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He moved to Los Angeles in 1972 and, not knowing
anyone, began making the
rounds of jam sessions and band auditions,
playing blues and writing songs until
landing a gig with a touring bar band. Next came
a stint working in a music store that
led to gigs sitting in with country musicians.
Anderson continued to play, worked his
way up to better gigs, and made a name for
himself. In 1983, Dwight Yoakum hired
him as a sideman for club dates.
Yoakum's sound was so different from what was
currently heard on radio, that the
band was fired from every gig they played. With
Yoakum on the verge of giving up,
Anderson convinced him to self-finance a
six-song album that was distributed locally,
and won immediate critical praise. Yoakum was
opening for the Blasters on a cross-
country tour when Warner Brothers Records
caught his act, and signed him to a deal.
The resulting album,
Guitars and Cadillacs, which Anderson produced
and played
on, garnered several hit singles and went
gold.
As time went by, Anderson's studio work with
songwriters and recording artists
turned more and more into producing, until in
1993, he opened Little Dog Records.
The label gave Anderson the creative freedom to
sign and develop artists that he
believed in. Beginning with one artist and a
toll-free telephone number, Anderson
THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THIS
JOB:
"I resent the fact that people get into
positions of power and have
absolutely no taste or talent or reason to even
have that job, other than
some other guy with no talent hired
him."--PA
"The fine tuning--the little tweaking part of
getting the vocal and the mix
right. You just have to get so inside the
music, you feel like you're pulling
out a microscope. Also, the crazy kind of
political things you have to deal
with. Like when the label doesn't want a song,
but the artist does."--CF
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
"I love songwriters. I love hearing a great
song. I like the music I work
with, the musicians, and the opportunity to be
creative and work with cre-
ative people."--PA
"I like tracking: being in the room with great
musicians and having that
energy spiral into something magical. I love
being in a live music setting
where there are four, five, or six musicians
all playing at once. It's like the
sum is greater than the individual
parts."--CF
VOICES
OF
EXPERIENCE
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