to work.  Tom McCarty had recently purchased a home recording device, and I lent one to Ernie (Conner, guitarist), but we couldn't make that work.  It’s a very steep learning curve and I nor Mark were able to help due to covid.

So I ended up recording all of the guitars and vocals at home, and all of the bass guitar tracks except for two, and sent the tracks via the internet to Mark who mixed at his house.  I think we physically got together once around May 2021 to listen to a track. Seeing as how Mark has drummed on every Midwesterner CD and I have written all the songs, I think we maintained the same high energy, Roots Rock/Americana style, even though Ernie and Tom couldn’t be involved the way we wanted.”