PRE-PRODUCTION
April 17, 1998

We sat down with Robbie Harrington to learn the new songs and work up good bass parts. We fed him three songs today -- "Weight Of The World", "Beyond The Pale" and "HBD2U" (a working title?) -- which we chose to start with because, well, they're finished. He seemed to pick up on them pretty quickly, but he needs to "funk" up "HBD2U" a bit and get more intricate with "Weight".

April 22, 1998

We taught Robbie the remaining four band songs today, although they still have incomplete lyrics. The musical structures of the songs are set, but the difficult decisions on actual words, postponed once during rehearsals, are being postponed yet again. Even with incomplete lyrics, these songs are much stronger than others we've shelved. Robbie likes these songs -- "Blessing", "Maybe Tomorrow It Will Rain" and "My Own Way Of Doing Things" and "Scarlet" -- a bit better than the batch from last week.

April 24, 1998

Robbie has the basic changes down, so it's time to add David Raven on drums. A minor change here, a subtle fix there, arrangement ideas rethought and some lyric tweaking will go miles toward sharpening the whole presentation. Actually, some of the lyrics still aren't finished, so we'll save those songs for the next rehearsal. We concentrate on "Beyond The Pale", "Weight Of The World", "HBD2U", and "Blessing". "Weight", which we had originally intended to record without drums, sounds much better with the pattern David has come up with. And the bowron-styled tom-tom part he has for "Beyond The Pale" really drives the song along. Well, so much for being an "acoustic" band.

April 26, 1998

We performed live on Roz & Howard Larman's "Folk Scene" radio show, on listener-supported KPFK-FM, Los Angeles. Originally the plan was to perform as a duo, since it is an unpaid performance. But we wanted a good dry run before the tracking sessions, and the pressure of live radio forces us to focus. So we asked the guys to join us. Glad we did. In addition to some older songs, we did "Beyond The Pale" and "Weight Of The World", plus older newies "Avalanche" and "When The Lights Go Down". The two brand new ones -- "Pale" and "Weight" have never been performed from start to finish without stopping. We were pretty scared of a train wreck occurring live on the air. But we pulled it off, and Howard (who conducted the interview) is very taken with the songs.

April 27, 1998

One last rehearsal with the full band before we go in to cut the tracks. We ran "Maybe Tomorrow It Will Rain", "Own Way Of Doing Things" and "Scarlet". The eighth song we have planned, "I Don't Believe In Yesterday", is not going to feature the band. "Own Way" is coming out even rockier than expected. Cool! "Maybe Tomorrow It Will Rain" is developing into a sultry, moody gem. Can't wait to record that one. "Scarlet" seems to need more practice, as well as better lyrics. For now, it's dropped to the bottom of the list and will be recorded only if time permits. We start tracking tomorrow B&E.

TRACKING
April 28, 1998

Engineer Jeff Robinson and drummer David Raven arrive at Stagg Street Studio around 11AM to set up the Hammond organ and get drum sounds. Since this is usually a long process, the rest of us filter in at 1PM. Phil Parlapiano, our keyboard player, gets his first chance to review the material. Bass, drums and keyboards are set up in the main studio, while we are in the control room, playing through our pickups and singing along. That's OK -- our vocals and guitars won't be saved anyway. They are simply guides to help everybody get the feel and know the transition points.

Eric kicks off "HBD2U" with a Memphis-style guitar intro, followed by Phil's organ and David's shambling drum fill that leads the band in. We later drop the tempo slightly so it swings a bit more. Our keeper take goes on for almost six minutes so we can fade out the ending. As we hit the end, we improvise lines from old party songs of the 60's, though the snippets will not likely be kept. About 4PM we start "Own Way Of Doing Things", which is more swagger than sugar. Some of the more clever, offhanded lyrics were contributed by a new collaborator, Londoner Kathleen Haskard. We finish in the early evening with our bowron-tinged "Beyond The Pale" and continue working until after midnight before calling it a (very productive) first day.

April 29, 1998

We start with the smoky, slinky "Maybe Tomorrow It Will Rain". A song so slow and deliberate is not usually scheduled first, but we want to make sure we get it right and give it the time to let it work. We don't need much, as it turns out. After a couple of takes at subtly different tempos, we settle on a slower interpretation and commit it to tape. "Weight Of The World" is also a revelation. The song we intended to keep spare now has bass, drums and dulcimer-like guitar part by Eric. The song comes fairly easily and is recorded in short order. Next is "Blessing", which is just not working very well. The tempo as written is slow, but instead of sounding intense or introspective, it's just boring. The melody and lyrics are still troublesome, as well. The song was just not working, and is put off until tomorrow.

April 30, 1998

We tried to salvage "Blessing" by completely revamping it -- although the basic structure and chord progression remained, we upped the tempo and pruned some extraneous musical figures to try to breath in some life. The new approach gave us a huge lift, but the old melody and lyrics seemed plodding, ponderous. So we recorded the new version and decided to rewrite the melody and lyrics (for the third time!) before overdubs next week. For the time being, our tracking dates were done. Next comes the painstaking and crucial task of overdubbing -- recutting guitars, adding other keyboards and recording final vocals. We start tomorrow.