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RIP: Mike Cogan

(April 13, 1942 – March 31, 2022)

Milestone

Mike Cogan was the owner of Bay Records in Lafayette, CA. Mike grew up in Northern Virginia playing piano, and later banjo and guitar. He was exposed to bluegrass and folk music and, by the time he hit college, and was thoroughly hooked! Upon moving to the West Coast he found many great musicians who weren’t heard much outside of California, and decided to make a record of his favorite group, Kenny Hall and the Sweets Mill String Band. One record only—that was going to be it! Fortunately, producing that record hooked him for life. He founded the Bay Records label and produced 20 albums of folk music through 1977. In order to make these records he had built a recording studio in his garage. The studio grew and grew, until today it’s a full-service recording facility. He kept the old name—Bay Records—from the days of the record label and loved the music part of the business!
[adopted from the Bay Records website]

Bay Records – TPH-727


Mike Cogan was the mastering engineer for Best Historical Album

54th Annual GRAMMY Award Winner (2011)

Hear Me Howling!: Blues, Ballads & Beyond as recorded by  Chris Strachwitz in the San Francisco Bay in 1960.


From Suzy Thompson

My first time in a recording studio was when Bay Records was in Mike Cogan’s garage, on Margarido in Oakland when Jody Stecher was making “Snake Baked a Hoecake” and brought nineteen year old me along to play the tambura on Leela Leela. I’m guessing that Jody, Eric and I may have been the only people to record in all three Bay Records studios – after the garage, there was the wonderful old former newspaper building in Alameda, where Mike converted a radio station into a recording studio, and still later, the building on Alcatraz.  Eric put in the floor in that studio, in exchange for studio time. I played on so many different projects in these rooms: Frankie Armstrong, Savoy Doucet Cajun Band, California Cajun Orchestra, Blue Flame String Band, Bluegrass Intentions, Eric & Suzy, Malvina Reynolds, Carol McComb, and Eric played on even more including the Persuasions’ Grateful Dead project.

Mike’s legacy will live on in all the music that was recorded at Bay Records, and in the other engineers that he trained, including Jeremy Goody at Megasonic in Oakland.

I played on so many records that were recorded at one Bay location or another. And, I thought of something I would like to add to my statement about Mike – He was one of the only recording engineers I ever worked with who never took up studio time bragging on all the famous people he’d recorded (and he did record some famous ones!). Also, he turned me on to Spike Jones for which I am forever grateful. Here is a link to the song.

Teabag Blues by Hank Bradley from the Suzy Thompson recording, No Mockingbird, recorded by Bob Shumaker at Bay Records

http://www.bayrec.com/MP3FILES/TeabagBlues.mp3

From Cathie Whitesides

I knew Mike Cogan first by reputation as the recording engineer at Bay Records for the folk music of the 60s that everyone wanted to hear. My personal time with Mike spanned just six years. Mike helped me make my first LP, Gems of Irish and Cape Breton Scottish Fiddling. He was generous and freely gave his time. Mike was willing to solve sound problems and fix wrong notes no matter how long it took, his delightful humor never flagging. We shared many good times, including trips to the San Diego Folk Festival. He will be greatly missed.


From Shoshanna Schwimmer

I was already grieving for what Mike went through, and am so sad to learn of his passing. Who can even imagine all the wonderful music he helped spread with his recording skills?

And I will always be grateful to Mike and Sheila for the haven they provided when I lived with them so many decades ago, before moving east. Picking up Paul at school was a way to help out, and it’s been heartwarming to see what a devoted son and father he has become.


From Jody Stecher

Mike and I were good friends. He engineered 3 of my albums and half another. I also participated as a support musician on many other recording projects of his. The first location was his home on Margarido Drive in Oakland. Then he had a studio in the Times Star Building in Alameda. Then he acquired and rebuilt a studio on Alcatraz Avenue in Berkeley where he made many recordings. Later he worked from home and also used Jeremy Goody’s Megasonic studio in Oakland. He developed unusual and effective recording techniques that combined the ambiance of locations with the qualities of various microphones and the instruments being recorded. It worked particularly well on steel string guitars and on five-string banjos. He was also very popular with trad jazz musicians as he would record and mix this music in a way that accorded with how the musicians perceived their own music.

Mike was a friendly person, was unusually generous, and had a superb sense of humor which he extended to laughing at himself. One of my favorite anecdotes he told me was about something that happened shortly after he and his wife Sheila moved to the Bay Area from the East where he had worked as an electrical engineer. He had gotten an engineering job in San Francisco and was renting a place a bit south of the city. He had developed a habit or “ritual” of filling the time between returning home from work and having dinner. To fill the time, he’d drive to a local gas station and fill his gas tank. One evening he thought to himself “the weather is so nice, I think I’ll walk”. So he walked to the gas station, went right up to the pump and when asked “may I help you?” realized the absurdity of the situation and asked for the time or for directions or something like that.

Mike’s engineering business was called Bay Records. He had a record label of that name and that was the name of his recording business as well. In his office at the Alameda studio he displayed a collection of envelopes and postcards addressed to bizarre misunderstandings of what his business was. I recall “Bay Wreckers’, “Gay Records”, and the strangest of all: “Coconut Bay Records.”. He was not upset by these mistakes. He cherished the humor. And one day he solved the Coconut mystery. He answered the phone and heard himself say “This is Mike Cogan at Bay Records,,, OH!!!” He had realized that it sounded like Mike, Coconut Bay Records”.  To this day several of his friends refer to him as Mike Coconut.

When Mike opened his studio in Alameda he considered using a latin slogan on his business card. It translated as “We magnetize rust.”


From Mitchell Greenhill

https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Dont-You-See-That-Train.m4a

Don’t You See That Train by Mitch Greenhill & Mayne Smith

Storm Coming by Mitch Greenhill & Mayne Smith

Bay Records 215 (1979)

News of Michael Cogan’s death has sent me into a deep funk. Images flood my mind, memories of hours in his several recording studios. Playing, recording, Michael listening, Michael suggesting adjustments. And then going back and doing it again, always better.

The first time was a living room session. Mark Spoelstra, Mayne Smith, and I were just beginning our collaboration. Mike heard us, perhaps up at the Sweets Mill Festival, liked what we were doing and invited us to record. His figuratively big ears were already in evidence – he was hearing minute details in the sound and adjusting the microphones accordingly. He rarely gave specific musical feedback but was always keenly attuned to sonic details. After a while, I too began to hear some of these subtleties, and Mike became something of a mentor in the recording process.

A few years later, Mayne Smith and I recorded at Mike’s studio in Alameda. Our collaboration with Mark had run its course, culminating in The Frontier. When that band broke up, Mayne and I continued to play much of its repertoire and to develop new material. Mike signed us to his label, Bay Records. Our first album Storm Coming spanned several months of initial live sessions, subsequent overdubs (including of Taj Mahal, Doc & Merle Watson, Maryann Price, and a local horn section), and my dislocated elbow. Mike, as the album’s co-producer as well as its engineer, was the steady hand, and when the album was finished, he contributed a radio blurb.

More years, more sessions. Bay Records moved to Oakland, where I produced Rosalie Sorrels’ album Borderline Heart. This was a bigger room, so Rosalie and the band, including Laurie Lewis and Nina Gerber, recorded live. We looked into each other’s eyes and worked on getting strong ensemble takes. Mike found the sweet spot between isolating the instruments and allowing for a certain amount of bleed between the tracks. Of my many collaborations with Rosalie, this one holds a special place.

In recent years, as I developed my home studio, Mike became my mastering engineer. Now back in his living room, this time in Lafayette, he was still able to pick out the sweet spots – and the problematic ones – in a master recording. Some musical passage or other would elicit a grunt, snort, or chuckle, followed by some small adjustment of the (now digital) dials. The songs always sounded far better coming out of his world than it did going in.

And then, about a year ago, I asked him to master Mitchology, my new album of original songs. But this time he begged off, with the shocking assessment that he no longer trusted his ears. He had moved back to Maryland to live with family. I hope that he enjoyed his last days there. Both in the Bay Area music scene and in my life, he has left a big legacy. And a big hole.


From Sandy Rothman

Working with Mike was always enlightening, filled with his great skills and humor. His knowledge was vast, not only about music. I consider him a rare human being. His loss is deeply felt.

Bluegrass Guitar Duets with Steve Pottier (ToneBar Records TBR-1833) was recorded at Bay Studios in 1991, tracked by Bob Shumaker and digitally edited there by Mike. My solo album The Old Road to Home (ToneBar Records TBR-146) was recorded and edited by Mike in 1992-3.

Bluegrass Guitar Duets with Steve Pottier (ToneBar Records TBR-1833)

Bluegrass Guitar Duets with Steve Pottier (ToneBar Records TBR-1833)

The Old Road to Home (ToneBar Records TBR-146)

Recordings on Bay Records

Artist Title (Format) Cat# Year
Wild Family Orchestra From Zamora, California ‎(LP) 001 1979
Otis Pierce Every Bush and Tree ‎(LP, Album) 102 1975
Kenny Hall And The Sweets Mill String Band Kenny Hall And The Sweets Mill String Band Vol. 2 ‎(LP, Album) 103 1977
Jody Stecher And Friends Snake Baked A Hoecake ‎(LP, Album) 203 1974
Jane Voss An Album Of Songs ‎(LP) 207 1976
The Good Ol’ Persons* California Old-Time Bluegrass Music ‎(LP) 208 1977
The Gypsy Gyppo String Band The Gypsy Gyppo String Band ‎(LP) 209 1977
Frank Wakefield End Of The Rainbow ‎(LP, Album) 214 1980
Mitch Greenhill & Mayne Smith Storm Coming ‎(LP, Album) 215 1979
Carol McComb And Friends Love Can Take You Home Again ‎(LP) 302 1975
Hank Bradley Music Of The Poison Coyote Kid ‎(LP) 303 1977
Payne Brothers Skate ‎(7″) 421 1980
Lenny Anderson / Art Peterson The Ballad Of Dan White / Twinkie Insanity 2 versions 503 1979
John Delafose Uncle Bud Zydeco ‎(LP, Album) 1088 1983
Otis Pierce With Pete Kessler* And Mike Cogan* Chicago / Birthday Cake ‎(7″, Single) 4200 1974
Sean O’Neill (20) & Miliosa Lundy Come Workers Sing A Rebel Song ‎(LP) 7511122 1976
The Ian Carey Quintet Contextualizin’ ‎(CD, Album) B021 2010
The People’s International Silver String Macedonian Band* The People’s International Silver String Macedonian Band ‎(LP, Album) BAY 201 1973
Bill Steele (2) Garbage! And Other Garbage ‎(LP, Album) BAY 202 1973
Arkansas Sheiks Whiskey Before Breakfast ‎(LP) BAY 204 1975
Silver String Macedonian Band Earth Dances ‎(LP, Album) BAY 205 1976
Frankie Armstrong “…Out Of Love, Hope And Suffering.” ‎(LP, Album) Bay 206 1973
Jody Stecher Going Up On The Mountain ‎(LP, Album) BAY 210 1977
John Herald John Herald And The John Herald Band ‎(LP, Album) BAY 213 1978
Faith Petric Faith Petric ‎(LP, Album) Bay 216 1979
Any Old Time* Ladies Choice ‎(LP, Album, Als) Bay 217 1980
Kenny Hall And The Sweets Mill String Band Kenny Hall And The Sweets Mill String Band ‎(CD, Comp, RE) BAY CD 727 2001
The Original Salty Dogs Jazz Band* Joy, Joy, Joy ‎(Cass, Album, Dol) C1233 1992
Garvin Bushell And Friends* Richard Hadlock Presents Garvin Bushell And Friends: One Steady Roll ‎(CD, Album) DE 250 2009
Homestead Act Playin’ Possum ‎(LP, Album) KLP-7443 1974
Johnny Maddox (2) Red Hot Ragtime 1 ‎(CD) none Unknown
The Jungle Crawlers Stompin’ On Down ‎(LP, Album) S.O.S. 1084 1984
Keith Ingham And Marty Grosz And Their Hot Cosmopolites* Just Imagine (The Music Of DeSylva, Brown & Henderson) ‎(CD, Album) STOMP OFF CD1285 1994
Kenny Hall And The Sweets Mill String Band Kenny Hall And The Sweets Mill String Band – Volume I (Album) 2 versions TPH-727 1972
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https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/mike_cogan.jpg 173 240 FolkWorks https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FolkWorks-logo-large.png FolkWorks2022-04-03 12:03:002022-04-13 20:52:54

RIP: Mike Cogan

(April 13, 1942 – March 31, 2022)

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