The Recording

Charlie Castilano, Goon (James) Wilson, Garry Manuel & Brian Soule

The 50th Anniversary recording of Sunup’s album titled, “The Key Is Love” is underway, with a majority of the tracks nearly completed; however, it is often the final subtleties, mixing and additional instrumentation that eat up more time than anyone anticipates. That is indeed the case with this Sunup project.

Sunup = Goon & Gar

Our original promo picture after recording our first two songs in 1973.

Garry & Goon

Meeting in Saratoga Springs, NY at the OBI.

The Concept

Fifty years is a long time for a group to be together. The truth is that in the last 25 years we have rarely played or performed together. In 2007 we played a Sunup reunion show with a packed house. It was a wonderful evening of music, along with the opportunity of seeing and performing before an audience of Sunup followers, friends, family and others. Our sons also performed solo and Marshall (Manuel) with his band at the time. Goon and I (typically without rehearsing) usually play once or twice a year in front of a campfire at a lake in the Adirondacks Mountains. For fun on Goon’s 70th birthday, we sat in for a couple songs at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs. We’ve also had a couple jam sessions at Charlie and Barb’s vacation home in S. Carolina, but other than that, there hasn’t been music we performed together.

So what songs should help commemorate our 50th Anniversary album? We didn’t want to just record all the older songs from the 1970’s or try to prepare only new songs, so we did a little of both. The first two releases from the album set the tone for what is to come. We started off with a cover of John Prine’s, “Hello In There” and followed with the title track, which featured all the Sunup members, with the exception of our dear friend, Kerry Peterson, who passed from cancer in 2009. “The Key Is Love” is an uplifting song that speaks to the political chaos and craziness that exists around us in this time period. It speaks directly to the point that the only way to resolve this mess is for us all to make an effort to love one another. Not to wish for it to happen or just talk about it, but to do our best to put love into action.

The Key Is Love

The Key Is Love lyric/music video

To sum up the album, it will contain new songs of reflection and wisdom as well as including a few of the uplifting songs that we played in the early days - songs you can readily sing along with that will make you feel good and bring back some memorable times. We’ll also include a bittersweet song that Goon wrote about a failed relationship that I had back in the early 70’s. We should have recorded the tune back then. Truthfully, we did record a rough version of it just before he moved to Connecticut. He left to take on a DJ job (which he currently still has) at a leading classic rock station in Danbury.

The album will conjure up old memories and stir thoughts for the future. Our hope is that it will inspire and delight listeners.

The Process

Recording has changed over the years, and to share honestly I will confess to missing the camaraderie during rehearsals, interacting with other musicians and testing out parts that might work for a song. There was an element of being together aside from the music that often enjoyable as well. Clearly we were not able to reestablish the methods of the past to accomplish this project.

The first step was having me lay down acoustic guitar tracks to a click track (metronome type sound) to be a guide for all the other instrumentation that would be layered. On occasion I’d sing and play guitar onto a track with the click keeping me on the beat. Every once in a while I’d have to play against the beat to slow a section up, and then be able to get back on the beat within several seconds. This method can present challenges. I managed to do fairly well playing against the beat; however, there were a couple spots where I dropped a couple measures, but didn’t realize it until it was too late to entertain making the changes. So the answer at that point was just to adapt to what had been recorded.

Garry Manuel

On the shore of the Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack Mountains..

Once all the basic acoustic tracks were down, I sent out the chord charts and notes, along with the raw recordings of each song so that the other band members could rehearse with their instruments and practice their vocals.

First up in mid-June, Goon drove up from Connecticut to lay down his vocal tracks and acoustic guitar parts. We recorded for three days. In fact, the recording took place right up to his departure on Sunday around 3pm. We did manage dinner and some fun in the mix too!

If we had time, we most likely would have patched up a few things and recorded a few more acoustic guitar parts, but it did not happen.

Soon after, Marshall and I began doing rough mixes of the tunes and sent them along to Charlie so he could have more updated versions to rehearse his bass parts. In the meantime I laid down some electric guitar parts and did some refining of the acoustic guitar.

In July, Charlie flew in from Ohio to record his bass tracks. While we had a couple Fender basses to use, we opted to use Fret King 4-string bass. It has depth, clarity and a well-rounded tone. Charlie had prepped well, but in the beginning seemed a tad nervous, which probably grew from the fact that he hadn’t done any serious recording since he left Sunup in the 70’s. I was not worried about the fact that it had been such an extended time period that he had played serious, because Charlie was always meticulous in nearly everything he pursued and I knew that he had been rehearsing the songs. The sessions did go well and we even had extra time to hang out and meet his talented brother, Ed (who plays bass with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra) for dinner in Geneva. It was a great evening and the food was good too!

Charlie

Castiliano was the original bassist for Sunup and had previously played in several bands with Garry Manuel

We were aiming to get two songs released by early August; however, we only were able to throw one out there - “Hello In There”. I was super excited to get this tune out the door because I was anxious in getting the ball rolling. Goon had done such a wonderful job on the vocal. As well, I thought we had captured the very essence of Prine’s message in the song and was proud of the production and the job Marshall had done with the editing and the final mix.

In September I sent Brian Soule some rough mixes of four tunes. We were searching for a day to record that would work for his schedule and Marshall’s. We eventually settled on the last Saturday in October. Brian had played keyboards with Sunup from the early 1980’s, until we no longer were doing live gigs. He had also been recording piano and keys on the solo tracks I was releasing from time to time. Covid definitely put a crimp in the ability and willingness to record. But joyfully, here we were recording once again under the Sunup umbrella again. It was a wonderful session with Brian not only playing piano and keyboards, but lending lead and backup vocals on four of the tracks. We had limited the day to four tracks as a matter of practicality. Some songs he never knew he’d be singing on, so he was literally just putting the vocal parts together at the spur of the moment.

In the case of “The Key Is Love” we had sent the tracks to drummer and friend, Billy Goodness, before Brian had recorded the piano and vocals. Billy has done a great job on my solo projects and we anticipate using his drum skills for a few other upcoming tracks. Everything turned out well; however, there is still more work to be done on the other tunes.

Brian Soule

Played keyboards and sang with Sunup in the early 1980’s and through the present day. You can also hear him on Garry’s solo recordings and with Liar’s Moon.

Now we await the holiday season to conclude and then we’ll be back to business. This will have us circling back and having some special guests perform on instruments that will complement the songs. These are the subtle embellishments to round out the recordings that are outside our area of expertise. In addition, we’ll be having some guest vocalists and I’ll be recording some guitar parts to fill in the blanks.

Goon, Charlie and Garry performing live at the Bungalow Inn on Mt. Hope Ave. in Rochester, NY. The club is no longer in existence and now has a MacDonald’s sitting in its place.

Charlie, Garry & Goon in Saratoga Springs in late Fall of 2019.

The best part of the Sunup story is that we have remained best of friends throughout this time period. We have some terrific memories, as well as some not so terrific. This would happen with any band, right?! Those experiences have paved the path in this journey, helped in the creation of some of our songs and made our friendships even more remarkable. To cap it off, having my son, Marshall, recording us and being part of the experience has made the journey priceless. It is a path I could not have imagined and one that is so very special.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the album. Topping things off we’re going to include a bonus track that will include Kerry Peterson on bass that we recorded at PCI studios with Mick Guzauski in 1975. It is our way of paying tribute to Kerry. In addition, Jimmy Duvall played pedal steel and Ben Gramm was the drummer. I’ll also add that it doesn’t happen to be one of our best tracks, but it sure is fun to listen to the song. The song is called “The Friendly Eastbound Train” and it could easily be a song for kids. But, we’re all kids, aren’t we?!

This album is dedicated to friends, former band mates and the folks who followed and remain following our music from the 1970’s. Thanks for being on the journey with us… ~Garry

Sunflare Songs

SUNUP's Recording of their 50th Anniversary Album