Crossroads Roadwork

I was recently asked by my friend, George Misulia, to transfer a vinyl record to digital. The record was done back in 1982 by his music group, Crossroads. It was entitled “Roadwork“. The recording was done at Sheffield Recording Ltd in Phoenix, MD, a studio I had done some work in back in the 80’s as well.

AHH, VINYL

Yes, spinning vinyl on a turntable.  The copy of the album was not new. The cover showed some signs of wear along the bottom edge, probably the result of sliding it in and out of a storage shelf. The paper liner had some slight water stains across the bottom edge, but was otherwise intact. We began with a thorough cleaning of the album. There were a few visible crosscut scratches on side one. When we dropped the needle, our suspicions that the album condition was not the greatest were confirmed. No doubt that this particular platter had made a pass or two under the stylus, or that the previous stylus was not in the best of condition when asked to render from the tiny grooves the music encoded there. There was a slight ripple warp toward the outer edge causing a bit of a bounce on the tonearm, but not bad enough to dislocate the stylus from it’s groove.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

The music on “Roadwork” sounded pretty good, despite the condition of the record. Crossroads was a Catholic Rock band from the Baltimore area. The credits on this album include:

Musician	Credits
George Misulia	Vocals and Acoustic Guitars
Marcellino D’Ambrosio	Vocal, Acoustic & Electric Bass
Francis Koerber	Acoustic & Electric Piano, Synthesizer, Organ & Vocals
Andrew Griffin	Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Mandolin & Vocals
Karen Konizeski	Violin
Bill Christensen	Harmonica
Buzzy London	Drums
Carl Brown	Congas

The Recording Engineer was Victor Giordano.

COMPOSITIONS

There are nine songs, seven of which were authored by George.

TITLE	COMPOSER	COPYRIGHT
Come On (Down the Road)	George Misulia	© 1982 Common Ground Music
I Am the Way	George Misulia	© 1982 Common Ground Music
Hard Road	George Misulia	© 1982 Common Ground Music
Because I Am	Ron Thomas & Turley Richards	© 1973 Clear Light Productions
I Believe My Redeemer Lives	George Misulia	© 1982 Common Ground Music
Behold	George Misulia	© 1982 Common Ground Music
The Treasure	Jon* Polce	© 1981 Jon Polce
I Am With You	George Misulia	© 1982 Common Ground Music
Stand	George Misulia	© 1982 Common Ground Music

I think this was a typo and should have been John Polce.

ALBUM ART

The Album Cover Concept and design was by David Motta. Cover photos by Terry Levering and David Motta. To those who would care about such things, some design liberties were taken on the reverse of the Album jacket. The photo of George must’ve been flipped in the horizontal direction, unless he was playing guitar left handed back then.

The photo shoot for the picture located on the back bottom of the jacket must have been a riot. Wish there were affordable handheld video camcorders back then to capture this event.

SAMPLINGS

Here are a few samples from Roadwork.

01. Come On (sample) [audio:Roadwork/01_ComeOn-sample.mp3]

02. I Am The Way (sample) [audio: Roadwork/02_IAmTheWay-sample.mp3]

03. Hard Road (sample) [audio: Roadwork/03_HardRoad-sample.mp3]

09. Stand  (full track)[audio: Roadwork/09_Stand.mp3]