Joe Boyd is retired

Didn't realize it until recently, but Joe Boyd is one of my favorite record producers. A lot of albums I like have his name on them, and some don't, but he was involved, e.g.: Mary Margaret O'Hara's Miss America - which took 5 years (Boyd was involved in the first takes, and when he saw how difficult she was, he let someone else take over) - she went on to do other stuff, but never topped that one . Notable successes include the McGarrigles' first album, lots of famous folkies like Doc Watson, and R.E.M, amongst many many others, not all folk- since his real love is Muddy Waters and other roots guitar blues, in a career that spans the 60's to the 90's. His style is to make a studio album sound "alive" - which I guess means sort of like "live" but more polished. On a recent CBC interview, he said that he though that his biggest contribution was to make the recording artists feel that they could do anything, have freedom, and he would make it work, go with it, which was a radical thing in the 60's when producers had more power than today, since they were generally not hired by the artists but by the label. Things have changed, and he indicated that there was much self-indulgence today. I think I'll get the book.