London’s Toe Rag Studios — complete with an EMI REDD console formerly housed at Abbey Road — is one of the best under-the-radar studios around. Anyone who’s heard the White Stripes’ Elephant knows its vintage charm, but the other secret weapon is owner Liam Watson, a skilled engineer with a knack for catching timeless cuts on a 2-inch tape machine with just a handful of microphones. Of course, the main ingredient in all this is the talent in front of those mics, and this take from Stroud, England’s Emily Barker would sound great in any room. Barker put a 12-track solo set live to tape at Toe Rag back in January, and it arrives in two weeks. Watch her record opening cut “Little Deaths,” a lovely original folk tune performed on a 1937 Gibson, above.
