From an all-day session at the studio with the Long Beds (actually Molly came in a day later):
After that last shot, when Chuck had cased up his secret weapon, he and I retired to the kitchen for homemade lentil/cabbage/pork sausage soup…thank you to my wife for that, for fresh apple cake, and as always, for forbearance. She is the solid center of my mental contraptions.
A portion of the studio where we’ve been recording is built over an old swimming pool. Engineer Jaime discovered that if he suspended a microphone in the vast space below the floor, it picked up some fine reverberant goodies. Recording engineers love this sort of stuff (geek alert!).
Long day of recording yesterday (Sunday). Long Beds guitarist/keyboardist/MENSA-head Chris stayed overnight but forgot his suitcase in St. Paul. Fortunately, I have a lot of extra fire department t-shirts. The guy who gave us this one knows who he is…Thanks, Barry!
Long Beds recording sessions continue. Billy was inside recording an acoustic guitar part so Chuck and I took the opportunity to gather acorns for my porkers. What you see here is an eminently talented bassist scooping up free pig food with a child’s snow shovel. This is a pretty relaxed crew.
Not a lot of blogging as we are recording steady. I do my mundane chords and single rhythm, sing the way I do, then my musician friends do the real work. Honestly, it’s like putting Shrek in Cinderella’s carriage.
Spending most of the next week in the recording studio. Put down some basic vocals and acoustic guitar yesterday.
Tweeted about jazz yesterday. Jazz being one of those things I can appreciate while simultaneously admitting I do not understand much of it. It seems I am genetically programmed for three chords and a touch of twang.
But. I still enjoy a taste now and then. And so when my friends Bruce and Patti gave me the gift of A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album, I read the accompanying book first. Thus educated, I sat down at the writing desk and put the CD in the player. The first track built slowly, and built some more. I started writing and listening. And I really hit the groove, the music and the typing meshing perfectly.
I mean really hit the groove. At one point I paused, heard Coltrane (“…a love supreme, a love supreme…”) and thought, man, this song just builds and builds. Then I looked at the clock and realized an hour had passed. I’d inadvertently left the CD player on one track repeat and hadn’t even noticed.
So my jazz appreciation is kinda like my classical music appreciation – sincere, but shallow. I knew enough to know Coltrane’s album was a big deal. I didn’t know enough to realize I was listening to the opening track overandoverandoverandover…
Back on the more mundane three-chord front, I’m taking the Long Beds into the studio today for a week of plunking, see if we can get some of the new songs on tape/vinyl/chip.
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