Sunday, November 20, 2011

I Fall Off the Wagon: Nashville Day 2

You don’t know how long I have gone without making chocolate a part of my everyday life. There was a time, my friends, when I required daily chocolate. I even convinced myself that it was “good for me” and “medicinal” and “if the good Lord hadn’t intended women to eat chocolate he wouldn’t have created PMS” and many other such rationalizations.
About a year ago, I turned a deaf ear to my fattening friend, and, except for an occasional flourless chocolate torte after a nice dinner out, we haven’t had much contact. But on the first night in Nashville, during a quick stop at a Walgreens, I just wigged out and bought a bag of Dove milk chocolates – the ones with the little affirmations printed inside the wrapper. And so it began....
We would devote the studio time on Tuesday to mixing, recording background vocals, and laying down some special acoustic guitar tracks.  I was so happy and grateful to be able to be present for all of this. And I was also a little giddy. Monday had been the hard work day for me – singing the scratch vocals and laying down the vocal tracks – I pretty much sang all day. But on Tuesday, although my input was going to be required, I wasn't going to be doing much singing.
We worked all morning and that stretched into afternoon, and we didn’t really stop for lunch. Thankfully, I had tucked the bag of chocolates into my backpack, and every time I started to feel like I was dragging, I would grab another cup of coffee and some chocolate. And the chocolate would reward me with little messages inside the wrapper, like, "Smile" and "Believe in Yourself" and "You Are Special" and "Don't Let Anyone Give You Any Crap About Eating Chocolate." And it was good.
Hearing the background vocals being added was so gratifying. It really made the project begin to come to life. Then in the evening, the acoustic guitarist, John Willis, returned to lay down a very special set of acoustic tracks. I'll have more to share about this in another blog.  
It was close to 9 pm when we finished on Tuesday night. But due to my steady intake of coffee and chocolate all day, I was wide awake until almost 1 am. I had some microwave popcorn and some more chocolate. Luckily, I was getting close to running out of chocolate.

Tania Hancheroft, Background Vocals

The amazing John Willis, Acoustic Guitar

Senor Coffee Pot - my partner in crime

1 comment:

  1. YOU HAVE BEEN LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT CHOCOLATE?!!

    I don't know you anymore! Snif.

    ReplyDelete