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Anyone familiar with Meredith Edgar knows she is a Bay Area musical treasure.  So it goes without saying that I was beyond thrilled when she called last year to ask me to produce her new album.

I've always said that songwriting is the ultimate act of bravery - the willingness to expose your deepest feelings in songs and then perform them for the world to hear takes a level of courage I can't fathom, and in this regard, Meredith stands alone.  I'd be a liar if I said this wasn't a difficult record to make at times.  It's impossible to hear these songs and not get swept up in her delivery of such raw emotion.  But, as with everything difficult, the rewards are so worth it in the end.

She is joined on this record by Jamie Duncan on guitar, Dawn Ellerbeck on upright bass, and Mike Burns on drums, along with Ali Gummess on violin and Russell Tillitt on keyboards. Melancholy Baby was beautifully mastered by Myles Boisen, with artwork by Brian Mello.  

Melancholy Baby is available for purchase at Bandcamp and for streaming at all your usual streaming services.

I've always had difficulty describing Boxer Lodge to people who have never been here. Yes, it's a studio in a home, but it's not really a "home studio." It is in Napa, but we're in the hills, so it feels like Tahoe. We're remote, so people stay here. We typically team up to prepare food and eat together, given the distance to the nearest burrito. We have spare rooms, a guest cottage, a pool, hot tub and a bocce court. It's kind of a recording retreat.

The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video must be worth more, right? Given this, I decided to recruit @laurenmorrelltabak to create a "day in the life at Boxer Lodge" video, to illustrate what a typical recording day looks like here.

This video was filmed from sunup to sundown where we tracked basics and most of the overdubs used in the song. The audio is the final mix of the song, which will appear on an upcoming Matt Jaffe record.

Special thanks to the supremely talented @mattjaffemusic, @jamesdeprato, and @jimbogios for indulging me in this project. I'm honored beyond words to be able to work with you.

Link to video in bio.

Composer - Matt Jaffe
Bass - James DePrato
Drums - Jim Bogios
Guitars - Matt Jaffe
Keyboards - Matt Jaffe
Strings - Matt Jaffe
Vocals - Matt Jaffe
Additional Vocals - Megan Slankard

Video by Lauren Tabak
Engineered and mixed at Boxer Lodge by Peter Craft
Mastered by Chris Sorem at Nest Recorders

Flashback to 2007 when Brian Mello @russelltillitt, Dan Carr, @gregbeshers and I rocked this @melloandbehold song at the Filmore.

Now, nearly 20 years later, you can catch Brian performing songs from his vast catalog of material, along with me, Russell and @david.knupp at the @littlehilllounge on Friday June 12th. Mark your calendars.

Laying down a brand new tune at @boxerlodge in stunning Angwin, CA. Really loved working with this studio, can’t wait for y’all to hear the finished product.

MH

#countrymusic #americana #outlawcountry #independentmusic #singersongwriter

There are countless examples of great recording equipment, but there are far fewer that rise to the level of being truly iconic - A vintage Neumann U47 microphone, the Neve 1073 console, the Fairchild compressor. Even the mere sight of these will cause an engineer to need a moment alone.

When it comes to reverb, there is arguably nothing more iconic than the EMT 140 plate reverb. Ironically, this 600lb, 4' by 8' behemoth was introduced to give studios a "space-efficient" reverb solution - huge by today's standards, but a fraction of the size of an echo chamber. After its introduction, it quickly became an integral sound of countless records including every Beatles record from Sgt Pepper on.

Off the top of my head I know of no less than 5 plugin emulations of this reverb, and while they're all very good, there's nothing quite like the real thing. EMT 140s are still in use at most of the top recording studios. Shawn Everett painstakingly printed Miley's vocals through Village Studio's 140 plate (they have five of them) so he'd have it available later for mixing.

Today I took ownership of a solid state, stereo EMT 140, serial number 2967 - just 165 after the one in John Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios that was used on Imagine. Prior to its new home at Boxer Lodge, the 140 lived at The Site in Marin and likely found its way onto recordings ranging from Neil Young to Linda Ronstadt to Pearl Jam.

There are countless examples of great recording equipment, but there are far fewer that rise to the level of being truly iconic - A vintage Neumann U47 microphone, the Neve 1073 console, the Fairchild compressor. Even the mere sight of these will cause an engineer to need a moment alone.

When it comes to reverb, there is arguably nothing more iconic than the EMT 140 plate reverb. Ironically, this 600lb, 4' by 8' behemoth was introduced to give studios a "space-efficient" reverb solution - huge by today's standards, but a fraction of the size of an echo chamber. After its introduction, it quickly became an integral sound of countless records including every Beatles record from Sgt Pepper on.

Off the top of my head I know of no less than 5 plugin emulations of this reverb, and while they're all very good, there's nothing quite like the real thing. EMT 140s are still in use at most of the top recording studios. Shawn Everett painstakingly printed Miley's vocals through Village Studio's 140 plate (they have five of them) so he'd have it available later for mixing.

Today I took ownership of a solid state, stereo EMT 140, serial number 2967 - just 165 after the one in John Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios that was used on Imagine. Prior to its new home at Boxer Lodge, the 140 lived at The Site in Marin and likely found its way onto recordings ranging from Neil Young to Linda Ronstadt to Pearl Jam.

There are countless examples of great recording equipment, but there are far fewer that rise to the level of being truly iconic - A vintage Neumann U47 microphone, the Neve 1073 console, the Fairchild compressor. Even the mere sight of these will cause an engineer to need a moment alone.

When it comes to reverb, there is arguably nothing more iconic than the EMT 140 plate reverb. Ironically, this 600lb, 4' by 8' behemoth was introduced to give studios a "space-efficient" reverb solution - huge by today's standards, but a fraction of the size of an echo chamber. After its introduction, it quickly became an integral sound of countless records including every Beatles record from Sgt Pepper on.

Off the top of my head I know of no less than 5 plugin emulations of this reverb, and while they're all very good, there's nothing quite like the real thing. EMT 140s are still in use at most of the top recording studios. Shawn Everett painstakingly printed Miley's vocals through Village Studio's 140 plate (they have five of them) so he'd have it available later for mixing.

Today I took ownership of a solid state, stereo EMT 140, serial number 2967 - just 165 after the one in John Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios that was used on Imagine. Prior to its new home at Boxer Lodge, the 140 lived at The Site in Marin and likely found its way onto recordings ranging from Neil Young to Linda Ronstadt to Pearl Jam.

Reposting one of my favorite recording moments from three years ago - @kaciejewelhill, @jerome_porter_music and I adding varying amounts of harmonic saturation and tape modulation to the Mellotron, to create a sonic bed emulating the complex range of emotions in this beautiful song.

Kacie's Ten Feet Tall is out today

Recorded and mixed by me
Mastered by @chrissorem at @nestrecorders

New @themorninglineband single streaming at all the usual places today.

I had the honor of engineering, mixing and mastering this one, and got to play some drums for old-time's-sake as well.

Hit me up

(thanks @joshuaskelton for the inspiration)

Boxer Lodge 2025 Recap

I'm not going to lie, 2025 was a really hard year and for the most part I'm happy to see it go. Still, even at its worst, I've been able to lean on the family and friends who love me and know how immensely fortunate I am to be able to work with some of the best songwriters, singers and musicians the bay area has to offer. Helping to capture music and put it out into the world means more to me than I can put into words.

As is Boxer Lodge tradition, I'm posting this snapshot of some of the 2025 releases that have come through Boxer Lodge in one way or another. Playlists containing these songs are included in my bio, and it would mean the world to me if you gave them a listen. I promise your new favorite songs are on there.

Here's to a new beginning in 2026. There are a bunch of new releases champing at the bit, so watch this virtual space. May you all have a healthy, happy and auspicious 2026. If you're looking for me on NYE, you'll find me in my backyard burning sage and stabbing dolls with pins.

@mattjaffemusic
@justeggcorn
@russelltillitt
@sheesingss
@halouband

Thrilled to announce the release of @mattjaffemusic's new release Rooms By The Sea. It's an honor to collaborate with so many talented engineers and musicians on this record.

Engineered by @wildoxarts
Mastered by @peteweiss2000
Mixed by moi

happy 1 year to Caterpillar/Butterfly 🐛🦋
full music vid by @paulbatesj is on YouTube
mix by @boxerlodge / master by @chrissorem
photos by @house_plants777 from our caterpillar-inspired shoot hahaha

happy 1 year to Caterpillar/Butterfly 🐛🦋
full music vid by @paulbatesj is on YouTube
mix by @boxerlodge / master by @chrissorem
photos by @house_plants777 from our caterpillar-inspired shoot hahaha

happy 1 year to Caterpillar/Butterfly 🐛🦋
full music vid by @paulbatesj is on YouTube
mix by @boxerlodge / master by @chrissorem
photos by @house_plants777 from our caterpillar-inspired shoot hahaha

There are a lot of sexy studio purchases. Guitars are sexy. Snare drums are sexy. Compressors are sexy, despite what you think.

Headphone monitoring systems aren't sexy. They're the athletic socks of studio purchases.They are, however, practical and this particular system will allow everyone to control their own mix. So i suppose that's at least sexy adjacent