It's 6:30 on a Tuesday evening and Dale Anderson is ready to start his second job. The 48-year-old Green Bay resident toils day in and day out at the downtown post office, but on nights and weekends he unpacks his Dobro guitars and sings the blues. On this Tuesday, he has an audience of one: recording engineer Bob Balsley. Anderson is in for an hour-long session, working on a pair of his own songs for an upcoming recording project.

Balsley's studio, Guitars Unlimited/Recordings Unlimited, 147 N. Broadway, reflects the changes that have occurred over the last decade in the studios. Other than a small, old-fashioned reel-to-reel recorder in the back of the recording booth, Balsley's studio is all digital. Instead of massive reels of tape, each performer is captured on a computer hard drive. At the end of the session, Balsley can make a CD master that can be copied and released.

Anderson has been recording in Balsley's studio for well more than a year, coming in once a month to work on a song or two.

"Let's get started," Balsley said shortly after 6:30. He and Anderson did a quick setup in the studio. Anderson needed only a stool to sit on and an amp to plug in the instrument, a Dobro guitar. Balsley has several old Fender amps from the '60s, one of the few analog pieces of equipment in sight.

Balsley likes the vintage amps because of the warm sound they have. The same goes for instruments from the era. "A new Fender guitar made last year will look the same as one made in the '60s, but it won't sound the same" he said.

The floor of the basement studio is covered with rugs, while cardboard egg cartons cover the ceiling, all to provide the perfect sound environment. A row of headphones hangs from a hot-water pipe running along the side of thestudio.

Anderson begins the first take on "Samantha", a song he wrote for a wedding "that never happened."

As the first take ended, Anderson grimaced. "That was wrong," he said about a troubled part midway through the tune. During playback, Anderson pointed out several missed notes and then readied for a second take.

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

Anderson learned how to play guitar when he was a teen-ager. Like many others of his age, he was inspired by the Beatles to become a rocker. He played in bands through high school and into his 20s, but gave up the rock-n-roll lifestyle for work and a family life.

But the itch was still there, and after he turned 40, Anderson picked up the guitar again. "I went to an open-mike night and played a couple of terrible songs I had written," Anderson said. "But I found I still wanted to play."

Anderson gigs at clubs and bars on the weekends. In 1997, he recorded and released a six-song cassette, "Victoria Smiles." His current sessions are for a planned, eight-to-10 song self-released CD. The release will include solo numbers and some recorded with a full band.

When he returned to the stage as a middle-aged man, Anderson found that his tastes had changed. The music he wanted to play came from the '20s through the '50s, especially the different varieties of acoustic blues made in those years.

Anderson walked into the recording session with a pair of Dobro guitars. The instrument uses a metal resonator that gives the music a loud, rich tone. One of Anderson's instruments has the resonator inlayed on a wood guitar. The other is made of all metal. The light reflects off it as he plays. "It makes a nice, old-time blues rattle," Anderson said.