With soaring guitar leads backed by his energized eight-member band including horns, Nathaniel Rateliff roused every crowd on his recent tour with generous 100-minute sets. The tour leaned heavily on the band’s latest album South of Here, plus hits from his earlier recordings, including his solo work. The vibe was that of a revival, and Rateliff was clearly preaching to the choir. Making sure his captivating vocals and the musicians prowess was perfectly executed was Denver area-based production house Brown Note.
“Brown Note Productions has been working with Nathaniel Rateliff and his team since 2016, and we’ve supported their tours every year since 2017,” says Sara Knutson, CEO and account manager. “It’s been nearly a decade of collaboration, and over the years, we’ve built a strong and trusted relationship, growing alongside the artist as the scale and ambition of each tour has evolved.”
The d&b audiotechnik system was chosen by FOH engineer Xandy Whitesel, which Brown Note was more than happy to supply. “The decision to go with a d&b audiotechnik system was driven by both consistency and performance,” Knutson says. “We’ve used d&b on previous Nathaniel Rateliff tours, and it continues to be a great match for the band’s dynamic sound.”
The early 2025 shows rocked arenas across North America. “The crew was super solid, all the gears were greased and the band really settled in,” notes Whitesel, who joined the Rateliff camp “a little over a year ago” and worked with monitor engineer David Gleeson to optimize the “old school analog” tones that Rateliff and the band had been craving.
Specifically, Whitesel says, “we made some significant improvements to a few inputs, i.e., moving to MIDI/keyscape for piano sounds, and with the help of Nathaniel’s new guitar tech Darrell Plampin, we integrated a tonedexter on NR’s acoustic guitar. These were big changes but undeniably successes. Most other inputs were polished up in some way as well. This all made Davy’s and my job easier, and the band settled in to having fun playing music with their friends. When the band is happy and focused on the music and performance, we can’t help but get a great rock show.”
“It was a fun time,” agrees Gleeson, of the tour. “The band had a good time, and that relays out through the whole tour. When they are all having a good time up there, then everybody knows it was all worth it.”
Hitting it Off
Gleeson is from Ireland and went to college in Dublin before he moved to Galway, where he started in the business working some live event venues. In 2002 he moved to Glasgow, Scotland, where he worked for some local production companies and local bands, mostly as a front of house engineer and tour manager/driver. An early break happened in 2010 when he started working steady for the indie folk-rock band Admiral Fallow, and he worked with them until 2016 (and still gets calls to work the occasional gig with them).
On an early European tour in 2014, Rateliff was playing the UK and Europe, and needed someone to mix front of house, tour manage and drive the van for him. Gleeson got the call. “I met him in Newcastle, and drove them down through London, around Europe, and finished in Barcelona — all in just about two weeks,” he says. This was about the same time Rateliff was forming the Night Sweats. “We hit it off pretty well, and in 2015, it worked out when the Night Sweats were coming to Europe for me to tour manage and mix FOH for them.” Rateliff next got him a visa to work in the U.S., and then the following year, “he and the band really took off. But at that point they had promised the front of house gig to another engineer, so I switched to monitors with Jamie Mefford mixing front of house, while still handling tour manager duties.” First thing Gleeson did on monitors was get everybody on IEMs, except for the horn section.
When they went from playing small clubs to big sheds, Gleeson went off monitors and also moved from the tour manager role to the production manager position. “That was important because it allowed me to just focus on the band’s experience. I’m much more interested in what is happening on the stage than behind it.” Last year when the monitor engineer position came open, he went for it. “I was really enjoying mixing again, and so when the opportunity came up, I jumped in to just do that.”
He took the previous engineer’s DiGiCo Quantum 338 file and tweaked it. “We never looked back after that. It’s so nice to just focus on that and know there aren’t a bunch of emails waiting for me in the production office.” Occasionally, he works FOH — like for Admiral Fallow and other one-offs in and around Scottland when he’s home. “Then I’m just out there doing ‘left’ and ‘right’ and not thinking about eight different musicians, so it’s a different kind of wonderful.”
On this tour, he says the show was especially dialed in. “The lights, the video, the stage was clean, our cable runs were clean — it’s the OCD in me that has me walking around looking at little scuffs and bits of tape, and we did good here. It was a great looking show, and the band performed well every night.” He adds that minor changes in the set and songs happened along the way, things they wanted to try out; but in many cases, they went back to the way it was originally.
Other than the Bricasti Design M7 for Rateliff’s vocals, there is no additional outboard gear in his monitor world. IEMs are all Ultimate Ears, model UE11 for the band and UE11A on Rateliff. “We just brought them in recently, and they have a little bit of ambience, which helps relieve the pressure on the eardrum. With the driver on the eardrum, it can cause fatigue, but with these, it’s easier to listen longer when the driver can breathe. It’s like an open V closed back guitar cabinet.”
The band likes a soundcheck every day. “We’ll go over a few songs, and I’ll get some notes from the band members — or not. Everyone gets their own mix, and then I’m live on Nathaniel’s mix most of the night. The band gets what they want, whatever they ask for, and I’ll massage the mix for everyone. That’s how I set up the board.”
With perhaps just one exception, they played similar rooms, and he says he didn’t struggle with the IEMs as much as one might think going from room to room. Touring with the d&b GSL rig was helpful as “it provides great rejection on the stage. And Xandy’s mixing great front of house. The whole thing was about working well together, and we were able to get a great sound together whatever the room.” He adds they did go down to doing a theater in Boston which was “a little weird,” and took additional dialing in, but they managed that well. “At that point, there’s only so much I can do, and the artist has to meet me in the middle sometimes” in a situation like that.
Day to day was generally smooth sailing. Gleeson got in about 11 a.m., with the stage and PA already in place, and he set up and spent a short time doing a virtual check. He coordinated the RF — and reports he had no real nightmares with that. He had 16 channels of the Shure PSM1000 and another four channels of Shure Axient Digital handling all the wireless mic duties. “And I had a great monitor tech from Brown Note, Chloe Morgan, and she helps a lot. She allowed me to just go into monitor world and do my testing, checking and make sure everything right.”
Gleeson’s “secret” of being a good monitor engineer is simply to keep your head up and pay attention. Also getting with a good-sounding band. “They are all great players, and I just let them play together. The challenge is just to stay out of their way!”
The Fun Factor
System engineer Josh Hatcher grew up in Denver and went off to study audio at Full Sail in Florida. When he finished there, he returned home and got on at Brown Note nearly a dozen years ago. He worked his way up the chain and started doing system engineering in 2022. He was first sent out with Rateliff three years ago but had experience with the act before that with some one-offs in other capacities. “They would always rent a control package from us and take some of our techs out,” he says.
He also acknowledges the fun factor. “This tour was fun because it was the first time that we took out a PA of our own for an arena run,” he says. “We had done that a few times, like when we did a shed run with My Morning Jacket, but it’s nice being able to take a PA out and have total control over everything.” He adds that working with FOH engineer Whitesel made it especially good. “We gave [the band] the best show we could, and had really good shows those three months, and we were all really happy with everything.”
Hatcher says he personally prefers the d&b system, as he’s worked with those systems longer than any other brands. “But working for Brown Note, we get to play with the L-Acoustics systems, too, so it’s nice to be able to compare the two, and for me, the d&b has an easier workflow. But the final decision came from Xandy, and it’s what he wanted to have.”
“Through experience I have come to believe a directional box performs very well in the rowdiness of an arena acoustical environment, particularly with a lot of open mics and no playback,” Whitesel explains.
The GSL speakers were used for the main hang, and the KSL were used for side hangs. Of the latter, Hatcher says, “it’s the latest and greatest from d&b, and I really like it. It’s probably my favorite box that we have in our inventory. The sound is just there, it throws really well, it’s easy to control — any adjustments we need to make is just right there.”
Hatcher confirms that all the arena shows were smooth, with that single theater in Boston being a little tricky. A personal highlight was the Madison Square Garden show. “It was just a really good night.” He had worked the fabled room before, so he knows walking in it’s going to be long, stressful day because of the nature of getting in and setting up, but he was determined to make everything exactly how he wanted it to be.
“MSG was near the end of a few legs of tours,” observes Whitesel. “When we played this iconic arena, it felt like the culmination of our efforts and honing and tweaking. Having our good friends and Colorado homies Gregory Alan Isakov and his band open for us made it even more epic. I’ve worked with them in the past, so mixing both bands made for a long but satisfying day.”
Looking back, Hatcher notes that the tour’s challenges were minimal, usually just waiting for points every day, “which is fairly common with any arena tour. We were in close to an hour and a half and then out in about an hour every day. So it was a really good run.” He adds that a few times he walked into a couple of rooms without having the data for it, so he had to get up a little earlier for those to draw the room. “But even that is fairly common, and we just rolled with it.” And he also gives a lot of the credit for the tour’s success to Whitesel. “We work really well together, and he’s excellent.”
Whitesel is quick to return the compliment. “Josh Hatcher and BNP did a fantastic job of providing an excellently setup and tuned system every night, with very good consistency.”
“This tour stood out not just for its scale, but for its continued momentum — including a return to Madison Square Garden, one of the most iconic venues in the world,” says Ryan Knutson, president and account manager. “Brown Note Productions provided full audio control and PA across the entire run, ensuring seamless, high-quality sound in every room. Supporting a tour of this caliber, from theaters to arenas, reflects the growth of the artist and the strength of our long-running collaboration.”
Understandably, and justifiably, the Knutsons are especially proud of their people. “Crew selection for this tour was very intentional. Most of the team had previously worked on Rateliff tours, so they were already familiar with the artist’s team, workflow, and gear preferences. That continuity made for a smooth and efficient process. All of our crew are experienced audio touring professionals and are involved in the prep process from the start—ensuring they’re fully dialed in before hitting the road.”
Crew
- Sound Company: Brown Note Productions
- BNP President/Account Manager: Ryan Knutson
- BNP CEO/Account Manager: Sara Knutson
- Production Manager: Richard Procopio
- Tour Manager: William Pepple
- FOH Engineer: Xandy Whitesel
- Monitor Engineer: David Gleeson
- System Engineer: Josh Hatcher
- Monitor Tech: Chloe Morgan
- PA Fly Techs: Collin Elliott, Zach Madson
Gear
FOH
- Console: DiGiCo Quantum338
- Outboard: (2) Bricasti Design M7M stereo reverb processor (1RU)
- Plugins: (1) Waves Axis One Rack V1, (4) Waves SoundGrid Extreme Server-C
- Processing: LM 44 Lake Processor (1RU)
- Speakers: (32) d&b audiotechnik GSL8 / GSL12, (24) KSL8 / KSL12, (18) SL-GSUB, (8) Y10P; (2) M4
- Amps: (39) d&b audiotechnik D80, NL4
MON
- Console: DiGiCo Quantum338 w/DiGiCo DMI – DANTE digital multichannel interface
- Outboard: (1) Bricasti Design M7 stereo reverb processor (1RU)
- IEMs: Shure PSM1000; (1) Shure Axient Digital AXT600 spectrum manager (470-952 MHz, 1RU); (4) Shure P10T – PSM 1000 dual channel IEM transmitter – G10; (4) Shure P10T – PSM 1000 dual channel IEM transmitter – H22
- RF Mics: (1) Shure Axient Digital – AD4QUS-A four-channel wireless receiver (470-636 MHz – 1RU); (4) Shure Axient Digital Wireless – AD2 handheld transmitter body – G57 (470-616 MHz); (2) Shure SM58 wireless capsules; (2) Shure UR2/B58A – BETA 58A capsules
