An eventful day in Dallas today despite staying in bed a little longer. Today was the day that the gospel singers were coming in, two ladies, Cherish Love and Nae Callihan. Except they were supposed to come at 2 PM, at 11 AM they arrived, we weren’t there. They wanted to change to come earlier but we didn’t get the memo till later and we’d planned to start the day later anyway, our engineer Kevin sent them away till tomorrow so we still have them to look forward to tomorrow. They are the last of the external crew that has seen Abby’s oboe and English horn, Paul’s accordion, Steve’s trumpet and trombone, Rich’s piano, Tess’ cello, and Camille’s backing vocals. It’s one of the great parts of making a record, bringing people in to play instruments that are beyond the usual suspects, drums, bass, and guitars.

So the gospel singers couldn’t make it which meant our schedule changed and Kevin and John spent the day editing and compiling with drummer Jason in to help out and play some percussion. Where were we? Well, Brian was catching up on work responsibilities after two weeks away and Olivia and I were…rehearsing for the show tonight! Yikes. We were playing at the house of the people (Carron and Ed) who we were staying with in the cosy apartment above the garage. We hadn’t played together like this for some time and when we did it was over the internet which isn’t quite the same as a fleshy audience, haha. Plus a new guitar I’d hardly played and a borrowed guitar that will be a great guitar when it has new strings and when it is set up but tonight both were a little tricky especially when my fingers are not yet hardened to pressing down 12 strings firmly onto the neck. Add the issues with my hands and I was wondering how it was all going to work.

Carron and Ed live in a lovely big house in the Highland Park area of Dallas, that place where I wondered where the occupants of the large houses are (and by the way, Saturday is as deserted around here as any day in the week) but tonight in their house it was packed with guests, catering, and lots of chairs in front of the fireplace where we were going to play. There was no PA, we were truly playing unplugged which also is a little tricky, no verb on the violin, no electrical response to the guitar, and no microphone to sing into, just the faces of an uninitiated audience, 90% of whom had no idea who we were.

Well, without giving you every detail, we did it, we pulled it off, the audience even clapped, even cheered and that short rehearsal in the middle of making an album worked because we do know the songs we played, I know the words, we know the parts and the arrangements from gigs we have done before and the knowledge sticks. We played at eightish, chatted till midnightish and I retired to the garage for a potential sesh that didn’t happen and consequently fell into bed with only one thought in my mind, Cherish Love and Nae Callihan will be in the studio with us tomorrow, and that’s going to be cool.

Music today has been the wonderful Tim Hardin and his debut album (1966). You may be most familiar with songs he’s written that have been covered, Reason To Believe, If I Were A Carpenter, possibly The Lady Came From Baltimore, Misty Roses and How Can We Hang On To A Dream but he has a deep catalogue of great songs and a unique voice. An artist who has been slightly lost in the mists of time and well worth investigation. Some time ago I visited his grave at Twin Oaks Cemetery in Turner, Oregon, he died of a heroin overdose on December 29th, 1980 aged 39.

Music Of The Daze