I was up so late, got up late, had a late breakfast, a late lunch, and was late for my sesh with Mike in Chicago, but I did manage to get out of the house before I turned into a chair.

Raúl was here to restring the piano, new strings in his bag but when he went to attach them, the loops on the strings were too small for the attachment, I suppose they did it differently 100 years ago. So he has to come back again next week. This time he actually took the hammers out, so he doesn’t have to keep on doing that when he comes to work on it. Odd to see the innards leaning against the wall.

I went down to the record store to see if anything had arrived and Rui talked me into buying the Neil Young Live in 1976 Odeon/Budokan (London/Tokyo) album, first time on vinyl. It had Cortez The Killer on it – no-brainer. I also picked up some krazy priced new CDs, McCartney III (2020), Giltrap and Taylor (2002), Father John Misty’s Pure Comedy (2017), and Blue & Lonesome (2016), the last Stones album (Blues covers with too much harmonica as I remember), The Archive has to be fed.

The supermarket dragged me in kicking and screaming, knowing that at this time it was at its busiest. I had actually asked Mike if I could start half an hour later, thinking that would be enough time out, but I only just made it back in time. This might be the time to tell you that Mike is working on album covers for me for future mystery album releases, more as it happens.

Before and after dinner and Andor, I’ve been working on the Valley of Salt mixes, listening closely and making notes for tweaks, so we can get mastered, and then I can tell you all about it as we search for the best way to release this incredible music, I can’t (well, I can) believe how great it sounds. What a wonderful collection of musicians there are on the record, the Texas crew Jason/Dave/Rich on drums, bass, and keys, Brian on guitar and singing. Abby on oboe, Tess on cello, Olivia on violin, with trumpets and piano accordions, banjos, sitar guitars, and the tour de force, Cherish and Nae, authentic Gospel singers who were a revelation to work with (geddit?).

Blueburst are also almost ready to master, I’ll be listening to these songs over the weekend with Craig in Atlanta. Indiana Brian has mixes coming through for The Simpletons and Arktik Lake’s new single is No.1 on 70 planets in the galaxy with Earth catching up.

Music today has been The Kills and three tracks from their upcoming album God Games (2023).

Music Of The Daze