Waking up in another state (haha) is always exciting, Minnesota in the spring is no exception. Even more exciting is knowing that we are on the way to Terrarium Studios today in southeast Minneapolis where I will be playing guitar on Fred Argir’s record. We drove through a network of freeways, past both lakes and city buildings to find ourselves circling an orange building and looking for a parking spot. Through the front door, you came to a long corridor lined with various vintage amps, Fenders, Gibsons, Vox, and names you’ve never heard. We were greeted by Jason the owner who told me that he was at the video recording of Reptile at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in the eighties, small world.

We met Todd, the engineer for these sessions, and Braedyn his assistant and found ourselves in a beautiful studio with acoustically designed rooms, a Neve desk, and a whole range of drums, guitars, effects pedals, and even an original Mellotron. An array of microphones and a control room full of outboard gear, now all we need is talent, haha. Luckily we have it with Fred’s songwriting and singing and we recorded backing tracks in Texas in January with that great band of musicians, that included John Dufilho on drums, David DeShazo on bass, Rich Martin on organ, me on electric guitar and Olivia on violin.

Some of these songs needed electric guitars, some are already recorded so we are starting with finishing electric guitars, trying some more violin ideas, and getting to some vocals before I have to leave next week to get back to Dallas to start the Space Summit project with Jed (from Minneapolis). Today I was playing Fred’s 1966 Fender Jazzmaster and his 1966 Rickenbacker 360/6. Also, Jason has a newer Gretsch 6120 that I used. I was using two 1964 Vox AC30s, one a Top Boost, the other a pre-Top Boost but with the tone controls in the back, beautiful.

Got home late and by midnight, I was collapsing, long days, short periods to write, Spanish lesson, goodnight.