Rusty Cutchin

Rusty Cutchin has been a journalist, musician, author, recording engineer and producer for more than 30 years. After relocating to New York City in 1984 from his native Texas, where he was leader of a popular pop and jazz band and editor of an electronics trade magazine, he was named East Coast Pop and R&B Editor of Cash Box, the music business journal. Writing two weekly columns, Cutchin was one of the first to spotlight hit makers such as Madonna, Bobby McFerrin, and the Judds, while covering the music scene in New York. Cutchin's articles also appeared in Billboard, Hits, Musician, Country Fever, and International Musician and Recording World.

Songwriting and production work for record labels led him to a studio career working on recordings by artists such as Mariah Carey, Richie Sambora, C&C Music Factory, Yoko Ono, Alex Bugnon, Lenny White, and Queen Latifah, along with countless jazz, dance, and hip-hop records.

At the same time he built a pro-quality home studio, providing tracks for various clients such as Dick Clark's United Stations Radio Network, before returning to journalism as senior editor of Home Recording Magazine and technical editor of Guitar One Magazine. In 2000 he was named editor in chief of Home Recording, which he supervised through 2003. In January of 2004 he was named an associate editor of Electronic Musician, the top-ranked U.S. magazine for the home-studio musician.

Cutchin has been a consulting editor and contributor to more than 35 books on subjects as diverse as country and swing music, computer recording technology, guitar and musical-instrument history, and rock music history, including the Billboard Illustrated Home Recording Handbook (Billboard Books, New York, 2005) and Billboard Illustrated Complete Guitar Handbook (Billboard Books, 2006). His work appeared in two collections of articles from Home Recording Magazine--Home Recording: Studio Basics, and Home Recording: Tips and Tricks (Cherry Lane Publishing, New York, 2006).

In 2006 he was a contributor to and an editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock (FlameTree Publishing, UK, 2007). In 2007 he was the lead editor of the expanded and updated Illustrated Home Recording Handbook, and in 2008 the Consultant Editor on the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes (FlameTree, Sept. 2008). He also edited the Definitive Guitar Handbook and Guitar Gods (FlameTree, 2009).

In September, 2008, he became a full-time consulting editor for the Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group in New York, working on books and videos geared to musicians and music-technology users. During Cutchin's tenure at Hal Leonard, he supervised the editing and design of the national bestseller "Q on Producing" and the 75th anniversary commemoration of "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess." Cutchin also supervised numerous tutorials and book-DVD packages.

Cutchin is the publisher of the American Tune Tribune website, which reports on and honors the newest as well as the greatest pop and jazz vocalists interpreting the American Songbook.

In 2015 his books "Apple Logic Pro Basics and "Music Theory for Computer Musicians" were published by Flame Tree. Cutchin's multimedia company also does audio/video production for businesses and individuals in the arts and entertainment community.