There are no pictures of the studio to share.  I am glad there aren’t.  It was not about pictures yesterday at Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio.  It was all about music.  It was all about songs.  I did some singing.  I did more singing than I ever planned to.  Some times you just have to follow the music.

My dear wife, Carrie and I showed up at Jeff Carpenter’s studio Sunday afternoon and the intent was to sing a few of the songs over again that we had already recorded.  It is a common practice in recording.  You do what is called a “rhythm track” first.  This is getting the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar parts in order to form the foundation of a song’s sound.  When you are pleased with that you decide what other parts can be layered on.  A lead guitar piece where you left room for as you were making the rhythm track…or some supplemental keyboard here or there…an organ bit…some fiddle…some banjo….whatever you can imagine. Perhaps even a triangle.

When the music layers are added and you feel good about that, you then go forward with re-singing in order to get a stronger vocal performance.  This time was a bit different in that regard.  The thing is we were pretty happy with the sound of some of the vocals on the original tracks.  They had a nice feel.  They were, shall we say, in the groove.  We looked at each other and wondered if we could do better…if I could do better singing again.

Well…it worked out.  I found a groove.  I found the pocket. I put on my headphones and heard sounds I had never heard before.  My voice, for whatever reason, responded in kind.  In three hours I must have sang twelve songs or so.  My voice was being pushed and it pushed back.  I would sing a song and drink some tea and sing another song and drink some more tea and sing another one harder and grittier than the last and I would drink some more tea.  It sounded so so good in my ear.  I sang my heart out and I doubt any of it will ever sound as good to anybody as it did for me in that moment.  Me included.  It was a beautiful thing to be a part of.

I truly think a few people listening to it will agree that it is the bet work we have done yet.  I was 33 years old the first time I recorded.  That was sixteen years ago.  Nearly a third of my life ago.  That is frightening.  Still, I could not be more pleased and thankful to have a great recording partner in Jeff Carpenter.  He knows what buttons to push on the control panel and the ones in me.  He can take my voice places I did not know existed.  I thank my Mom and my Dad and the rest of my genetic code for the ability to sing.  I thank Jefferson Carpenter for bringing that ability out in ways I never dreamed were possible before I met him.

My favorite song in this collection is called “That Sky”.  I wrote it on March 25, 2016 in Topsail, North Carolina.  It was inspired by a sky Carrie and I had witnessed the previous October near where we were sitting in March.

Though pictures can’t do that sky justice, I knew the night I saw it I would be carrying it with me…forever.

Me remembering, longing for, and writing about that sky.

And now I sing about it.

And speak the rights about it.

Danny Johnson