Recording, Day 3

I can't believe it has been a week since I last worked on the Simple Man recording. I had a busy weekend playing for the Rock Your Cause benefit with Bello. And I've been playing catch-up with some other composing, producing and recording projects. But I couldn't be happier to be back working on Simple Man. Today was a super-productive day. We recorded guitar for the remaining 8 songs, stopping only to tune and settle on the new tempo. It went pretty quickly. We were feeling so good that, after a break for lunch, we took a stab at some vocals. We got good results for two songs, but a third was horrible. We'll have to come back to that one on another day. Now, as the gigging weekend approaches, I worry that it will be a few days until I get another chance to record. Fingers crossed.

Recording, Day 2

Today was a day of rehearsing and going over the lyrics with a fine toothed comb. I got out all of my old lyric sheets, written with pens, pencils, crayons and markers on various things: in notebooks, on loose sheets, sideways in the margins of other papers. I had to make sure I am 100% on every lyric of every song before I start recording the vocals in a day or two. It is better if I catch clumsy lines now than when I am supposed to be laying them down. My favorite lyrics as of today are: "I'd rather be angry than wrong" from Right Through Me and "The fantasies ride first class, the truth gets left behind" from Old As Stone.

Recording, Day 1

I started recording a new album of songs today. It will be my fourth solo album, my ninth if you count collaborations (also known as bands). I will be posting pictures and photos everyday about the process as we make this new album. So check back often.

DAY 1: I wasn't planning to start for another couple days, but the mood struck me this afternoon so I set up a couple of mics and tuned the guitar. It took a couple test runs to get everything sounding right, but before long we were up and running (or strumming). I recorded the guitar parts for three songs before I got hungry. Stopped to make tater tots. A fitting end to Day 1.