The Rainmakers

THE RAINMAKERS
September 29, 1990	
Crow's Creek Canyon Park,
Smithville Lake,
Smithville MO

The Rainmakers Remaster Project RMRP-02

Remastered by Mark Jochim <m.jochim@att.net>,
February 2005

For more information:
Please visit http://www.mjochim.com/rainmakers/remasters/intro.html
Please join the RainmakersRemasters Group at
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/RainmakersRemasters/

------------------------------------------------

Tracklist:
DISC 1 (58:11)
01.  KY-102 Chatter (4:08)
02.  Intro. (1:07)
03.  Downstream (3:31)
04.  Hoo Dee Hoo (4:50)
05.  Tornado Of Love (4:06)
06.  Long Gone Long (4:59)
07.  The Wages Of Sin (3:45)
08.  Doomsville (5:44)
09,  No Romance (4:57)
10.  Government Cheese (4:10)
11.  Spend It On Love (3:07)
12.  Snakedance (4:18)
13.  Nobody Knows (5:02)
14.  The Lakeview Man (3:53)

DISC 2 (55:22)
01.  Shiny Shiny (3:25)
02.  Reckoning Day (3:46)
03.  Small Circles (4:28)
04.  Knock On Wood (3:19)
05.  Johnny Reb (3:20)
06.  Rockin' At The T-Dance (3:14)
07.  Drinkin' On The Job (10:14)
08.  Let My People Go-Go (6:12)
09.  Big Fat Blonde (5:50)
10.  Information (4:55)
11.  I Talk With My Hands (5:47)

Personnel:
Bob Walkenhorst:  lead vocals, guitars, percussion
Steve Phillips:  electric guitar, vocals, lead vocal on "Nobody Knows" and "Knock On Wood"
Rich Ruth:  bass, vocals
Pat Tomek:  drums


Lineage:
SBD > Unknown Line-In Cassette Deck (Sound Engineer: Mark Collins) > Master CS (Unknown Brand, but "Buzzz" usually used Maxells) > CD Transcription Master > EAC (secure mode) > Goldwave v5.08 (track editing & cutting, denoising) > mkwACT v0.97 > .shn

Files:
SHNs............25
MD5s.............1
TXT..............2
ART..............2

Size:  550,764,544 bytes

MD5 Checksums:
aae7985556eb34651a327d6f9702bd3f *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t01.shn
00978fb8dee47d12825711b1dc3be6bd *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t02.shn
3650624946af20b9e56ce3b54df8173f *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t03.shn
6b135bf0ebb305fc451242ca194a11f0 *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t04.shn
edd7c63faa7fc0d96aae3ce68bcd256f *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t05.shn
f02b77bdad098c9a682b6240c704d6ad *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t06.shn
e5c70413ab6cddf7a54c7aef5e58d0d6 *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t07.shn
33ec2fdcaab156dcea258642cbc71e31 *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t08.shn
c61b6a90c3a3505e8479c14322f1c123 *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t09.shn
53fff3bdcc13c63471d65118b67006de *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t10.shn
d3f8c186832fb738d6b13f99a9650e7f *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t11.shn
649f9c76f0946540b7fd228697d573ad *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t12.shn
c5fed60bcc8b78edc522c0fb45213fa7 *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t13.shn
f37175d52bc36c09def98050d169e57e *rainmakers1990-09-29d1t14.shn
42cd206d0e15db0874fccbe4c38b0902 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t01.shn
120690744a07d7d74b324547088bf327 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t02.shn
fe12046decc5360e8e01f20e70897e52 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t03.shn
38e6481816e8965d9ba60347407524c8 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t04.shn
11a658ce76908ccd521c43e32263665a *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t05.shn
a68bc6303b5abc4ff4a87dcefb03a248 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t06.shn
92df53c99f77aea59adbf2defa56eb26 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t07.shn
7902987762cde38329119537ea21e0d1 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t08.shn
56ce00a42198ab3812e39af4e550030a *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t09.shn
526ca8b771b3f74ebc2cf2fea72c23cf *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t10.shn
6f5e2533a7dc8e117939376c0e201be2 *rainmakers1990-09-29d2t11.shn

------------------------------------------------

RMRP-02 NOTES


The Show:

The KY-102 "Day In The Park" held September 29, 1990, at Smithville Lake northeast of Kansas City was The Rainmakers' farewell show.  For a couple of years,  anyway.

Mercury Records had dropped the band from their recording contract in Fall 1989;  during a sold-out show in Oslo, Norway, that November, lead singer Bob Walkenhorst decided he no longer enjoyed the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.  By the following Spring, drummer Pat Tomek independently came to the same realization.  A meeting with guitarist Steve Phillips and bassist Rich Ruth followed and in June 1990 The Rainmakers announced a brief mini-tour was organized to say "goodbye" to fans in Springfield and Columbia, Missouri, Wichita, Kansas, and Oslo, Norway.

Later, it was decided that Kansas City deserved a "blow-out farewell" so the Smithville Lake show was announced.

(To read articles and inverviews concerning the band's breakup, please check out the 1990 Farewell page at http://www.mjochim.com/rainmakers/history/articles/1990farewell.html.)

I had planned to attend the "Day In The Park" with a good friend but he ended up having to work.  The morning of the show dawned cold and grey and I made the 90-minute drive from my home to Smithville under skies threatening to burst forth with rain.  I arrived shortly after the gates opened at 9 A.M.

After purchasing a few souvenirs for fellow fans who couldn't make the show (they had two different t-shirt styles and a souvenir "tour pass"), I made my way down the hill to the stage with my lawnchair and backpack.  I managed to run right into Steve Phillips who asked how many Rainmakers shirts I was wearing (I had on my ancient Steve, Bob & Rich "Let My People Go-Go" shirt plus the orange raincoat that Mercury made as a promo item when the first album was released).  Time for a brief "photo op" and then I set up camp front-row center, meeting up with a few friends I'd made at previous Rainmakers shows.

The music began around 11:00 with Mongol Beach Party,  a local act that I first saw a month or two before in Overland Park.  An acoustic set followed by Jude Cole who had some airplay around that time.  The rain-soaked crowd became energized during a brief set by Eddie Money who was backed for this performance by members of Kansas City's own Banshee.

Finally,  it was time for The Rainmakers.  The band assembled on the stage, crouching next to the drum-riser, while KY-102 DJ Randy Railey gave a short,  heart-felt,  introduction.  Steve began the chords to "Downstream",  the band took their positions,  and they were off-and-running for a powerful performance that barely let up for the next hour and fifty minutes.

They certainly didn't sound like they were worn-out from the rock lifestyle!  As Bob mentioned during the show, they certainly weren't going anywhere.  He invited us say "hello" when we encountered him on the streets of Kansas City.

Highlights were numerous and included the acoustic version of "Small Circles" that had been introduced on the "Really Big Tour" of 1989, a lengthy story before "Big Fat Blonde", and an excellent 'train wreck' medley during "Drinkin' On The Job."  The medleys were often my favorite parts of Rainmakers shows because the band never knew what they were going to play.  Steve or Bob would begin playing a riff;  sometimes it developed into a song,  other times it disintegrated into gleeful noise.  The medleys were always entertaining and this last one did not disappoint.  "God bless the memory of Tom Fogerty," indeed!

All too soon, the show was over and the fans began trudging up the hill in the muck and mire to return to their cars.  I abandoned my broken lawnchair (it had been destroyed when some guy jumped onstage and was unceremoniously thrown off during "Big Fat Blonde" landing on top of your's truly!) and slipped in the mud next to one of the sound towers -- ripping a hole in my Rainmakers raincoat and bumping right into Bob  (another "photo op").


The Recording:

I always seek out recordings of shows I attend.  Less than a month after Smithville Lake (around the time of the first Buzzard Beach show by Bob with Gary Charlson),  I set up a trade with a fellow fan from South Carolina.  At the time, I decided to trade for a videotape recorded at that show rather than for the soundboard recording.  The video was recorded from the center of the audience and suffers from the numerous umbrellas blocking a clear view of the stage.  The sound quality isn't that great either but it's a fair representation of the show's energy.

Over the course of time, I lost track with that particular trader and kept waiting for the soundboard tape to show up on somebody else's list.  It never did.

Fast forward to 2004.  Thanks to the excellent detective work by another Rainmakers fan in Norway,  the South Carolina trader was found once again.  A trade was set up and I soon received a CD transcription done from Rainmakers soundman Mark "Buzzz" Collins' master tapes.


The Remaster:

I'm not sure when the CD transcription was done but it sounded very good considering the rainy conditions and outdoor venue.  There was quite a bit of hiss but I knew I could attack this fairly successfully.  There were a few other minor "faults" which I corrected as much as I could.

The first task in any remaster that already exists on CD is to perform a secure Digital Audio Extraction (DAE) onto my hard drive.  Using a Microsoft Windows platform, the only recommended program to do this is with Exact Audio Copy (which performs multiple passes assuring error-free wav files).

Once the individual song files are on my computer,  if the show requires multiple discs I need to choose where to divide the tracks for discs 1 and 2, etc.  In the case of RMRP-02, the CD transcription I received had the bulk of the show on disc 1 and the encores on disc 2 making the second disc very short.  There turned out to be enough non-musical noise between "The Lakeview Man" and "Shiny Shiny" to create a new division and to have to CD's of roughtly equal length.  A portion of audience noise between these songs was copied to the clipboard; the same portion was faded-out at the end of disc 1 and faded-in at the beginning of disc 2 so no sound was lost.

With the discs evened-out, I then began looking at individual songs to create new chapter breaks.  When I cut tracks,  I like to have stories included with the songs they introduce; for songs without stories, I have a new track begin at the first note (or audible count-in).  I also choose to keep songs within a medley (i.e., "Drinkin' On The Job" and the 'train wreck' medleys) as one long song rather than dividing each portion into it's own track.  In recutting the tracks,  I used Goldwave to make sure they were cut on proper sector boundaries.

With the track lengths set, I then attacked the hiss remaining from the original cassette tapes.  I denoised each track separately to a level of -94.5455kHz which provided adequate results.  Any more and the music and vocals sounded harsh, any less and the hiss returned in full force.  There's still some hiss but it's not nearly as noticeable as it once was.  (I have uploaded a comparison file to the RainmakersRemasters Yahoo group which shows how the recording sounded before and after denoising if you want to check it out).

There were also a few fades and gaps to contend with, denoting tape flips during the original recording as well as pauses during the between-the-set-and-encores audience noise.  Until I found out about these unrecorded portions, I had planned to use the soundboard tape as the soundtrack on a DVD conversion of the videotape (I can still do it but it will be more difficult since the time lengths of the two tapes don't match.)  Also, the beginning few notes of "Let My People Go-Go" were missing from the source tape.  I removed the various fades and gaps but decided not to restore the missing portion of LMPGG (I could have patched it with another show's recording but I personally believe that's "cheating").

Finally, I decided to provide a "bonus track" of some radio station chatter I recorded from KY-102 the day before the show.  I had a couple of on-air advertisements as well as interviews with both Eddie Money and Jude Cole (unfortunately, I didn't record The Rainmakers' interview since I had to go to work).  I edited around 30 minutes of material down to slightly more than 4, using mainly the references to The Rainmakers.  My final decision in this remaster was to include this KY chatter at the beginning of the show since I think it makes for a nice introduction.

Enjoy the show!

Mark Jochim
February 13, 2005clude this KY chatter at the beginning of the show since I think it makes for a nice introduction.

Enjoy the show!

Mark Jochim
February 13, 2005

SHNID	Date	Venue	City	State	Archive Identifier
69585	1990-09-29	Crow's Creek Canyon Park, Smithville Lake	Smithville	MO
SBD > Unknown Line-In Cassette Deck (Sound Engineer: Mark > CD Transcription Master > EAC (secure mode) > Goldwave v5.08 (track editing & cutting, denoising) > mkwACT v0.97 > .shn

Live Concert Database