Hi Everyone!

[MasterCraftRecording]

My name is James Craft and I started mastering vinyl at the ripe, old age of 18 at Mastercraft Recording in Memphis, TN. I'm officially a senior citizen these days though. I actually started out recording my friend's band when I was 16 and had a couple of greats as my mentors. My Dad Howard Craft is 1st on that list, also Ronnie Capone of Stax &b Ardent (best engineered Grammy in 1972 I think for Shaft which my Dad mastered) and Lewis Willis from Hi Records. I knew Willie Mitchell because my Dad was his mastering engineer, they called each other Cuz. The 1st and last record my Dad mastered on Al Green went Gold or Platinum along with all the others in between. There was even a Grammy in that bunch. Back then mastering engineers didn't receive a physical Grammy, just an "Atta Boy". I mastered vinyl from 1977 until sometime around 1986 or so until I bought the 1st Neve recording console in Memphis, TN. These days I'm being dragged kicking & screaming back into it, currently trying set up a room for my son. Our original plan was location recording with high end kit and CD mastering also but I've got people encouraging me to take on vinyl to boot. So there we are.

Below is a link to Discogs where our mastering credits are. Be advised a great number of these credits after 1977 are listed as my Dad's when I actually cut the lacquers on 'em, he just put his tag on them to keep our customers happy. He also double checked every bit of my work for about the 1st six months. I think I did almost all of Westbound & Eastbound's catalog at that point.

https://www.discogs.com/label/336697-Mastercraft

[Aussie0zborn]

Welcome, James. That's quite some history there.

[tragwag]

Hi James! Thanks for being here and I'm looking forward to seeing what you get up to back here in the cutting game.