Much to his fans' delight, Prine recently went back out on the road to support his new album Fair & Square, the first studio album of new material in over nine years. Joining him for the Fair & Square 2005 tour is veteran live sound mixer Dan Lance of Nomad Productions, who has offices in Dallas, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee. Lance, whose mixing career began in 1982 with Showco, has worked with a wide variety of professional performers including Barbara Mandrell, Lorrie Morgan and Steve Miller among others. "I've been mixing for John for about three years now," said Lance. "John is great guy to work with and a fantastic musician."
Three days before the debut of Fair & Square, Prine and his crew stopped into Boston's Symphony Hall, a 2,600-seat performance space built in 1900. As one of the world's most highly regarded concert halls, Symphony Hall is home to the critically acclaimed Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops. "The tour is all about small theatres and concert halls like this one," explained Lance. "Although John could sell out a larger venue, this is meant to be an intimate show. It's all about the music."
For the tour, Nomad Productions provided four EAW KF730 small line array modules per side with one EAW SB730 subwoofer per side. The KF730 arrays are stacked on custom-made wheeled dollies for ease of transport. The custom dollies, which were designed and fabricated by Nomad monitor engineer Paul Franzen, makes the system easy to roll in and lift so setup can be completed with minimal help. "EAW is a great choice for this tour. The KF730s are light, compact and covers the room better than anything of its size. I can roll them in and set them up myself if I have to. Thanks to the design of the product line, all of our EAW gear hooks up together very quickly which means we can set up the system in twenty minutes," explained Lance.
In theaters where the crew can fly the KF730s, the simple rigging hardware means there are no additional riggers required, yet another cost-savings for the tour. Lance added: "The small but powerful line array also helps with truck pack and transportation and logistics costs. We're doing the whole tour with one 18 foot truck."
Eight EAW SM15 stage monitors, a Prine favorite, line the stage for Prine and band members Jason Wilber (guitar, mandolin, and harmonica) and Dave Jacques (stand-up and electric bass). Two EAW JF80 serve as front-fills. At front-of-house, Lance uses a Yamaha DM1000 console to mix the show. "With only nine inputs, this is a stripped-down show. Here is where my military training helps with panic situations. You'd think this show was easy to mix, but with a system like this, you can't make a mistake. The clarity is so good!" said Lance.
Nomad Productions also deploys their KF730s for church and corporate events. "EAW is great since everyone has them and with so many components, there's a box for everything. We've never had a complaint about these speakers," added Lance.
(Lee Baldock)
