We made music this weekend…boy did we ever make music.
With Jeff Carpenter on the board, John Burgard on lead guitar, Jason Sturgill on bass, John Hayse on drums and myself playing rhythm guitar and singing the songs…we made some sweet sweet sounds. I am so very proud of our efforts. Thanks to all the guys for sounding like we have been playing together for ten years. In truth, on Saturday, it was the first time this quartet of musicians ever played together and we caught lightning in a bottle.
Ten rhythm tracks recorded in less than four hours. Amazing. To those of you at home that means we recorded ten songs…complete songs…with the full compliment of the aforementioned musicians. We recorded ten songs with ease. It was amazing and it was thrilling. The stuff just flowed out like it was looking for a place to call home. Ten nice songs. The guys were very complimentary of the tunes and I appreciated that. I wrote them all.
I suppose my favorite we recorded Saturday is a song called, tentatively, “Why We’re Here”. It is a tribute to Jeff Carpenter and his work as a great producer of music and the influence he has had on so many lives particularly in the Louisville market. The man is awesome.
On Saturday we recorded a song call “The Last Bell”. This tune is a tribute to senior classes that are graduating. I wrote it in 2010 and sang it at the baccalaureate service at Medora High School every year after until 2015. That was the last time I sang it at Medora where I worked. This year I sang it at graduation practice at North Harrison where I am a guidance counselor. I also graduated from the school thirty years ago. That last bell rang a long long time ago.
Saturday was pure musical magic. It was like our feet never hit the ground.
Then came Sunday.
Every thing Saturday was…Sunday was not. And know that I blame myself and only me.
I have said it before and I say it freely. I am blessed that I have the ability to sit down and write a song in twenty minutes and have a ball playing it fifteen years later. That is twenty minutes of pure joy that can still find its way in the world so many years on. What I am not…is a great musician. My playing ability is limited and the ones I find myself in the studio playing with are virtuoso performers. The first of 6 songs we recorded on Sunday came and went with a solid effort. It did not feel great but I was not displeased. I did think we were not going to get it better. Then…a song came into play and it was a root canal. I just could not get it right. I could not get the feel. I could not get some of the chord structure or the verse/chorus order straight. The more this went on, the more frustrated I got. And I felt bad for the other guys. I was holding up progress. We worked on one three and half minute song at least an hour and fifteen minutes. It was painful.
My problem? We were re-recording songs we recorded in 2012. We wanted to make them sound better. The problem was I have my mind set and fixed on the 2012 recording. The other guys in the room did not have that point of reference. I was not duplicating what I had in my head and I was not handling it well. We gave it our best effort. Eventually we did pick up steam and make more progress…but I was still stuck in the mud of that one song.
Another problem…time is money. Recording is not a cheap proposition. We don’t have an unlimited budget. I don’t have a record contract. I don’t have a label. I am the label. A cheap label.
We recorded six songs on Sunday. I am not ashamed on any of them. Only one I know for sure won’t see the light of day. We did it right the first time in 2012 and I don’t have it in me to get it better. It already is. Neither do I expect the last song we recorded to see the light of day. We did a version of The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin”. It was fun and I don’t think we did a bad job. I liked it.
Saturday and Sunday were both good days. Saturday, however, was great. If you can get a ten song day under your belt, you have done something. And we did.
Speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson