studioexpresso - mixer engineer producer David Vaught

RIP David Vaught
11.27.48 -- 3.20-13

"He was a beautiful player - he made every part he played seem like the most natural thing - effortless and easy. He had a McCartney-like melodic bent, and it added a great deal
to each track we recorded".
-- Billy Mernit

"He was the Picasso of engineers"
-- Marvin Etzoini

"Absolutely the best"
-- Jerry Yester

"I really cant express the effect David Vaught had on my life, but it was enormous, and those times I had with him are something I look back at as unique and wonderful'"
-- Randy Chance

Engineer, producer, musician and arranger David Vaught passed away on March 20th from pancreatic cancer. David is survived by his best friend and daughter, Chloe. He will be greatly missed by his many other friends and colleagues.

David began playing the bass and electric guitar when he was eleven. He recorded an album with the Renegades on Crescendo Records when he was thirteen. He later recorded with the band "Rosebud" featuring the vocals of Judy Henske which released an album on Reprise records. During the 70's he went on to record with such notable artists as Tom Waits and Roger McGuinn and worked on many records as a bass guitarist with producer, collaborator and longtime friend Jerry Yester including records by Aztec II Step and Billy Mernit.

He recorded and co-produced records for The Association (for whom he was the musical director during the 70's) and produced and engineered many records out of his studios in Thousand Oaks California including platinum albums by Toad The Wet Sprocket and Primitive Radio Gods. He recorded albums for Randy Chance, John Henry Raskin, Brad Nack and many records for producer/songwriter Marvin Etzoini including his solo effort "Marvin's Country" (album of the week BBC). He was also the founding member of the seminal California band The Flaming Pitts whom he produced and engineered in the early 70's.

In the mid 80's he conceived, recorded and produced the Jon Wayne "Texas Funeral" album on which he also wrote the material, played and "sang". He was accompanied by "Jimbo" (Jim Goodall) who played the drums. The group was expanded to include "Ernest Bovine" (Doug Livingston) and "Billy Bob" (Bruce Rhodewalt) who was later replaced by Timmy Turlock (Tommy Spurlock). It has since become a "cult classic".

A partial discography includes: TOAD THE WET SPROCKET "Bread and Circus" Sony; "In Light Syrup" Sony (featured in " So I Married an Axe Murderer" Sony soundtrack album); PRIMITIVE RADIO GODS "Rocket" Sony ( featured in " The Cable Guy " Sony soundtrack album - and includes the single "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth " which received the most airplay for an alternative single of all time); COUNTING CROWS "Recovering the Satellites" Geffen; PETER CASE "Peter Case Sings Like Hell" Vanguard; LONE JUSTICE "This World is Not My Home" Geffen; JON WAYNE " Texas Funeral " Cargo (featured in " From Dusk til Dawn " Sony soundtrack album).
David engineered the Primitive Radio Gods’ - "White Hot Peach" released on War Records He recorded the RandyWeeks album "Madeline " on Hi Tone Records from which 2 cuts were featured in Twentieth Century Fox film "Say It Isn't So " and another 2 songs are featured in Fairly brothers film " Shallow Hal " on Twentieth Century Fox. David's work also appeared in HBO's "Sex and the City" via the Satellites album "Goodbyexotica".