Oh, Fiddle!

One thing I've learned as a diary writer is that during the most historic and noteworthy periods of your life is generally when you have the least time to actually write stuff down. I remember writing an e-mail adventure every week when I first moved to Nashville---and what was happening in my music career? Nada. Unless you count weed-whacker buzzing as music. And here I've been through all kinds of gigantic ups and downs in the past few weeks and days and have hardly had a moment to share them with you. So, let me sum up quickly before something else comes up to distract me:

Not an actual recording session. Thank goodness.

Two and a half weeks ago I started working with my co-producer Mitch Dane on my new CD. The first week of planning was really tough, between Mitch suggesting some changes to my songs that I wasn't excited about and having to do some last-minute re-writing that I felt really iffy about. By Thursday, I was rehearsing my "maybe this isn't working out" speech, which I decided not to give at the last second. Then the lowest point came on Friday when I became convinced that one of my favorite songs, "Livin' in the Good Ol' Days", was going to be an abysmal failure and I just broke down and cried.

That week was followed by a hectic week on the road, during which I did get a little time to live with the changes we had made and also work a little more on "Livin' in the Good Ol' Days", which made me feel a little better. We got back Sunday night late, and it was back to the studio Monday morning to begin the actual recording with the musicians. At which point, almost immediately, things began to look up...
We began with electric bass (Aaron Sands from Jars of Clay) and drums/percussion (Andy Hubbard). It was a laid-back first couple of days, and we had time to be creative which is the way I like it. One of more unusual memories I'll take away is filling a wine glass with water in the bathroom to tune it to a "D" and then having Andy play a rhythm on it using Sharpies as sticks. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are sparing no trouble or expense for this record.

Now THAT's an actual recording session! Play it Andrea!

After drums and bass, it was on to the real heart of the CD---the acoustic instruments. That phase of the recording was like walking around in a dream come true! Hanging out with world-class musicians, who happened to also be really nice people, and listening in awe while they brought my songs to life and took them to a whole new level. I can't say enough good things about Charlie Chadwick (upright bass), Bryan Sutton (guitar/mandolin/dobro/banjo), Andrea Zonn (violin/viola), and John Catchings (cello).

After the second week Jodi and I had to drive all the way to Nebraska and back for one show, and I started coming down with a cold that is currently threatening to ruin the vocal sessions we had planned for this week. No problemo though, the important thing is all that we've got all that great music recorded, and I can always do my vocals after I make a full recovery.

Well folks I got to head on out, but I wanted to let you know that the CD is going AWESOME and I have no doubt that it will take my career to places it has never been. (Hopefully back on out the road to see you guys). Thanks for letting me share, y'all take care....