Charles
Eller Studios began life in 1985 in a Victorian building in the "hill section" of Burlington,
Vermont. Despite it's humble beginnings , the studio quickly became synonymous
with great sounding productions and it's stunning views and unique working
atmosphere became legendary. But, as the studio grew it became apparent that
more space would be nice and it's proximity to the city bus line made the
idea of a studio in the country very attractive. Studio owner, Charles Eller
looking back at that time says, "I knew that it was not going to be easy
to replace the views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks that we had at
the
Burlington studio, but after several years of searching rural locations,
I came across the Carpenter Farm, on Carpenter Road in Charlotte and knew
that
this was it."
Located on 15 acres that
borders the La Platte River in beautiful Charlotte, Vermont, the new studio
combines the serenity of the Vermont countryside with lovely, airy rooms that
were acoustically designed by Bill Morrison of Acoustical Physics Laboratories
of Athens, Georgia. The numerous windows provide a degree of natural lighting
not typical in recording studios anywhere and the views of the Green Mountains,
the La Platte River, and the Adirondacks are inspirational. It's truly a unique
working environment.
Chas Eller has been in the recording industry for 27 years. During that time he has recorded or produced over 500 LP's and CD's for numerous independent and major record labels, as well as creating music scores for clients such as Columbia Pictures, and Walt Disney. He has received three INDIE Awards for his recording production work on album projects, as well as worked on projects with Doc Watson and Dave Van Ronk which received 1991 and 1993 Grammy nominations respectively. In addition, he has produced several music specials for National Public Radio, including the 1988 Newport Folk Festival.
Chas currently owns and operates the state of the art 48 track studio in Charlotte, Vermont and has recently joined forces with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio on another highly unique facility called "The Barn Studio, LLC." In addition to his studio work, Chas still occasionally performs with the internationally known pop-jazz group Kilimanjaro, as well as The Unknown Blues Band with B.B. King alumni, Big Joe Burrell. Chas recorded and produced both Kilimanjaro records, which made the "Top Five" for national jazz radio airplay. With these two bands he has performed across the U.S. as well as festival appearances in The Soviet Union, Holland, Switzerland, and Denmark. In addition, he has toured nationally playing with blues legend, Paul Butterfield.
In recent years, Chas has recorded or mixed projects with Dr. John, Taj Mahal, Shawn Colvin, They Might Be Giants, Doc Watson, Richard Thompson, Odetta, The Horseflies, Jerry Douglas, Trey Anastasio, The Concord String Quartet, The Emerson String Quartet, 32 CDs for the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas, as well as "local" touring artists, Viperhouse, Vorcza Trio, Jazz Mandolin Project, Gordon Stone, Grace Potter, Jennifer Hartswick, Jon Gailmor, Seth Yacovone, Elisabeth von Trapp, Breakaway, Big Joe Burrell and the Unknown Blues Band, and countless others.
Recent projects have included
singer songwriter Caroline Aiken of Atlanta, Georgia, which featured the Indigo
Girls as well as members of the Allman Bros Band. Another project with songwriter
Michael Veitch of NYC featured guest artist, Shawn Colvin. Both projects were
produced by Blue Oyster Cult and Mahavishnu Orchestra producer, Murray Krugman.
• Mixing and Post
Production for "They Might Be Giants" MTV Videos "Hotel Detective" and "Everything
Right Is Wrong."
• Recorded and Co-Produced (2) two hour specials of the 1988 Newport
Folk Festival for NPR
• Produced music, sound efx, and audio mix for 25 video trailers for
Academy Home Video. (Including "Amityville IV")
• ADR work for CBS,
"Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" with Associate Producer, Toni Ellis and actress
Tantoo Cardinal
• Recorded the Emerson String Quartet for NPR's "Performance Today" in
1995
• Recorded 9 commentaries for NPR's "All Things Considered"
• Recorded and Produced music for Ben and Jerry's Factory Tours.
• Performances at the 1981 and 1983 Newport Jazz Festivals, the 1981 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and the 1985 Roskilde Festival in Denmark with Paul Butterfield, 1985 Montreal Jazz Festival, the 1991 Juraslav Jazz Festival in Juraslav, Russia, and the 1995 Utrecht Blues Festival in Holland. National Touring with Elisabeth von Trapp, 2002 to 2005 including concerts at the National Cathedral in Wash. D.C., The Chatauqua Institute, Christmas Concerts at St Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, as well as appearances at the Greenbrier, in W. Virginia, and The Vilar Center for the Arts, in Colorado.
• Live sound engineer
for Keith Jarrett solo piano concerts 1979 to 1981. Venues include Lincoln
Center (Avery Fisher Hall as well as the Metropolitan Opera House.) Tanglewood,
Symphony Hall in Boston, Academy of Music in Philadelphia, etc. *Live sound
engineer for PBS special "Keith Jarrett in Concert"
• Live sound engineer for "Oregon Live at Carnegie Hall"
• Live sound engineer for 1990 performance of "Prairie Home Companion" for NPR
• Recorded and mixed music for the 1998 movie "Mud Season" featured at the Slam Dance Film Festival
• Wrote and recorded theme music for VPR's show "Vermont This Week" which has aired for 19 years.
• Auditor
for New England Council on the Arts 1977-1979
Keith Jarrett (20), Pat Metheny (6), Ray Charles, B.B. King, Larry Carlton, Taj Mahal (3), Betty Carter(2), McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Smith, Muddy Waters, Oregon, Paul Winter Consort, Loudon Wainwright, Tom Rush (3), Doc Watson(2), Jimmy Cliff, Albert Collins, the Sun Ra Arkestra, The Persuasions, The Byrds, Junior Walker, Dr. John, Jimmy Cliff, and many more.
Engineer, Lane Gibson, was a professional musician and
vocalist for over 30 years. He was one of the co-founders as well as the
keyboardist for "The Davis Bros. Garage Band," a rock group who
enjoyed considerable success in New England and Colorado throughout the seventies
and into the early eighties. One of his compositions, "Lookin' For the
Money" landed them a record contract with Charisma Records in the U.K.
After dissolving the Davis Bros. in 1982, Lane hooked up with local foavorites, "Downpour" and
worked with them until he retired from the group in 2000. In the meantime,
as a result of doing vocal jingle work at Charles Eller Studios in 1993,
he reconnected with Chas who was realizing that the new studio was too busy
for one operator, so he asked Lane to assist him with the engineering tasks.
They have been going strong ever since and make up an extremely strong team.
Gibson quotes, "It has been an amazing opportunity for me to work with
incredible gear, an extremely talented engineer and musician, and a client
list of genuinely, wonderful people, who I enjoy both musically and personally."