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

GO TIME!

You can think about it, talk about it, dream about it. In the end, you just have to go do it.

GO time in Nashville.

With input from Gary Beard, my producer,  I chose to record at Kenny Royster's studio --  it’s a small, intimate setting and I felt I would be comfortable there. Plus, Gary had worked with Kenny before, and that brought a certain comfort level from the start.

Our first session-  recording the tracks (music) that would go along with the vocals-  started at 10 am. I allowed myself one final round of nerves at breakfast. Who would love my children? My little songs – my babies – would these guys take them and love them and make them something I could still recognize afterward?

I was counting on Gary to bring his knowledge and his ear to the project, and help keep this train from derailing, sending car after car plummeting over the cliff, along with me and all my "children."

Okay,  that’s an extreme analogy. I wasn’t that worried. I didn't foresee disaster. I just really wanted the best for my songs, the hour was at hand, and I had one shot to get what I wanted. It made me jittery.

The basic process goes like this:

Everyone listens to the work tape (the songwriter’s rendition of the song, very basic version – in my case, a recording of guitar and vocal).

Everyone talks about what they are going to play, what they think would sound right, etc.

Everyone disappears into a booth or room at this point (including me)

Everybody can hear everyone else thru headphones

They start playing and I sing the song to record a vocal (I would record the final version later).

Everyone listens, and we see what works and what doesn’t and  go from there.

Repeat until as close to perfectly awesome as possible

In this case, I’m happy to say that we came away with 3 stunning tracks and 3 great vocal recordings. Oh, but we weren’t finished. That was only Day 1.  


At the beginning of the session - Jon, Dennis & Dennis: Guitar, Drums, Keyboard




Kenny Royster





Big pile of guitars

Pretending to have a clue

Gary Beard - Producer




 

Roll Out!

Greetings, Bloglodites!

Today I’m rolling out a new blog.   I wanted to be able to talk about some of the struggles, neuroses, obsessions, rewards, motivations and frustrations of trying to keep that creative flame alive while negotiating the jungle rain forest that is Real Life.  

To start things off in a big way, I will be blogging about my upcoming trip to Nashville to record four songs for my next CD. I will be totally clueless about what I’m doing.  I’ll post pictures, and my thoughts and experiences. I hope you can join me on this trip – it will make it more fun and I welcome your comments. My trip starts tomorrow, November 13, and you can check back at this site for updates.

When you say you’re going to Nashville, it’s kind of like telling people you are on the verge of winning $20 million dollars. It’s a place that evokes just that kind of excitement – especially among fellow songwriters. I do feel that I’m on the verge of something – hopefully a big, fat creative leap. Certainly, this is a bit of a leap of faith to decide to record this way. What I hope to achieve is a finished piece of work that is as good as it can be – for the money.

I gave this a lot of thought and consideration.  I had such a great experience recording my first CD with Steve Phillips. The project was completed in baby steps that added up to a year of work. This time around, I don’t have a year, don’t have the spare time, and I don’t want to wait that long. I want to strike while the iron is hot on these songs.  I want a different kind of energy to come together for this. I want everyone working together at the same time. Everyone in the boat.

But – I’m not really going to have to do this all by myself: I have asked  KC-based songwriter, Gary Beard, to be the producer on this project for me.  Gary lived in Nashville and worked professionally as a songwriter there for many years. I’m counting on him to tell me where I’m going – both literally and figuratively.