who is larry seyer?

7/21/2019 Who is Larry Seyer?

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L

ho is LarrySeyer?

arry Seyer was born in

Augusta, Georgia in a

make-shift Army Hospital

while his Father "Lefty" was serving in

the US Army during the Korean

Conflict. Only there for six months, his

Father was finished his tour of dutyfrom the military and his family of

three returned to their native

hometown of Oran, Missouri in June of

1952.

Lefty came from a family of thirteen

and wanted a large family of his own.

The small town of 1200 people was the

perfect place to raise his and Ida Mae's

planned family of eight.

They wasted no time in starting their

family and soon afterwards, Mary,

Marty, Jane, Kevin, Anita, Robert and



The power the piano had was

control... it took precedence over

the TV and Radio!

Bennett were born about one year apart

from each other.

Their life was heavily influenced by

the strong German Catholic

contingency of that area. Although

Oran had only 1200 people, it had the

largest Catholic Church between St.

Louis and Memphis. For a small town,

this was a large church...large enough

for it's own Catholic grade school.

Lefty and Ida Mae were good parents

to Larry and the rest of the kids. More

than anything, they wanted to giveeach of their kids everything that could

want or need. And they did that.



There was not much to do in Oran,

however, except play baseball, tag,

hide and seek, cops and robbers, cards,

and an entire litany of normal things

for kids that age.

The only problem was Larry wasn't

like the other kids there. He didn't want

to play baseball and other sports...he

wanted to play music.

Thanks to his Mom and Dad (Lefty

and Ida), there was a piano in the

living room that anyone could play

anytime any of their kids wanted to.

And that piano had power!

The power it had was control. It had

precedence over the TV and Radio. If

one of the kids was watching TV or

listening to the Radio, and one of the

other kids wanted to play the piano, it

was "bye bye" to the TV or Radio. The

piano player (whomever that was) had

control over the entertainment the



family listened to.

The same was true of the guitar. If one

of the kids wanted to play the guitar,

they could play ANYTIME they

wanted (as long as it wasn't past bed

time).

Being the oldest of eight, this was the

kind of garden Larry's music seed

needed to grow. Available instruments,

a captive audience, and a willingness

to be in control of the learning process.

Larry would come home every day

after school and hop on the piano



bench and be king of the living room.

He could play whatever he wanted. He

could make up songs as he went along,

or play melodies that he heard before.

It didn't matter; it was fun; much more

fun than going to Catholic grade

school!

Many years of this scenario continued

until Larry was in High School where

he met other music friends and formed

a band that played school dances and

parties. Eventually they made their

way to the nearby city of Cape

Girardeau to make his very first

recording.

Jim Rhodes was a short, thin,

enterprising young school teacher who

owned the local recording studio in

Cape. He knew more than Larry

dreamed possible to know.

He knew which microphones to use on

each instrument; what levels to record



the drums; how the balance of

instruments determined how the lead

vocalist sounded. These were all things

that Jim knew and Larry was in awe.

Larry just HAD to learn how to do

those things. In his mind, knowing

how to do those things was as

necessary as learning how to tune a

guitar or play a piano.



So he asked questions, thousands of

them, and eventually spent almost all

of his spare time with Jim at the studio

learning what Jim knew.

The Vietnam war was raging during

that time. Larry's draft number was

fifty-three so he was sure to go since

they were already calling numbers past

one-fifty.

A friend told him that if he joined the

Army, he could have his pick of what

ob he was to have in the Army. So, he

oined for three years and picked theArmy band as his job and served one

year in Fort Leonard Wood Missouri

and two years in Stuttgart Germany.



While in Fort "Lost In The Woods" (as

they used to call it), Larry was put in

charge of the recording equipment that

the Army band had there. This was

exactly what he needed; More toys to

play and learn with!

After the year at Leonard Wood, Larrytraveled to Stuttgart where he played in

the 82nd Army band whose primary

mission was to foster good will

towards German/American relations.

In other words, they drank a lot of

German beer and played a lot of great

music.

After his tour in the Army, Larry

moved back to Cape only to find thatJim Rhodes no longer owned the

recording studio. He had moved onto

Springfield Missouri to manage a



In June of 1978 Larry had a

chance to move to Austin Texas

studio there and work with "The Ozark

Mountain Daredevils".

This was a great opportunity for Larry,

as this meant that he could now take

over the recording studio there in

Cape.

Never mind that he didn't have any

experience, he just wanted to be

involved in any capacity with music.

He would learn whatever it took to do

it!

When a friend of his called him to

record a stage band, he was ecstatic!

Finally a chance to record a band in his

studio! (in truth, the studio was owned

by Robert Jones, but Larry ran it)



In his mind, he went through every

connection, every mic, every track for

every one beforehand so that when

they got there, everything would be

ready to go with no waiting. It was a

complete vision of how the recording

session would happen BEFORE it

happened!

The stage band was so impressed, that

they told all of their friends about the

"new engineer" in town that they HAD

to use.

Word of mouth spread fast and soon

there was plenty of work for him in



Cape.

Around June of 1978, Larry had a

chance to move to Austin Texas and

continue the work he started in

Missouri.

He had been asked by his good friend

Larry Franklin (whom he had played

with in a Country Band while in

Stuttgart) to move to Austin to join a

band Franklin had started called

Cooder Browne. (Seyer was known as

'Sly' back then - a nickname given to

him by his friend John Hicks; a

drummer he played with in Ft. Leonard

Wood Missouri)

Although work with Cooder Brown

was not to be permanent, it served as

the perfect reason for moving from

Missouri to Texas where eventually he

met Wink Tyler, owner of Austin

Recording Studio.



There he began producing and

engineering several local Austin

groups.

Around 1986, Ray Benson from

Asleep At The Wheel contacted him to

work on an album he was producing. It

was called "Asleep At The Wheel 10".

On that album was a song called

"String Of Pars".

The next year that song was nominated

for a Grammy in the category of Best

Country Instrumental Performance.

The song won the award and Larry was

on his way to a successful relationship



with Ray and the Wheel.

Soon after, The Wheel was at it again

and recording the classic "Sugarfoot

Rag" on their album "Western Standard

Time". In addition to engineering that

album, Larry was asked to play

acoustic guitar on the cut.

Again, as in the previous year, one of

their songs was nominated for a

Grammy under the category of "Best

Country Instrumental Performance".

And again, as in the previous year, they

won. Because he both engineered and

played on the album, Larry was

blessed with an Engineering Grammy

AND a Musician Grammy.

Things were looking up, but there were

other irons in the fire for Larry. In

addition to being a full time recording

studio engineer/producer/musician,

Larry wrote software for computers.



Because of a prior commitment to a

software contract, Larry was unable to

participate in the recording of the

Wheel's next album "Keepin Me Up

Nights"

As fate would have it, The Wheel did

not win a Grammy that year. But

thankfully, by the time it came time for

the Wheel's next project to be

recorded, Larry was finished with the

software contract he had been working

on.

The project was a movie score for a

movie starring Dolly Pardon, Gary



Bussey, Willie Nelson, and Ray

Benson.

Working closely with Ray Benson

from Asleep At The Wheel and Dolly

Pardon, who produced the show, Larry

gained considerable experience in the

film scoring arena.

After that movie was completed,

several other people approached Larry

to do their movie scores for them.

Some of them wanted him to "mix"

their movie. In movie terms, this is

called "re-recording".

Al Reinert was one of the first working

on a small sixteen millimeter film

called "For All Mankind". At the time

that Larry worked on this film, it was

ust a thirty minute documentary with

actual footage from NASA covering

our first trip to the moon.

Brian Eno had already done the score



A dam told Larry it might be a

good idea to create a website and

list the services that Larry could

do in case people from around

the world were looking for

someone with his talents.

Swing, Bob Wills.

This album and the many that followed

were a turning point in his career.

Through Ray Benson, Larry was

introduced to some of the biggest

names in the industry. Many of them

are listed here on the clients page on

this website.

In 1997, the web was not well known.

A couple of years earlier, Larry had

been fortunate enough to be introduced

to it by his son, Adam.



Adam told him it might be a good idea

to create a website and list the services

that Larry could do in case people from

around the world were looking for

someone with his talents.

So that's exactly what he did. And it

was a fairly new thing to do back then;

He created a web page listing his

services.

In 1997, one of Larry's best friends,

Gary Powell received a call from one

of his contacts asking about who to

hire for an upcoming project featuring

Goldie Hawn singing the Beatles song

"A Hard Day's Night".

It was fortuitous that Adam had

convinced Larry to create that web

page. Because once Gary

recommended Larry for the project and

they did a new thing called an 'internet

search' they came up with the same

conclusion.



And

this is

how

Larry

was

able to

work

with

George

Martin on his Beatles tribute album

entitled 'In My Life'.

Although they mis-spelled his name on

the credits for that CD, he worked with

George and Goldie none-the-less and

has a picture to prove it thanks toFrank Campbell who sneaked in during

the session and snapped a photo.

Given the large number of projects that

Larry has worked on, it should be no

surprise that there would be more than

one CD that is named with the same

title.



Larry Gatlin came to Larry's Electric

LarryLand studio to record his "In My

Life" CD - the same title as the one

George had chosen.

And it wasn't the only time it

happened! One of the CD's that Larry

engineered for Asleep At The Wheel

featured The Manhattan Transfer as

guests - that CD was entitled "Swing".

And just a couple of years later, Suzie

Boggus came to Electric LarryLand

and mixed her "Swing" CD with Larry.

In 1991 while working on a bluegrass

album with Andy Owens, Larry was

introduced to a singer named Robin

Lacy.

Robin had started a group called the

Dixie Chicks. She along with Laura

Lynch, Martie Maguire and her sister

Emily Robison were about to record



their second CD entitled "Lil' Ol

Cowgirl" and they wanted Larry to

produce it.

Larry and the girls had discussed

taking the group into more of a

mainstream country direction instead

of the traditional bluegrass styles they

had been up to then focusing on.

So Larry suggested that have Lloyd

Maines play steel guitar on the record.

They agreed and the rest is history.

THIS is where Natalie Maines was

introduced to the Dixie Chicks - via

Lloyd (her father) while he played steel

guitar with them.

There is more to this history story -

like how Larry was introduced to 'A

Course in Miralces' which eventually

led him to listen to and trust his inner

guidance which eventually led him to

cold call David Wilcock.



This partnership continues today and

together they have produced many

projects available on David's websiteDivineCosmos.com.

David introduced Larry to John Searl's

SEG - and after researching this

technology and finding out it was NOTa hoax led him to create his latest audio

effort: The Most Dangerous Device

radio show.



...and this has lead to books!

But enough of history. NOW is the

only time there is! So damn the

torpedoes, full speed ahead!

who is larry seyer?

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