Recording the new album Session 1.

So begins the task of the next Townedgers album and according to script Hilary ensures on it. Four songs done and basically the wonders why I'm doing it in the first place. The remakes of Just To Satisfy you might not make it to the final product. Tackling a song like It's My Time, and trying to hit the high lonesome notes that made the original a powerful statement was a job upon itself, I wished there was a higher octave singer around hit the high notes on The FRIENDS coda but with limited resources available I think I did all right.

Three new originals came up, Better off alone was written on the spot after hearing about Steve Earle breaking up with wife number 7 (I wrote that last night as well as a biting little number called I Know about me don't know about you, which the first take didn't work, so another came up after the serenading the neighbor next door peeking into the window. A song basically about who I am and having to deal with bullies growing up, it was a thumb at the nose at the naysayers. Or being a free spirit at hand, always somebody out there going be jealous of you no matter you say or do.

Different Paths, came from putting some old lyrics I never used to a new melody to which the fabled Jack Orbit helped co write back in 83. I don't think I had anybody in mind when that set of words were jotted down but I might have wrote that up while taking courses at Kirkwood. Unfinished I added some additional thoughts in the second chorus. I may take another stab of re record the thing since it sounds a bit ragged. But not too many people are going to hear it anyway. Just like the rest of my recorded legacy. Hindsight tells me that maybe I should have brushed up on my Jimmy Buffet and move to Florida and rub it in to the shivering midwest. But then again, I'm more interested in having my own originality. Even though it was never a money making venture.

For production, Richard Dennanbaugh had prior commitments and I didn't want to venture out into getting unknowns so what better person to understand me and music than Martin Daniels, who's not a novice at all.  He's been a part of the Townedgers and my recording career since The Art Of Deception (1998) and he could find time to do this as well.  His fingerprints are all over Pawnshops for Olivia and Long Time Forgotten.  By doing four songs acoustically we didn't have to dink with the controls or try to set the amps so that the vocals don't get buried in the mix.  As the sessions go on and on  I look to add more electric guitars to forthcoming songs.  The cover versions of Just To Satisfy You or It's My Time sound like a good idea at the time, both are simple with the exception of Time which on the recording by George Hamilton IV he's got the Nashville Edition backing him up and there's some very high backing notes on the part of Friends of Mine and trying to carrying out on the word Friends.   And certainly late in the day was not the best chance to do such a song, after singing and playing for four hours straight.  I kinda wished I never blew my voice out yelling at ball games or being a human beatbox growing up.  However there's not many female singers available that can do this without charging a 100 dollars for session playing.  So I drink a bit of lemon tea and hope that I can at least capture the moment without screeching or straining the vocal chords.  Otherwise it becomes an outtake.

Basically the first session was Me singing and writing them out and Martin capturing it on tape and making suggestions as we went along.  There is hope that Geoff Redding can break away from his busy life and help out, but I also have Mark Glarington on the sidelines ready to come in if needed.  I'm certain more people will come into play, Diggy Kat or Russ Swearingen providing backup support.  If things go quickly and smoothly like Forthcoming Trains, the album will be completed within a month.  So far, the record has a personality like Pawnshops For Olivia, very folk sounding and very little to deal with mad drumming of the past.  In fact the older I get to more straight lined the drumming is.  A far cry from Town's Edge Rock and the Paraphernalia Tyrus years.

Regardless, of what songs to cover from the Townedger Catalog or what new songs will be used.  Like a puzzle I have to pieces spread out, all I have to do is put them together and see what the end result will sound like. It should be interesting.