Jim Reitzel, a big part of the Secret to Craig's Success', as a recoring engineer and bassist with

the Craig Chaquico ACOUSTIC HIGHWAY recording and touring band!

IN TUNE WITH JIM RIETZEL -from an interview by fan club president, Lil Duarte, for an edition of the Gathering of the Tribes newsletter

Jim Reitzel was born on February 24, 1967 in San Francisco, CA and is the owner of Jim Reitzel Productions and Reitzel Records which he started in 1992. Hey Jim, it's great to have the opportunity to interview you for this edition of Gathering of the Tribes. Thank you for taking the time to share some insight and stories with us! Let's get started!

1.) When did you realize that this was the type of business you wanted to get into, and how did you go about realizing that dream?

I started playing the guitar at the age of 10; at 13 I played in my first concert, then in my second year of high school at the Marin Academy I took an elective class called "Multi-Track Recording." (By the way, Jim has been teaching this subject now for 18 years!) From that moment on, I was convinced that my future was in music production.

However, when I graduated from high school I was able to access some "family money" thanks to my grandfather and purchased my first four track recording system. It was then that the seed was sown for my foray into the performance aspect of music.

2.) What other artists have you worked with?

With the purchase of my four track recording system I ended up forming Jim Reitzel Productions and have been successful in that endeavor. Some of my clients include Windham Hill Records, Narada, Discovery, and MCA just to name a few. In terms of artists, I've been very lucky to work with people like Will Ackerman, Jerry Garcia, Night Ranger, David Grisman and many others. I've worked with Craig since 1992 and have performed and engineered on all but his first CD.

3.) What is your favorite thing about what you do and least favorite?

Most favorite thing is I love being on stage. There are times when I'm playing at some beautiful, sold out venue and I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to do what I love and get paid for it!

My least favorite thing would have to be the traveling schedules. For example we played in San Diego, got to our hotel at 1:30 a.m., had to leave the hotel at 3 a.m. to get to the airport for a 6 a.m. flight to Denver, then land in Denver, drive three hours and play at 3 p.m. As you can see, we don't get a lot of rest on the road!

4.) I'm sure you've had a lot of interesting and memorable things happen on the road, what is the most memorable one you can share with us?

When we were on tour with The Rippingtons as an opening/support act for most of the shows we literally had to set up in front of the curtain. This made me very determined to kick some butt and take no prisoners during our performances. We ended up getting standing ovations at almost every show and I can honestly say we easily stole Russ's and the band's thunder!

5.) What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

I love to cook and will often come home after being in the studio for 12 hours and cook. Cooking helps me relax, even if it's at one in the morning. If it wasn't for music, I might be a chef - watch out Emeril!

6.) What advice would you give to someone that wanted to get into the music business?

I tell all my students the best thing they can do for themselves is to ...1) learn "Protools" or "Mark of the Unicorn Digital Perfprmer" -which Craig swears by - which is the industry standard's recording systems used in most professional recording studios and ...2) study business, go to college and get a degree in sound arts and a degree in business. Study the term music business, I made the mistake of not studying basic business and it has caused me problems, like not understanding basic contract language.

More info and photos to come!