Audio in the Hollow

NYC AES: the Annual Pilgrimage

2011-10-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

Last week we made our annual pilgrimage to New York's Jacob Javits Center for the 131st AES Convention. For four days, audio engineers, producers, and enthusiasts meet here to check out all the latest and greatest audio gear. And at Silver Hollow Audio, our wishlist gets a little longer. Our top picks?

Focusrite's ISA One microphone preamp (now on order!)
Avid's latest version of Pro Tools v. 10 (argh! we just bought v. 9)
Coleman Sound's TB4 monitor controller (showcased by Mr. Coleman himself)

Silver Hollow Audio's Brett Barry, and his dad, Bruce, are the official emissaries to this annual showcase, and they were happy to cap this one off with a delicious Indian lunch on Bleecker Street.

To see some video from the event, check out Winksound's overview.

Thoreau's Fall

2011-09-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here in the Catskills autumn falls upon us a bit earlier than most places, and the inevitable change of season is in the air, for sure. Much can be said about the uniquely North American phenomenon that is fall, replete with all the colors that paint the landscape ever so briefly. For inspiring words from the master of nature writing, check out our audiobook edition of Henry David Thoreau's Autumnal Tints, available both on CD, and immediately, as a digital download. Enjoy!

http://www.silverhollowaudio.com/at.htm

Goodnight, Irene!

2011-09-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in a well-illuminated office now, typing this blog post on a wifi-connected desktop computer. This would not have been possible last week, when simple tasks like brewing coffee and brushing teeth were lengthy and complicated affairs. Not to mention producing audio.

Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc in the Catskill Mountains, and little towns like Phoenicia and Margaretville made national headlines, accompanied by images of upturned vehicles, washed-out roads and bridges, and annihilated homes. Silver Hollow Audio was very fortunate to be inconvenienced with little more than a week without power, internet or plumbing.

Our community is now abuzz with activity as the massive effort to restore and rebuild begins. It's strange to see military vehicles on our narrow country roads, and soldiers directing traffic around road washouts and stream bank restoration projects. It will be quite a while before all is restored here, and for some, Irene's legacy will last a lifetime.

Living without basic necessities does have its benefits, the greatest of which has been communal dinners with friends and neighbors, the sharing of resources, and the simple joy of conversation in an environment that was––for a moment––cut off from every modern distraction.

That said, we did need to get some audio files out into the world, and it was quite a process! For several days, we found ourselves driving up to Hunter, NY––where they still had internet––retrieving scripts, driving back to our studio to read them under the glow of a camp light, recording onto a battery-powered laptop, using a battery-powered microphone, then driving back up the mountain to upload the files. Despite our inability to cook or shower, we're proud to say that broadcast-quality audio files were still being delivered. The show must go on, indeed.

Click the play button below to hear today's Sound Beat episode, about back-to-school week. The voice-over was recorded under just these circumstances.

20110906 BACK TO SCHOOL Good Morning School Girl by Silver Hollow Audio

For more on the impact Irene had here, check out the stories and images on the Watershed Post.

Muir of a Good Thing

2011-07-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

We are proud to announce on this, the 100th anniversary of John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra, our new unabridged audio edition.

Four decades prior to publication, in June of 1869, John Muir reluctantly accepted a job herding sheep from the central valley of California to the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers, high into the Sierra Nevadas and deep into the Yosemite region. He felt ill-equipped for the work, and yet the opportunity thrilled his adventurous spirit. With a notebook tied to his belt, he set out for a summer he would never forget.

Our audiobook text comes straight from the first edition, presented as a daily diary of Muir's journey.

It's available either as a 5-CD package, or a digital download. For more details, click here!

Pronouncing the classics

2011-06-13T13:34:00.001-07:00

As a publisher of nature classics, we seem to run into the same challenge on every book, namely pronunciations of scientific plant and animal names, and all that Latin! Reading those names on a page is one thing (you can just gloss over them), but speaking them is quite another.

If a narrator comes upon a word that's Italian, or Indian, even Mongolian, there are Italians, Indians, and Mongolians out in the world who can be consulted. But Latin? Not so easy. "In the scientific world, I hear many different pronunciations," says John Galbraith, an expert on naming at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Many of my European colleagues pronounce a harder “u” as in “oos,” and many Americans do not. I even can’t say there is a distinctly American way to pronounce these terms – I can only say there is much variation." Galbraith was interviewed about his involvement in our production of Henry Beston's The Outermost House several years back.

Today I compiled a list of "problem words" from our next book, and although online resources keep improving, it's still a bit daunting. Here are just the A-words:

Abies concolor
Abies magnifica
Abronia
Adenostoma fasciculate
Adiantum Chilense
Agrostis
Albicaulis
Allosorus
Arctomys monax
Arctostaphylos pungens
Artemesia
Aspidium
Azalea occidentalis

Can anyone say "Oy vey!" in Latin?

Insights from APAC

2011-05-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

As both a narrator and publisher of audiobooks, attending the Audio Publishers Association's annual APAC conference is a great way to keep up on the industry, and to catch up with friends and colleagues.

Yesterday's event no exception. Hundreds of audiobook professionals––publishers, narrators, producers and retailers––converged at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, to sit in on a series of panels and to exchange thoughts on an ever-changing industry.

At first, I joined my fellow narrators in a "Narration Master Class" led by director-greats Paul Ruben and Robin Miles. Then it was off to a few publishing panels, where panelists contemplated topics like quality vs. cost, niche market strategies, and digital format standards.

A few highlights?

In light of shrinking budgets, don't skimp on narration! It's the most important element of a successful audiobook. Whew!
Preparation is the key to good audiobook production (doesn't that go for most things?).
A narrator's best chance of connecting emotionally with the listener is to be "in the now."
Several publishers have replaced paper scripts with PDFs on iPads –– note to self!
Direct mail (actual paper sent through the USPS) is still very effective marketing.
One publisher is handling CD replication and packaging in-house and keeping inventory to a bare minimum, as digital download sales continue to gain traction. But...
CDs are not dead! Libraries, in particular, are big fans of them, and they generate substantial revenue for publishers.

And now I'm left to organize my notes and thoughts as we gear up to publish the next in our series of nature classics. More on that soon!

National Jukebox

2011-05-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

This week, the Library of Congress launched its "National Jukebox," a web-accessible collection of thousands of recordings from the pre-1925 library of Sony Music. Artists include Al Jolson, George M. Cohan, Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, and Enrico Caruso. Want to hear an original recording of "Rhapsody in Blue," with none other than Gershwin himself on piano? Here you go:

How about a 1922 version of Mozart's Magic Flute? Check it out:

Or, for something a bit lighter, have a listen to "If You Talk in Your Sleep, Don't Mention My Name," what must have been a risque number when it was released 100 years ago:

Thanks to this project, and others like it (have you heard Syracuse University's Sound Beat yet?), thousands of early recordings once buried in sound archives are now accessible to all with just a few clicks of the mouse.

1% to Mohonk. Again.

2011-03-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

Silver Hollow Audio is pleased to announce that for the second year in a row, we've selected the Mohonk Preserve as the recipient of our annual 1% for the Planet donation. Appropriately enough, we marked the occasion with a hike along the Undercliff Carriage Road, where dozens of rock climbers can be seen practicing their sport. We followed our hike with delicious German fare and a tall glass of Franziskaner Hefe-weiss at the nearby Mountain Brauhaus. Photo courtesy Mohonk Preserve.

Silver Hollow and the Sound Beat

2011-03-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

First off, we'd like to apologize for a very long (and unintentional) hiatus from this blog. Has it been almost a year? Not sure where that time went!

One of the most exciting new projects we've been involved with since last post is a new public radio series called Sound Beat. Hosted by our very own Brett Barry, Sound Beat is a 90-second daily program that highlights one of the nearly half a million sound recordings from Syracuse University's Belfer audio archive. The Belfer is home to an impressive collection of early recordings, on media that includes Edison-era wax cylinders, 78 rpm records, and reel-to-reel tape.

The show launched this month and has already rolled out into dozens of public radio markets from New York to Alaska. Plus, shows are archived on their website, so you can listen anytime, no matter where you live.

Written (very wittily) and produced by Jim O'Connor, Sound Beat episodes provide a fascinating back story to hundreds of historical recordings, and they've been lots of fun to record; we're looking forward to collaborating on many more of them as the series unfolds.

1% to the Mohonk Preserve

2010-03-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

It's 1% time again, and Silver Hollow Audio has selected the Mohonk Preserve as our second annual recipient! As a proud member of 1% for the Planet, Silver Hollow Audio commits to donating 1% of our annual revenue to environmentally-minded non-profits. The Mohonk Preserve "safeguards and manages in perpetuity nearly 7,000 acres of mountain ridges, forests, fields, streams, ponds, and other unique environments" just to our south in New York's Shawangunk Mountains. As springtime weather starts rolling in to the Hudson Valley, we're very much looking forward to exploring and enjoying this beautiful spot.

Memories of an MLK Discovery

2010-01-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

Some years ago, when I (Rebecca) was working as an archivist at Drew University in Madison, NJ, I had the honor of tracking down something really wonderful. Of course, archivists, librarians, and book dealers are always locating wonderful things, but this was truly special. It was the original audio of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "American Dream" speech, which he gave at Drew on Feb. 5, 1964.

A history professor had called the University Archives to ask about the audio; rumors had circulated for years that such a recording existed. There was an unofficial audio archivist -- a nonagenarian who had been on campus for 40+ years recording every lecture or event he could get to. But our Archives, like many Archives, was an accumulation of 150 years worth of stuff without one fully funded archivist. By whatever stroke of luck, after determining the date of the historic event using the student newspaper, that audio archivist and I unearthed the reel-to-reel. He transferred it to cassette. The story was written up in the local paper, and the university celebrated a proud moment in its history.

Of the event, the Drew Acorn reported, "He is unimposing, seems quite ordinary, but, when he speaks, people listen. They tend to forget all else." Listen to the speech here!

Living and Being

2009-12-29T19:21:00.000-08:00

Silver Hollow's newest audio release, The Practice of Presence, is featured in the January issue of Living & Being Magazine. The article discusses Patty's reasons for writing the book, as well as her experience narrating it at Silver Hollow's studio. She told Living & Being, "First of all, the studio was absolutely beautiful -- it's in the woods by a stream, and there was a warm, friendly atmosphere."

Patty travels around the world teaching classes and workshops on how to practice presence. In January, she has several T'ai Chi and Alexander Technique classes in Florida. Check out her schedule here.

Audiobooks on NPR

2009-11-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

On today's Morning Edition author Neil Gaiman asks, "What makes a great audiobook?" Interviews with author David Sedaris, narrator Martin Jarvis, and others reveal personal insights into this unique literary form. Says Sedaris, "I wouldn't fight for my freedom, but I'd fight for my iPod." You can also hear an incredible clip from the "first" audiobook, Walt Whitman reading his poem, "America," in an 1890 recording.

On This Day

2009-09-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

On September 25, 1851, Thoreau wrote in his journal: Some men are excited by the smell of burning powder, but I thought in my dream last night how much saner to be excited by the smell of new bread.

What a lovely thought on this autumn afternoon in the Catskills. But, then again, Thoreau always has a lovely thought; he wrote volumes of daily wonderful, mind-blowing thoughts. The Blog of Henry David Thoreau, compiled by Greg Perry, offers one of these gems every day, pulled from the many years of Thoreau journals. It is an awesome project.

Speaking of the great man, Silver Hollow Audio is just about to mark the first anniversary of our audio edition of Thoreau’s Autumnal Tints. So as the wind blows about outside, and you have a mug of hot apple cider in hand, you can listen to Thoreau wax poetic about leaves and trees and life. It makes for a perfect hour or two. Try a preview here.

Summer in the Studio

2009-07-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

With summer here (finally), it is often challenging to stay in the studio with such inviting weather beckoning from the windows. But Silver Hollow has had a busy month. We recorded our next audiobook with author Patty de Llosa (pictured). She came up to the Catskills for a week to narrate her book, The Practice of Presence: Five Paths for Daily Life. It was a delightful time for all, recording in the morning and afternoon, with breaks for lunch, walks and Tai Chi. Right now we’re in the process of editing and mastering the audio. It will be available as a digital download in late October.

Aside from putting together radio shows for Pulse of the Planet, Brett is also narrating and editing a book called The Foundation: A Great American Secret: How Private Wealth is Changing the World this month. We also had fun recording NYC actor Doug Shapiro's newest installment of DougToons, an animated short available for download soon. Summer certainly doesn't seem to have slowed us down at all. Now if only we can find time for a hike or some fishing...

Anniversaries & Landmarks

2009-06-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

This month marks the second anniversary of our first independently produced audiobook: Henry Beston’s The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod. It was a wonderful way to launch Silver Hollow’s audiobook line, and it will always be a special title for us.

The seaside cabin on Cape Cod where Beston lived was declared a National Literary Landmark in 1964, although it was swept away in a winter storm in 1978. Now the Maine farm that Beston shared with his writer-wife, Elizabeth Coatsworth, and their two daughters, will share the same recognition. On June 21st, a celebration to mark this occasion will be held at Chimney Farm in Nobleboro, Maine. Beston’s biographer, Professor Daniel G. Payne, who assisted us in the production of the Outermost House audiobook, will be a guest speaker.

For more information about the event, you can read a local news summary here.

The Other Audies…

2009-06-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

So June is audiobook month, and the industry kicks off the auditory celebration every year with the Audies. If you've never heard of the Audie, it’s the big award for audiobooks and spoken word entertainment, like the Emmy or the Oscar for TV and film. We've yet to hear any of this year's winners, but in the spirit of recognizing good audio, we wanted to take a moment to recommend a few of our favorites from years past (in addition to our own titles, of course!).

The Kite Runner, written and read by Khaled Hosseini. It is an absolutely gripping audiobook.
Here If You Need Me: A Memoir, written and read by Kate Braestrup. This book will make you cry, but it will also make you feel lucky and loved and hopeful.
Assassination Vacation, written and read by Sarah Vowell. Vowell is the ultimate witty writer. Plus, you will unwittingly learn something about American history.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, written and read by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is armchair travel and a cup of coffee with your best friend all in the same place.

As we looked over this list of favorites, it struck us that we’re drawn to audiobooks in which writer and reader are one in the same. Many listeners feel this way, and we’re of two minds about it. In terms of production value, it is often difficult to listen to a reader who is not a professional actor or voice-over artist––there is lots of unsavory mouth noise, the read is monotonous, or the vocal quality is poor. But in these cases, and many others, the writer adds eloquence (or punch) to his or her own words that likely could not have been replicated by anyone else.

Happy listening!

Sounds of Summer

2009-05-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

Acoustics, dynamics, compression, and timing are some of the audio considerations we grapple with in the studio environment. But in the natural environment this time of year, we find ourselves enamored by a different chorus.

While most studios I've worked in are soundproofed from the urban cacophony, the only real intrusion here is a passing thunderstorm and an occasional chainsaw. That's not to say it's quiet outside: there's the ever-present babble of Warner Creek, the exchange between mama warbler and chicks (pictured), and just this very evening, the munching of Hosta leaves by a resident deer just beyond the studio wall.

Winter months in the Catskills are long and quiet, so the sounds and sights that warm weather brings to the region are a welcome diversion from our own audio creations. And we never tire of nature's endless audio program.

Charlotte's audiobook debut

2009-04-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

What better present for the 4-year-old daughter of audio publishers? Charlotte received one of these "Easi-Speak" microphones for her birthday. She's been singing renditions of her favorite Uncle Rock songs, and narrating her own original short stories! Click the title of this blog post for a sample of these superb audiobook shorts (at least to her parents ears).

Science Kids!

2009-03-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

For the past year or so, Silver Hollow Audio has been working with public radio's Pulse of the Planet on an ambitious new project called the Kids' Science Challenge. It's a competition for 3rd to 6th-graders to come up with new ideas for scientists and engineers.

More than 750 entries came in from creative kids nationwide, and today the competition announces the finalists and four grand prize winners! And the winners are ...

The "Candy Doctors," a team of fifth graders from Virginia Beach who came up with a tongue depressor made entirely of candy. That should help get kids to say "ah!" Cadbury 's flavor chemist, Joan Harvey, will help the Candy Doctors to develop this tasty new creation.
Claire, a third-grader from San Francisco, plays soccer on artificial turf, and she's noticed that the water running off the field looks dirtier than the runoff from real grass. Is one field better than the other, environmentally speaking? Oceanographer Adina Paytan will help her get to the bottom of it.
Fifth-grader Lindsay, from North Carolina, envisions a new skateboard that rolls on balls, instead of wheels. The idea was enough to grab the attention of Paul Schmitt and Michael Bream, prominent skateboard engineers and developers in California. Lindsay will fly out there to collaborate on a prototype!
And Kamau, a sixth-grader (and fellow audio-lover) from Harlem, has some new ideas about sending the sounds of earth into space, a great way to let E.T. know what we're all about! Astronomers at SETI will work with Kamau to develop some audio messages.

Check out kidsciencechallenge.com for photos of the winners, and to watch as these unique scientist/grade-schooler collaborations unfold.

"Reality Audio"

2009-02-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month, I was listening on the radio to an FAA-released audio excerpt of the conversation between US Airways flight 1549 and air traffic control, moments before the plane splashed down into the Hudson River.

I was struck by the remarkable calm and professionalism in the midst of an emergency situation.

In the TV and radio performance class I teach, we discuss how even in a news delivery, reporters and anchors are performing. And certainly there is performance in "reality" TV. But often the most striking material is completely free of any hint of performance, or even self awareness.

There is a beauty in the economy of words. No small talk. No triviality. Every word uttered is consequential. And what a wonderful example this is.

1% = H2O

2009-01-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

Last year Silver Hollow Audio signed on with 1% for the Planet. Members of 1% pledge to donate 1% of their annual gross earnings to environmental non-profits. Considering the kinds of audiobooks we do––nature and travel––and the location of our studio in the middle of the Catskill Mountains, it perfectly complements who we are and what we do.

So in December it was time for us to choose this year’s recipient. As a way to simplify the selection process we focused on water, in homage to our first author, Henry Beston, whose book, The Outermost House, is about the ocean and our connection to it. After vetting a few charities through Charity Navigator, we chose a group close to home, called Riverkeeper. Riverkeeper has been successfully safeguarding the Hudson River since 1966. We support its mission and goals, and we think Beston (and Thoreau) would have, too.

Hot Hot Santa

2008-12-24T07:27:00.001-08:00

Click on Santa for a fun video from an organization we're a part of: 1% For The Planet. More on that next month. Happy holidays, from Silver Hollow Audio!

On The Radio

2008-11-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since we posted to the blog, and one of the reasons could be our new satellite radio. Why, oh why did we wait so long to invest in this?! We live in the mountains where we’re lucky to get one or two fuzzy stations on our home radio (when we do get reception, our favorites are WAMC Northeast Public Radio and WKZE). Satellite radio offers an astounding array of great audio content, 24/7. And you don’t even have to choose between XM and Sirius anymore because they’ve merged and now carry nearly identical programming.

So far, we’ve been stuck on a few favorite channels: The Coffee House (adult rock, channel 30), 1st Wave (classic alternative, channel 22), The Spectrum (singer-songwriters, channel 18), and, of course, the BBC and NPR. The kids’ channel – 116 – is nothing short of a Godsend in the car.

We’re looking forward to channel 117 – XM Book Radio – on our next trip sans kiddies. For anyone else who likes to listen to audio stories and audiobooks in the car, you can view the lineup here. We’ll let you know what we think of the audiobooks channel in a future post.

October is the Month of Painted Leaves…

2008-10-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Over the past two (peak leaf-peeping) weekends here in the Catskill Mountains of New York, Silver Hollow Audio performed some old-fashioned read-alouds. On October 12th, Narrator Brett Barry read on the boardwalk in Phoenicia, while the audience sipped apple cider and snacked on pumpkin spice cookies (courtesy of our host, Tender Land Home). Last weekend, he read to two groups at Barneche Design while we all tasted the excellent creations of Lucky Chocolates.

Aside from being great community celebrations, it was really neat for Brett to perform selections from “Autumnal Tints” in front of a live audience because Thoreau originally wrote this essay as a lecture. He read it aloud to audiences in the late 1850s; the actual text wasn’t published in print form until four months after his death in 1862.

Listening to Thoreau on a clear, brisk fall day whilst a couple children shuffle about in the leaves underfoot – it’s a beautiful thing.

Audio on Video

2008-10-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

This week Library Journal media editor Raya Kuzyk posted this excellent web video in which she explains why she chose our new audiobook, Autumnal Tints, as her editors' pick for 2008.

If you have 68 seconds to spare, check it out!

Weekend on Cape Cod

2008-09-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

A beautiful day on the beaches of Cape Cod! Marconi Beach was lovely. The weather was delightful. It was the highlight (perhaps the only light) of our first (and taxing) family vacation with our 3-month-old and our 3-year-old.

We’ve had a fondness for the Cape since we traveled there for our first anniversary five years ago. It was on that trip that we started talking about the possibility of launching an independent audiobook company. I had picked up a paperback copy of Henry Beston’s The Outermost House before the trip, and we read it to each other during the 5-hour drive.

It was a strange combination of luck and coincidence that led us to select The Outermost House as the launch title for our audiobook company. So, needless to say, it’s become very special to us. Our favorite places are the National Seashore beaches in Eastham, the Audubon Center in Wellfleet, Moby Dick’s restaurant in Wellfleet and all the many wonderful independent bookstores throughout the Cape. Since infants and pre-schoolers generally do not like sauntering around bookshops for hours on end, we only visited one on this trip – Where the Sidewalk Ends, in Chatham – but there are many more, which makes the Cape the perfect destination for beach lovers and book lovers alike.

Green (Audio) Books

2008-09-17T19:01:00.000-07:00

I was just reading about the Bookbinders Guild of New York, which held a round table last week on environmentalism and the book business. And while that may be a more pressing issue for publishers of paper books, the eco-friendliness of the packaging is a concern we at Silver Hollow Audio share with the industry. And we don’t mind telling you that in this age of corporate social responsibility and green living, we caught the wave before it came ashore.

When we published our first audiobook, Henry Beston’s The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod, we were adamant that the packaging leave as small a carbon footprint as possible and reflect the content (a nature classic). So we would have none of that plastic CD-holder junk or glorified jewel cases, and we chose 100% recyclable paperboard packaging. When we published our second title, Autumnal Tints, last month, we were able to make a more substantial commitment on our product’s packaging. (How could we not? It is the audio edition of an essay by Henry David Thoreau, the father of environmentalism.) We selected Oasis as our packager because they offered us a “green wallet” CD holder that features 100% green forestry practices-board, with a minimum of ten percent post-consumer recycled content, and all vegetable inks. Besides the shrink wrap, it is plastic-free and completely recyclable. We also joined forces with 1% for the Planet, so that one percent of Silver Hollow’s gross profits will now be donated to a network of environmental non-profits.

We think Thoreau would approve.

Good News All Around and More Leaves on the Ground

2008-09-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heals of Labor Day weekend – the unofficial end of summer and beginning of fall – there is good news all around and more leaves on the ground. September 1 was the official pub date of our new audiobook, Autumnal Tints.

This week, Library Journal selected Autumnal Tints as a 2008 Editors’ Pick! LJ Media Editor Raya Kuzyk writes:

“Brett Barry’s crisp, well-paced reading free of theatrics allows the author's words to resonate. Listeners will get the sense of walking alongside Thoreau as he leads them—half authoritative teacher, half marveling student—on a tour of the evocative landscape.”

It was a fantastic write-up, and you can read more of it here (then scroll down to "Beyond Walden").

Also this week, the Poughkeepsie Journal ran a profile of Brett, co-owner of Silver Hollow Audio and narrator of Autumnal Tints. You can read “The Man Behind the Voice” here.

Autumnal Hints

2008-08-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

This is the first post on the new blog from Silver Hollow Audio, an audio production company in New York's Catskill Mountains. Welcome! Here you'll find the latest news and thoughts about our audiobooks and about good audio we find elsewhere. Considering our location (deep in the woods) and the focus of our audiobooks (nature & place), you may also find us ruminating about the great outdoors.

Today, we came across a beautiful orange leaf, just 2 days following the release of our audiobook edition of Henry David Thoreau's classic, Autumnal Tints! Actor Billy Connolly once said, "There are two seasons in Scotland: June and Winter." Here in the Catskills, there are three seasons: July (our summer), October (autumnal peak), and Winter (long and relentless). So we expect to see a lot more color in the mountains very shortly, and the firewood stacking has begun!