Prairie Sun Recording

09/26/2025

Cooking up something in the Lab!
Mooka's new single featuring these esteemed Bay Area Sonoma County Cats!

Prophecy, featuring Stu Blank (B3), David Lauser (drums), The Pulsators' horn section, Ralph Bryant (guitar), Mooka Rennick (bass and vocals), and Ethan Schweiger (engineering and vocals).

09/11/2025

In God's Hands (2025 Remaster) [From The Road]
Bandcamp link: https://theabolitionists.bandcamp.com/track/in-gods-hands-2025-remaster-2
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The song was recorded in Studio A, our premier mixing room at Prairie Sun Recording. We put Steve Kimock’s Dumble amp into the control room in one iso booth. We put Kendrick Freeman with his percussion devices in the hallway, which was very hollow and interesting sounding. I was in the control room with an alembic 5-string bass, with a direct injection into the Trident TSM mixing desk, with Arjan McNamara engineering. The song was recorded to 2-inch tape, Studer A80 Mk. IV 24-track.

The performances were very loose, and there were different opinions and ideas bounced off each other. At around the 3rd take, we had this beautiful, spiritual, meditative song on tape. Kimock and Kendrick were done for the day, with so much appreciation for me, who produced and played bass on the track.

In God’s Hands’ title came from the time when I was on tour with Billy C. Farlow, the original lead singer for Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. We were stuck at the Reno airport, and we were going to take a flight to Southern California after dark at around 9:00pm. We were very nervous, the Reno airport has a very short runway, and it was seriously snowing. I got on the plane with my partner of many years, Larry Otis, who was involved with the recording of The Jones (2), and Billy was sitting next to him on the aircraft. He said, “How are you doing?” to which I replied, “Well… a little nervous. I see snow piling up on the wings over there.”

Larry said “Listen man, I want you to know something. I want you to pretend that God has his hands underneath the plane right now, and as we take off and go up in the air and get on the other side of this snowstorm, He’s gonna carry us out in the sky. I just want you to believe that we are in God’s hands, and we’re gonna be fine.

When we recorded the song, the music seemed so spiritual and meditative to me, that I really thought of that time while on tour with Larry Otis, and what a wonderful tribute to turning it over to a higher power and believing that everything’s gonna be OK. And gosh darn it, I was in my early 20’s then, and so far, so good!
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Resources:

1. https://kimock.com/
2. https://markmookarennick.bandcamp.com/track/the-jones-2025-remaster

08/26/2025

My Mother always said, write a 'Thank You' note.
We've recently released some new music, celebrated some anniversaries, and did a mailing to some old friends.
From the bottom of my Heart, I can't express how much love I'm feeling. Thank you all very much! By the way, we have a lot more fun things happening on the horizon! And remember, it's the Why Behind the What! Thanks again!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/whybehindthewhat

08/17/2025

It's a special morning today. My sobriety birthday is today, August 17 1993.
32 years
384 months
11,888 days
280,516 hours
But who’s counting? 🙂
By the grace of God, “my higher power”, so far so good.
But really, it's just one day at a time.

07/30/2025

The Gospel of Working with Legos and Erector Sets on a New Pop-Rock Song

In his latest interview, Mark “Mooka” Rennick discusses the creative and technical process that went into making his new single, “Are We Gonna Make It” and using the “Lego” method to build a pop-rock song.

Check the full interview on The Why Behind the What Facebook Group here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C3RCfej92/

07/25/2025

We’re releasing our much awaited single, “Are We Gonna Make It”!
After months of subtle teasing, the new single is available now on Bandcamp!
Soon to be coming to streaming services!

Check it out here: https://markmookarennick.bandcamp.com/track/are-we-gonna-make-it

07/17/2025

07/16/2025

We are launching a revitialized version of the Prairie Sun Recording website! Check it out here: http://www.prairiesun.com/

Prairie Sun has a long history of recording Grammy-winning and legendary sessions.

You deserve world-class engineering...
A track record for producing hits...
Prairie Sun brings your hits to life! 🎸

As a special treat, the website includes a legacy page of the old Prairie Sun rooms and equipment. Much of the equipment is still available today!

07/01/2025

Hey, folks! This is how the prairie burn looks 2 months later! Here are some before and after shots. It's been a pretty dry spring, but isn't that funny? The root system for the prairie grasses go deeper than our new single, 'Are We Gonna Make It' (and of course, the answer is YES!)
Hope you all have a great 4th of July weekend!

And always remember, it's the why behind the what!

06/22/2025

Ok enjoy your Sunday. Some people have to get back to work. Work Work Work. Right after a meeting we shall convene 🙂.

Good ol' Grandma!!!! 😂

🎸 Master your practice 👉 www.GuitarPracticeAcademy.com

06/18/2025

A CRISIS OF FAITH - Let’s talk about my higher power.

Let’s talk about God/my Higher Power and I want to address this directly. I was thinking about the 3 Axioms of my recovery.
Trust in God, clean house, and work with others!

Read more on Mooka's 'Why Behind the What': https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19UMSUCjop/

06/04/2025

Three Old Friends Meet Up at the Alembic Guitar Factory on the Old Redwood Highway South of Cotati 50 Years Later

In 1975, Mooka’s good friends Larry Robinson, Chet Connick, and Hobart Jacopetti got a job working at the Alembic guitar factory, location: Old Redwood Highway. Together with them and their crew of twelve other people, they created about thirty high-end basses and guitars per month, which resulted in roughly 1400 instruments being built by 1979.

The Alembic guitar factory was responsible for building instruments for legends like Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, David Crosby, and Carlos Santana to name a few.

Mooka was in a band with Chet Connick called the Prairie Dog Rhythm Shiekhs. Mooka was privileged being an unknown musician/pig farmer when he was new in town. He was lucky to have met Larry, Chet and Hobart. During that time, Mooka would become a salesperson for Luthiers in and around the area. It later grew to a lot of his connections in the bay area, which later became his recording company, Prairie Sun Recording.

Mooka had more things to say about the Alembic guitar factory below:

How did you and Larry Robinson meet?
I met him through Chet Connick, and he recorded with me as well. Lotta wild ambient tracks with 7-string guitars.

What other artists did the Alembic factory build guitars for?
Stanley Clarke, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead’s bass player), and The Who as well.

How many guitars did you pick up/use at the Alembic Guitar factory?
We started with three of them. The first one was a custom 4-string with two necks by an Alembic luthier, Bruce Bec Var. The next one was built by Chet Connick. The third one was my first real Alembic, the famous 5-string Dragon bass (see photo), built by Larry Robinson himself. That has an amazing inlay. Later down the line, I picked up two more Alembics: A 1991 Stanley Clarke 4-String short scale, and a 2020 Bird of Prey medium scale.

What a real treasure these three guys are! I would also like to thank Rick Turner, Ron and Susan Wickersham (the original owners of Alembic), and the current manager, their daughter Mica!