As Popular LDS Recording Engineer Bounces Back:
Actor Wilford Brimley Hosts Benefit Concert for Jim Anglesey
by Ron Simpson
During a break in a recent multi-camera video shoot, guest director John Starrs stopped by the sound console where I was mixing. “First of all,” he said, “Thanks again for the Meridian articles.” I said thanks back and waited for the rest.
“One article I keep hoping you’ll write is a tribute to Jim Anglesey. You probably know as much about him as anyone,” he continued.
“Thanks, that’s a really timely idea, John. I’ll give it some thought.”
It’s true-since fellow Utah engineers Jim Anglesey and Jon Holloman worked together in the early 80s, mixing different stages of the audio for the Donny and Marie network TV shows emanating from the Osmond Studios in Utah, Jim Anglesey’s name has been synonymous with the teaching and mentoring of music recording at BYU. In fact, even before his Donny and Marie days, Jim developed a seminar system for teaching audio, and delivered it at Music Central, the studio Sound Column built in Salt Lake City. (This author was a founder of the Sound Column companies.)
Interestingly, after Donny and Marie ended, both Anglesey and Holloman landed in the school of music at BYU. Jim coordinated the sound recording program for twenty years, became the director of BYU’s award-winning a cappella group, Vocal Point, and still teaches a roster of private BYU synthesizer students.
Years before he arrived at BYU, Jim and I had met in the 60s through the vocal jazz group, the ARCS Quartet, for whom Jim sang and I wrote arrangements. That was a fortuitous meeting, in which Jim and I discovered a partnership of music business interests. We tried some fairly naive experimentation in recording and producing, booking bands, and dreaming about growing a mini music industry in Utah. Eventually it would all happen, and we would be colleagues in the Sound Column companies in Salt Lake, and then, amazingly, we both landed at BYU in the mid 80s.
But the specific timing of John Starrs’ suggestion ties to the devastating news that Jim was diagnosed with leukemia this past year. Now finished with several rounds of apparently successful treatment, Jim is back on his feet, looking great, and hoping to get back into some projects. At the time he was diagnosed, Jim was doing contract recording on Temple Square in addition to several other pursuits, including music appearances under the stage name Jimmy Franklin in the Celtic-flavored Ellis and Franklin band with his wife, fiddler Theresa Ellis.
No one needs to explain how catastrophic illness wreaks havoc in the life of someone who depends on freelance contract work, and this past month actor Wilford Brimley (Cocoon, Brigham City, etc.), whose career had intersected with Jim’s and Theresa’s somewhere in the past, announced he would be hosting a benefit concert and art auction for Jim and his family. Actor Treat Williams (Warner Brothers’ network show, Everwood, filmed in Utah) and former NBA star and music personality Thurl Bailey were also involved with Brimley in the pre-concert publicity.) Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake was the venue-the same location as the annual Pearl Awards telecasts-and a large audience turned out in support. As promised, Wilford Brimley and his family were at the center of things. Guitar strumming son Bill Brimley assembled a strong lineup of acoustic music, including The City Cowboys, with eminent studio guitarist Rich Dixon sitting in as a tribute to his longtime friend Jim Anglesey.
Brimley’s brother, Sterling, showed up with his excellent group, the Sterling Singers and their charismatic director Kelly DeHaan. This was the week before the Sterling Singers’ highly-publicized appearance in the concert version of Crawford Gates’ new opera Joseph, Joseph in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, and it was clear the chorus deserves its strong and growing reputation.
Roy-Orbison-styled tenor Brian Merrill, from Jim’s home town, Blackfoot, Idaho, and someone I hadn’t heard before, turned in a rousing version of “Tracks of My Tears” with the City Cowboys, Bill Brimley, and Rich Dixon all sitting in.
The concert was a generous, overt way for Jim’s friends to help put a dent in the mountain of bills and lost income the Angleseys are facing, and it’s also a milestone point in Jim Anglesey’s career when those who know him are looking back with wonder and gratitude for all he’s helped accomplish.
And indeed, maybe the best way for me to finish my attempt at a tribute-and possibly what John Starrs originally had in mind-would be to kick out a partial list of career highlights, followed by a small sampling of former students and where they’re working now. And, Jim, if every one of these people from your scrapbook of memories had a turn to speak, it would be about how we admire you, how we’re glad we’ve known you, and how at one time or another you’ve made us all sound good and encouraged us to learn more about our craft, and how we wish you the best as you embark upon this next stretch of unexplored career highway.
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Selected Highlights
- When Jim was a rookie engineer with Sound Column, the well-known engineer Howard Gale, then working at ABC Studios in Hollywood, paid us a surprise visit. At the conclusion, he pulled me aside, and said, “I hope you guys realize just how good this new engineer of yours is gonna be…”
- Discovered by Newell Dayley, Jim recorded several of the Church pageants Newell composed with his librettist, the late Ralph Rodgers Jr., including III Nephi. Excited by the contributions he felt Jim was making, Newell took Jim along as his personal engineer as the pageants were presented at daunting Salt Lake venues such as the Salt Palace Arena and The Huntsman Center.
- Media composer Larry Bastian also discovered the young Jim Anglesey and took him to Southern California for several recording projects using Los Angeles A-list musicians. It was an honor for Jim to be introduced into the LA recording community as the out-of-town engineer that came with the composer’s package. Several CLIO awards from the ad industry grace Jim’s studio as souvenirs of those days.
- Country singer and champion cowboy Chris LeDoux and his band recorded several projects with Jim, commenting on the national feel of the studio and Jim’s working style.
- At Sound Column, along with Clive Romney and this author, Jim sweetened and mixed “Too Good to be Through,” a record tracked in Nashville and Salt Lake, which charted for Idaho country artist Dave Lemmon-an unprecedented achievement for a new artist’s very first single.
- We could go on…Jim was the senior engineer for hundreds of Sound Column jingles, dozens of record albums, and a decade of music for the LDS seminaries.
- And then the Donny and Marie show beckoned, and Jim did the audio mix each week, working all night so the master components could be shipped off first thing in the morning. Most of the great artists of the day were the Osmond siblings’ guests, so that meant Jim got to mix their songs, giving Jim a fingertip experience with the record sounds of the artists of the decade.
- A New York accounting office once booked an all-night session with Jim for an anonymous artist. Strict conditions were to be followed; the session was paid for in advance. The artist turned out to be Gene Simmons of KISS, and he recorded the original demo of his radio single “Radioactive” with Jim.
- Anglesey got complimentary national reviews with singer songwriter Kim Simpson who returned home to Utah from Austin, Texas to work with Jim.
- For his Ellis and Franklin recordings, Jim has received laudatory international reviews from several catalogs and web sites.
- While directing BYU’s Vocal Point, Jim Anglesey earned regular placement in the national semi-finals of a cappella singing. Vocal Point’s Tantara album Grand Slam is dedicated to Jim, and coincidentally contains “Pennies From Heaven,” an arrangement by yours truly originally featured by the ARCS Quartet, with Jim Anglesey singing bass.
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But born teachers receive just as much joy from students’ achievements as from their own. Following are a few examples from Jim’s twenty-year run of audio courses at BYU.
Chance Thomas – Graduated from BYU under Jim, and featured in national recording trade magazines, Chance was recently awarded Sony’s coveted commission to score the Lord of the Rings video games. Just as important to Jim, Chance Thomas had a capsule article in the Church News, pointing out that he serves as a bishop while engaged in this time intensive career.
Trey Vittetoe – Production manager for publisher Rondor Music in Hollywood. Once known as the administering publisher for the catalog of the Beach Boys, etc., Rondor recently leapt to the front by developing Avril Levigne.
Joe Anderson – Proprietor of Andersound, Joe mixes leading LDS-market live shows.
Richard Duke – A surround sound mixer of movies at the LDS motion picture studio, including Legacy and Testaments.
Tony Mortimer – Passing on what he learned from Jim and others at BYU, Tony teaches recording at three Phoenix-area community colleges simultaneously.
J. Bateman – Proprietor of ArtistPoint studios and an engineer/producer, J has a variety of international and domestic credits, including the score and music supervision for the recent Saints and Soldiers.
Staci Peters – With a BYU degree centered in recording, Staci has excelled as a songwriter, producer, and music business manager, both in the LDS market (Deseret Book Music Division, etc.) and in Nashville.
Andre Herring – With remarkable focus, Andre quickly became a lead engineer in the Disney/Univeral Studios system in Orlando, eventually pausing to earn an MBA, then continuing his media-centered career. Recently a vice president with NBC International, Andre also has found time to freelance as Natalie Cole’s engineer for Las Vegas showroom appearances.
Sherrie Everett – One of the earliest graduates of the BYU Sound Program, Sherrie found work in a leading San Diego studio, helping to prove the viability of the program Jim helped innovate.
Sam McGuire – With a passion for-and a degree in-sound, Sam went on for a master’s degree, and has just been hired in a faculty position at Appalachia State University in North Carolina, where he will teach audio and be the resident engineer.
John Starrs – Doing this topic was a good suggestion, John, and you even made the list! After studying audio, John’s curiosity and talent led him to video. He is currently the director/producer for VIP Media in Orem, Utah.
Note: There’s perhaps one former student that Jim likes to mention in conversation. Possibly this is one he’s proudest of, one that came the furthest under Jim’s tutelage, and one who went on to excel under her own initiative far from the campus. The story starts and ends in Taiwan.
Judy Wu – Coming to BYU from her homeland with minimal music skills, Judy Wu nevertheless majored in music, caught up with her classmates, and studied audio with a fervor Jim had rarely encountered. Just a few short years later, Judy Wu stood up to receive honors as Producer of the Year in her Taiwanese professional organization. In her acceptance remarks she generously thanked BYU and her mentor Jim Anglesey for preparing her so well.
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Wilford Brimley would have had no way to know all this background on Jim Anglesey. His support was based on encounters with Jim in other facets of his professional life.
But take it from me and from John Starrs, Wilford. In backing Jim Anglesey, you backed a very strong horse. A thoroughbred.
