Fitting Finales-The Recording Sessions

It's strange as I listen to the tapes of Fitting Finales as how long it took for me to complete the whole thing.  The sessions started quickly in February but 10 months later I put the finishing touches on the recordings.  The original intent was to complete the whole thing in September, but I got extremely lazy as I was hanging at jam sessions and playing alongside fellow musicians in town.  Finally, I was going to get this product out, I had to finish the drums Thanksgiving week.  To which it took seven hours to lay the drum tracks down, and with the exception of a redo the next day I was satisfied with the results.  I know for a fact that had Hugh McConnell was around he would have locked me in the room about three months ago to get it done, but since I was behind the board I took my time.

Another factor of taking so long was that Diggy Kat came across a certain track off Forthcoming Trains and decided to make it the number 1 song this summer on Lucky Star Radio.  I had no idea that We All Sleep Alone would make such an impact, so I made up a new single remix and broadcast it during Townedger Radio.  So through June and July we promoted that song.  Radio Maierburg Records then issued Knockin On Heaven's Door as a fifth and final single, due to the fact that song gets played a lot at Jam Sessions in town and when DeWayne Schminkey showed up at a Wrigleyville Jam one night, we did that and I sang it.  Usually Russ, the guy who is a part of Rumors Jam always sings it when he gets on stage and I hope that I can do that in front of that crowd in the near future.   Rumors Russ is not related to Russ Swearingen by the way, and I think he takes his version from Guns And Roses, whereas mine is more closely to Dylan and The Band.  While Russ makes his version a tribute to the departed musicians and friends, my version sounds I'm departing from this world.  Big difference.

About Fitting Finales:  It's a return to a more acoustic sound just like A Long Time Forgotten or Pawnshops For Olivia, and while the songs seem more darker than usual,  I was in pretty good spirits, up till the infamous Redwing Blackbird freakout in June.  Better Off Alone is actually part written to the breakup of Steve Earle and Alison Moorer and how one of his songs off his new album he sings that he's better off alone.  Relationships do come and go, some people can't bear to live without somebody in their lives, and there are others who are perfectly fine being alone and living their own lives.  The final verse I threw in a couple lines from the 1983 I Wanna Make You Mine.

Like Forthcoming Trains, Fitting Finales does go back to some of the more obscure songs that I wrote in previous albums.  Faygo Revisited won't be on the album but I thought I would do a slower take than the one on Forthcoming Trains.  Get It Over With, originally done on Drive In Blues in 1992, is just myself on guitar, using the capo that Diggy Kat gave me as a birthday present and it came in handy.  I added backing vocals, but when I hear this with only me on guitar and singing lead it sounds much better.  Love Tonight was done as a demo for The Highway Home (2007) but this is much more romantic and slow dancing number now.   There also 7 cover versions of songs from other artists.  Just To Satisfy You (Waylon Jennings), It's My Time (George Hamilton IV), Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot), I Know You Rider (A folk traditional song but the best known version is by the Grateful Dead), A Satisfied Mind (Porter Waggoner, Ozark Mountain Daredevils) and Let's Work Together (Canned Heart, Wilbert Harrison, many others).  Let's Work Together was suggested to and done by the fellow jammers and I can play guitar to it without much problem live.  On this album I did the electric version and a acoustic version as well.  For songwriting pardners, Diggy Kat helps out on the words to From A Motel Six, where me and him put parts of that song together, Mark Glarington penned some of the few lines to the song called You Run, or the original title The Slobberbone Song. To which that song was partly inspired by hearing an unnamed song from their Bare Chested album and revising the melody and lyrics.  Fitting Finales, the title track, I used as a cassette album back in 1973 (that tape has long since fell apart years ago), came into play on the night that Me and Russ Swearingen reunited on stage for the first time in 31 years and I was trying to capture the feeling I got and good thing I did, had I not jotted the words down on paper that night they would have been forgotten.    The thing is that me and Russ remains the definitive rhythm section when we do get together and play, which is few and far between.  That said, we have always had a slight disagreement on how the band should be, Russ isn't too keen on playing the tired bar band classics, and looks at us as a progressive power rock band somewhat like a Triumph or Rush.   I look at The TEs as alternative folk rock with Keith Moon garage rock beat.   But the song also suggest that I'm getting up in years and there might be a day that I might retire once again and return back to the basement and couch potato once again once my interest in playing drums and jamming wanes.  Thankfully it hasn't and I basically thank Patrick Geasland for keeping the fire lit under my butt and not take my playing for granted. In some ways Fitting Finales is a lot like Behind The Sun, but the major difference is that Fitting Finales is a more positive ending to the record whereas Behind The Sun was a sad and depressing way to end Pawnshops For Olivia.  And as long I'm still alive there's a chance to continue to the musical road that I have been on for over 40 years, 32 as a serious rock and roller.

Production is by Rodney Smith (which is me) and co conspirator Martin Daniels to which we both shared hitting the recording button and being music engineers.   Mark Glarington appears on the electric version of Let's Work Together but otherwise it's me on guitar and vocals and Martin holding down the bass, or the other acoustic guitar toned down to sound like a bass.  The album was done in 8 recording sessions, starting on February 22, 2015 and concluding August 22, 2015.  The drum tracks were  done on November 24 and 25.  The guitar of choice was the Guild Acoustic, electric guitar was the wood finished Fender Strat.  For drums, DW, with the snare I return to use the Maple DW snare instead of the Pearl Snare used for Forthcoming Trains.

The cymbals used are Zildjian

And for the first time since Postcards From The Edge, I found a pair of 14 inch Zildjian Quick Beat High Hats for 95 dollars used at Music Go Round in Davenport and played them rather than the K/Z hats.  No china cymbals were used, and I went with the 16 inch Rock Crash, The 18 inch K Medium Thin Dark Crash, 18 inch K Session Dark Crash, 19 inch K Hybrid Crash, 19 inch Armand Ride and the vintage 20 inch sizzle crash.

The Fitting Finales Recording Sessions: (Smith Brothers Studio-Anamosa Iowa)

Session 1-February 22, 2015 
Better Off Alone
I Know About Me, Don't Know About You (Two versions)
Different Paths
Just To Satisfy You
It's My Time

Session 2-May 30, 2015
Maybe Not Be A Next Time
Faygo Revisited (Commercial spot)

Session 3-July 18, 2015
Sundown
I Know You Rider

Session 4-August 11, 2015
The Life We Lead (Two Versions)
Untitled instrumental

Session 5-August 12, 2015
From A Motel 6
Get It Over With
A Satisfied Mind
Some New Highway

Session 6-August 13, 2015
Love Tonight
Bring It On Home

Session 7-August 17, 2015
Let's Work Together (Electric and Acoustic Versions)
Grandiose Failures

Session 8-August 22, 2015
Fitting Finales (Two Versions)

Drum Tracks Recorded September 3-5 (scrapped), November 24-25 (completed)

Production by Rodney Smith and Martin Daniels
Recorded during 8 sessions between Feb 22-August 22, 2015 at home 
Recorded  and mixed by Rodney Smith and Martin Daniels using outdated technology from the ice age. (That would be analog).

A&R: DIGGY KAT

...

Special thanks: Rick Smith, Tommy Bruner, Terry McDowell, Tim Duffy, Bart Carfizzi, T Ray Robertson, Guitar Dave Bonham,  Jess Toomsen and Wooden Nickel Lottery, Rod Albaugh, John Shaw, Dan Hartman, Julie Gordon, The Lab Rats, The Past Masters, Cathy Marner, Rumors Bar And Grill, Checker's Lounge, Delta Moon, Adele, Nicole Passmore, Jason and  Sonya Madden Mom and Dad and Callie Marie Rustbucket

Much love to:  Diggy Kat, DeWayne Schminkey, Doug Bonesteel, Randy Hartwig plus Dennis Lancaster, the original band, Geoff Redding of this band but most of all Russ Swearingen to which Fitting Finales is written and dedicated to.

The TEs on this album are Rodney Smith, Martin Daniels and Mark Glarington.
Geoff Redding in spirit. 

Songs:

Better Off Alone 3:00
I Know About Me (don't know about you)  4:03
Different Paths  3:15
Just To Satisfy You (Waylon Jennings/Dan Bowman)  2:23
Maybe Not Be A Next Time 2:28
Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot)  3:30
The Life We Lead 2:54

From A Motel 6 (Rodney Smith/Diggy Kat)  5:28
Get It Over With   3:15
A Satisfied Mind (Red Hayes/Jack Rhodes)  3:19
Love Tonight   3:24
Let's Work Together (W.Harrison)  2:59
Grandiose Failures (Rodney Smith/Mark Glarington)  2:15
Fitting Finales  4:04
I Know You Rider (Bonus Track)(Traditional, Arranged by The Townedgers)  3:17


Lyrics written by Rodney Smith except where noted (C) 2015 R.Smith Enterprises
Just To Satisfy You: Universal Music Publishing Group (ASCAP)
Sundown: Moose Music (CAPAC)
A Satisfied Mind: Fort Knox Music (BMI)
Let's Work Together: Longitude Music (BMI)

(C) 2015 R.Smith Enterprises licensed to Radio Maierburg Records
RMR-32015