Michael Graves (born December 23, 1968) is an American mastering engineer. He specializes in audio restoration and audio preservation. Graves is a four-time Grammy award-winner and a twelve-time Grammy nominee. He is widely considered one of the best audio engineers in his field. Country singer

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

' daughter Jett praised Graves' work on her father's Grammy-winning album ''

The Garden Spot Programs, 1950 ''The Garden Spot Programs, 1950'' is a compilation of four fifteen-minute radio shows recorded by country music singer Hank Williams for Naughton Farms in February 1950. After discs containing four shows were found in 2013 by a record collector, ...

'', calling it "the best restoration I’ve ever heard before, the 1% of 1% of restoration engineering." Graves has worked on a wide variety of archival musical projects, working with clients from around the world. Graves' main focus is historical audio that was recorded on deteriorating or obsolete media, as well as more recent recordings on which the sound is obscured for various reasons, utilizing tools and techniques to restore the original audio. His work has often been compared to that of an archaeologist because of Graves' similarly painstaking process of cleaning and restoring old and often damaged archival material. He works with such record labels as

Dust-to-Digital Dust-to-Digital is a record company that specializes in documenting the history of American popular music, including historical recordings of blues, gospel, and country music. Their method combines rare recordings with historic images, photograp ...

, Analog Africa,

The Numero Group The Numero Group is an archival record label that creates compilations of previously released music, reissues original albums, and creates album reconstructions from a variety of musical genres. The label, known as Numero, was founded in 2003 b ...

and

Omnivore Recordings Omnivore Recordings is an independent record label founded in 2010. It specializes in historical releases, reissues and previously unissued vintage recordings, as well as select releases of new music, on CD, vinyl and digital formats. Omnivore Re ...

, which specialize in historical recordings. He has also remastered recordings for commercial release by artists such as

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

, Joni Mitchell,

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guiar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new ...

, Blondie,

Richard Hell Richard Lester Meyers (born October 2, 1949), better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. Hell was in several important early punk rock bands, including Neon Boys, Television and ...

Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage presence. ...

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. Stax was ...

Nina Simone Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blue ...

Erroll Garner Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad " Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first rec ...

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on t ...

and

Bobby Rush Bobby Lee Rush (born November 23, 1946) is an American politician, activist and pastor who served as the U.S. representative for for three decades. A civil rights activist during the 1960s, Rush co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Pa ...

. Graves owns and operates Osiris Studio, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

-based mastering and audio-restoration services facility that provides audio services to the entertainment and archival communities. The studio is named after the Egyptian god of resurrection, reflecting Graves' interest in bringing recordings "back to life."

Early life

Graves grew up in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He began collecting records from a young age, taking advantage of his father's free travel perks as a

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along wi ...

employee to visit record stores across the U.S. and Europe. He graduated from

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the largest institution of hig ...

Career

Graves spent the early part of his career in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. He first became interested in audio restoration after receiving an early CD recorder as a gift in 1998. In the course of digitizing some rare records in his vinyl collection, he became interested in the possibilities of digital audio restoration. In 2002, Graves founded Osiris Studio, initially working with private collectors to digitize and restore their music collections. In 2003, Graves was hired by

to help digitize and preserve a substantial portion of its

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallich ...

collection, one of the world's largest collections of commercial, home and unreleased recordings relating to noted songwriter Mercer. Graves continued working for Georgia State University, preserving assets in GSU's Southern Labor Archives. Graves subsequently expanded his business, performing preservation services for the audio archives of such institutions as the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

(

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...

Joshua Tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the ar ...

Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

and

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

archives), Archives of the Episcopal Church, the

Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups ...

, Sacred Harp Publishing Company Archives, and the

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...

David J. Sencer CDC Museum The David J. Sencer CDC Museum, often referred to as the CDC Museum, is museum about the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention located in Atlanta, Georgia. The museum is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. Mission Histo ...

. In 2005, Graves met Steven Lance Ledbetter, co-owner of

, an influential Atlanta-based record label that specializes in documenting the history of American popular music, including historical recordings of blues, gospel and country music. Dust-to-Digital hired Graves to restore and master the recordings collected on its archival box set ''Fonotone Records: Frederick, Maryland (1956-1969)''. That project marked the beginning of a long-running collaboration between Graves and Dust-to-Digital, with Graves restoring and mastering the majority of the label's releases thereafter. Graves won his first

Grammy award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

in 2009, for his work on Dust-to-Digital's four-CD box set ''Art of Field Recording, Vol. I: 50 Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum''. The set won in the category of Best Historical Album, with Graves, as mastering engineer, sharing the award with the album's producers, Ledbetter and Art Rosenbaum. In 2011, Graves began working with the archival label Analog Africa, restoring and mastering a large portion of that company's catalog, beginning with the album ''Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974-1979''. Graves received a second Grammy nomination in 2012, for the Dust-to-Digital release ''Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM''. The following year, he was nominated for another Dust-to-Digital project, ''Pictures of Sound: One Thousand Years of Educed Audio: 980-1980''. In 2013, after meeting company co-founder Cheryl Pawelski, Graves began a long-running relationship with the reissue label

. Graves' first project for Omnivore was his restoration of a set of 1950 Hank Williams recordings for the Garden Spot radio program. The resulting album, ''The Garden Spot Programs'', won Graves his second Grammy award, again in the Best Historical Album category. The same year, Graves was also nominated in the Grammy category of Best Historical Album for his work on the Dust-to-Digital release ''Longing for the Past: The 78 RPM Era in Southeast Asia''. In 2015, Graves assumed mastering and restoration duties for the compilation CD that accompanies the ''

Oxford American The ''Oxford American'' is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the American South. First publication The magazine was begun in late 1989 in Oxford, Mississippi, by Marc Smirnoff (born July 11, 1963). The name "Oxford American" is a play on ''T ...

'' magazine's annual music issue. Graves earned a 2015 Grammy nomination, again in the Best Historical Album category, for his work on Dust-to-Digital's 2014 release ''Parchman Farm: Photographs and Field Recordings 1947-1959''. This was followed by a 2016 Grammy nomination, for another Dust-to-Digital album, ''Music of Morocco: Recorded by

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

'' (Dust-to-Digital). Graves received two Best Historical Album Grammy nominations the following year, for ''

Washington Phillips George Washington "Wash" Phillips (January 11, 1880 – September 20, 1954) was an American gospel and gospel blues singer and instrumentalist. The exact nature of the instrument or instruments he played is uncertain, being identified only as " ...

and His Manzarene Dreams'' (Dust-to-Digital) and ''Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa'' (Ostinato). In 2018, Graves moved Osiris Studio to Los Angeles, where he has continued to work on a wide variety of archival releases. The same year, he won another Grammy award for Best Historical Album, for his work on Dust-to-Digital's '' Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris''.

Other work

Graves is also affiliated with the

Association for Recorded Sound Collections The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings. Established in 1966, members include record collectors, discographers, and audio engineers, togethe ...

(ARSC) and the

Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or product ...

(AES). He is also a board member and technical advisor to Music Memory, an organization dedicated to the preservation of large, rare 78 rpm collections. Graves is a member of

The Recording Academy The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy A ...

, and The Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing. He also served multiple terms on the Board of Governors in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

Graves has won the

Grammy Award for Best Historical Album The Grammy Award for Best Historical Album has been presented since 1979 and recognizes achievements in audio restoration. Since this category's creation, the award had several minor name changes: *In 1979 the award was known as Best Historical R ...

four times, and has been nominated a further nine times. Wins *''It's Such A Good Feeling: The Best Of Mister Rogers'' (2021) *'' Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris'' (2018) *

, ''

'' (2014) *''Art Of Field Recording Volume I: Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum'' (2008) Nominations * Blondie, ''Against The Odds: 1974-1982'' (2023) *''Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music'' (2022) *''Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa'' (2017) *''Washington Phillips And His Manzarene Dreams'' (2017) *''Music Of Morocco From The Library Of Congress: Recorded By Paul Bowles, 1959'' (2016) *''Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings, 1947–1959'' (2015) *''Longing For The Past: The 78 RPM Era In Southeast Asia'' (2014) *''Pictures Of Sound: One Thousand Years Of Educed Audio: 980–1980'' (2013) *''Opika Pende: Africa At 78 RPM'' (2012)

Blues Music Award

Graves also won a 2017

Blues Music Award The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy ...

in the category of Historical Album of the Year, for the

box set ''Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History Of Bobby Rush''.

Discography

References

External links

Osiris Studio official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graves, Michael 1968 births Grammy Award winners American audio engineers Living people