Slack Key Studio

09/23/2024

New music coming in hot!

07/29/2024

A beautiful and touching new song and video out from my studio assistant, Meagan Droke today! Congrats, Meagan!

This is a very personal song I wrote to my loving father who is no longer on earth, but I know he’s watching over me.

04/13/2024

New Slack Key Studio hats sitting on the console. PM me if you want to purchase one!

04/08/2024

Proud to play Little Walter Tube Amps right along with Robben!

Ford helped build the legend of Dumble amps but admits he is playing Little Walter amps “pretty exclusively” these days

12/30/2023

Sweet!

Calling all bass guitar buffs! 🎸

Feast your eyes on this: a whole pallet of fresh ToneSpeak speakers, each packed with the sound you've been dreaming of. Perfect for those lazy weekend jam sessions or when you just want to lose yourself in the music.

Ready to upgrade your sound? Visit our website to join the ToneSpeak family today.

https://hubs.la/Q02dCGcS0

12/22/2023

Some evening reso overdubs happening tonight.

12/13/2023

There’s lots of awesome people to thank for helping the 13th Annual Slack Key Studio Christmas party be the party it was. Mark Forest and Pam Forest were/are a Godsend with complete party prep along with Kyle Knoth, too. Brad Stuart pitching in, Max Woolery Music and James Tillman with the last month of demolition before residing. Jared Finck and I got the place resided just in time and not only is he quite handy with a hammer, he can play his butt off on any instrument you hand him. Even Clay Krasner and his wife, RyLee Madison helping last minute since we were stuck in traffic with the food. Eric Thompson and Jason Rushton, couldn’t have done it without ya’ll, that’s for sure. Fun jamming with you both! And, most of all, Meagan Droke, who put in countless hours along with me decorating, painting beautiful decor tailored to Slack Key and thinking things through from every angle of this party. We all missed Chris Mason and her husband, Jimmy, who normally do our fish fry. Health problems kept them away, but they’ll be back next year once they’re back to normal. The day after the party is always spent cleaning and reminiscing of how the night went. We laughed as we forgot to turn on so many decorations that it’s ridiculous. Tight time frame really had us rushing this year. I sure am thankful to have these folks in my life and I feel very blessed that I do. The lucky 13th pulled off better than any of us thought. Thank you again for everything, a great year of music making with awesome talent I get to surround myself with and a recording facility that’s ever growing and changing.

12/12/2023

New music coming this month!

11/28/2023

New music that’s not Christmas music! Coming your way soon!

Joel Gragg & The Filaments have wrapped their 2023 season, and are planning for 2024. Until then, we have our long-anticipated first EP release coming out Friday Dec 15th, hitting all the streaming platforms. This project started out in Belleville, IL at Lonnie's Farm Recording Studio and was mixed by Randy Kohrs Slack Key Studio in Nashville, TN, and finally mastered at Red Pill Recording Studio in St. Louis, MO. You'll be able to pre-buy the EP on iTunes and Amazon on Nov 28th or Pre-Save for the Streaming release on the 15th. For those of you who supported us this year in our 1st full year, our deepest thanks are reciprocated. Here is the link to pre-save the EP. Much Love, and See you in 2024!

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/joelgraggandthefilaments/joel-gragg--the-filaments--its-just-spin-ep

05/02/2023

New music, much of it done here at Slack Key! Proud to see another single coming out from Billy. This time, a slippery instrumental called, "CPR".

01/12/2023

A great eq and write up!

Sound on Sound magazine just published a great review of the Ingram Engineering EQ52 500-series Equalizer in the January, 2023 edition. If you’re not a subscriber, it’s highly recommended that you subscribe, as SOS is always a great read. The full review is available to subscribers, only, until June of this year. Don’t wait – sign up and you can read Neil Roger’s great evaluation and comments about the EQ52.

Sound on Sound review link: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ingram-engineering-eq52

More details about the EQ52 are at this site: https://ingramengineering.net/products/eq52.html

01/12/2023

Hey there PJ Fans!
Going way, way, way back to last Monday for ! 😂
First day of cutting tracks for the new Pen Johnson album coming to you this year. Our goal was to cut the tracks for bass guitar and drums on seven tunes and we got it done! This group of talented musicians makes it sooooo much fun!
Have a great day!
(L-R: Richard Starkey-guitars; Randy Kohrs-Producer/engineer, dobro, vox; Rick Vonn-guitars, vox; Daniel Thomas-drums; Steve Forrest-bass guitars; Gary Talley-guitars, vox).

10/16/2022

A little of my past is being dug up in the way of a nice review from If That Ain't Country radio.

In this week's episode we're featuring the one album release for dobro-maestro Randy Kohrs and his short-lived band The Reel Deal: "Now It's Empty&...

05/06/2022

I know I like to joke a lot and usually I’m telling some crazy story from my life that makes y’all laugh…but this song is very meaningful to me. I hope y’all get a blessing from this.

Growing Media created the perfect dream world for me. They recreated my reality: the nightmare that has been Lyme disease and cancer.

I’m truly hoping this song finds it’s way into your hearts.

Disease is not just a physical battle, it is a mental and emotional battle. I wrote 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙾 in one of the darkest times of my life.

If you know someone struggling with cancer, Lyme, lupus, or any disease…do not let them push you away or slip into a lonely state. No matter what, keep showing up. You are someone’s HERO.

🤘You can find the original version of Hero on any platform, but Grammy winner Randy Kohrs has produced a new version that is just incredible.

Go subscribe to our official YouTube channel and be the first to see it when it comes out. You don’t want to miss this one! Help us spread some love and hope. You are not alone.

💎🥃

💄: Logan Havens

01/22/2022

Trying to keep myself busy and not let the recent loss of so many friends and influential people in my life drag me too far down tonight. So, I thought I’d make a little video of the Violap to show what it’s capable of while getting ready to record it this evening. It’s a wonderful instrument and a treat to get to record with it as I make my living.

11/16/2021

The depth of tone and string to string balance of this instrument is unparalleled in the reso world. A big thanks for that goes to high quality strings on the finest made instrument. and Scheerhorn L body #1 (AKA ) are a match made in sonic heaven and I couldn’t be more happy or fortunate that this has been the case for me since 1998.

10/29/2021

After a little repair bench time, the Edwards Audio LE-10 stereo preamp is back in action! Such a great sounding preamp that’s sadly now unavailable to purchase. Paul Edwards, the builder, passed from a sudden heart attack in March of 2020. He’ll live on and on here at Slack Key through his fine craftsmanship and we’ll do our best to honor his work by recording amazing talent through his gear.

08/26/2021

Coming out soon and it’s a good’in!

Bout damn time✨
New single next week 8/31