http://www.pelusomicrophonelab.com/VTB.html

Yes, Thank You. You can mail it to my work.
2214 Elliston Place
Nashville TN 37203

A girl can dream... can't she? geez!

Buy me this foe me and I will be merry :)

I'm sorry i couldn't play Pabstolutely. I was really looking forward to it. I have been sick and couldn't make it to Ohio in time for the fun, Thank you to Guy at the Vindicator for the nice article.

My music is done. My artwork is almost done. I still feel crappy and sick. Soon enough I will let you all know when and where you can buy my new record.

The rise and fall of stupid Merle and retarded Grace.

Yes, I know I have been making this freakin record for freakin ever. I KNOW! 3 Reasons it has taken so long...

1. I didn't want it to suck like all of my other records
2. It costs money to make records that don't don't suck
(Unless you are as good as the freakin Weedhawks)
3. I have very little money. Sometimes I have none.

So, that being explained to all of you people...

On Sunday July 19th I recorded a new song at Fry Pharmacy Studio in Nashville. It's Called "I'm Sick of You". I didn't really need another song, but I was frustrated about the long wait to finish my record, and I love recording! and I met a new guitar player I love and wanted him to play on my record (Rick Patoray), AND Scott was awesome enough to trade me a studio day for some hair services.  It was Me, Mark Miller on Bass, Crystal Keller on Snare and Rick on guitar. Also Rick played on two other songs... ones that were already mixed but that needed a little love. It was a really fun day! One of the best I have had. Sloppy Joe's were ate (Made by me), beer was drunk, (not by me, I drank room temp water like a good little singer). Scott is really a sweet engineer! His gear may be ancient, mostly analog...mostly pre-1977... but he has the most important quality an engineer needs to have. He cares about the shit sounding good. I never had to say "Could you do it again please?" Because Scott was on it. He is really a cool dude, thanks very much Scott. You made this girl's summer better. I sang through a "cheap" Blue "Baby Bottle" mic and am in love with how my voice sounds through that thing! As soon as I have a spare $500 bucks I am getting one of those mics!!! I can't Imagine what the "hi-end" Blue Bottle mic sounds like.

On Thursday July 23rd Jim Lightman and I finished mixing my record. It's mixed, officially. WOW! I can't believe it myself. Jim is probably gonna change his number!!! He did an amazing job of mixing, and he is a really nice dude, too. I was ready to push and beg and cry and scream to make every second as good as it could be. I didn't have to. He was more than willing to go the extra miles to make it good. He is awesome. Of course there are probably still a few little tweaks that could have been made, but I feel it was time to call it a day. Trust me people, it's there.

Now, it (the record) is at Treelady Mastering studio getting lots of love and attention by my new best cyber friend Garrett Haines. I am so excited I was able to get him to do it and that he likes the songs. I already knew he would do a good job, but now I know he will do HIS VERY BEST! He said "I could listen to you all day". Poor guy. Probably doesn't get out of his studio much, huh?

So now I am working on the artwork! I am having a blast with that! Anyone that knows me knows I love Photoshop/Craft Stores/ and such as much as I like singing. So much fun. I have to take my time with this too. Garrett got all my money, so it is gonna take me a bit to come up with some cash to have the things made. But it won't be too long I hope. Sometime in September? Yeah. That should work. Adam from Kustom Thrills Tattoo here in East Nash is drawing up some cool stuff for me to put on the front cover! I can't wait to see what he has come up with.

OK, thanks for reading this you freaks.

Have a great night, love bj

We have 11 songs mixed. It has been going well. Only snag has been that some of the tracks recorded at one of the many, many studios I used sound pretty shitty, namely a few bass tracks. No tone... just boom. The performance was great, the sound sucks. Jim Lightman... my mix engineer... happens to also be a bass player (everyone in Nashville plays something!) and he's offered to replay those bass tracks. (Sigh of relief)

We are mixing the remaining 3 songs tomorrow and hopefully can also re-cut those bass tracks. (I will be doing his hair and his girlfriends hair of course.)

I posted two mixes. "Send Me" and "Say Anything". I will post another song or two after we make a few tweaks.

love bj

Warning, this story may be boring for all that weren't there.

I had soooooooooooo much fun recording on Sunday. I think Scott, the owner/engineer had just as much fun. He is a really cool dude that was very patient with me...let me try different vocal mics until I was happy...and he also didn't mind all of my bonehead questions about his gear and the whole "tape" process. The session was 100% a success and very efficient, thanks to yours truly having magical scheduling powers. (Mostly luck, I think)

The day before was "pre-production" day in my bedroom. I recorded a scratch guitar and scratch vocal to a click track in Pro-tools. Then when I got to the studio, Scott recorded those three tracks to the tapes. Then a cutie pie named Chrystal played brushes on a snare to those tracks. She's awesome. Then I did acoustic. AS SOON as I was done, the Bass player, the one and only Mark Miller showed up and in two takes had a sweet bass part. (We used the first take) AS SOON as he was walking out of the door the amazing blues guitar player Daniel Walker showed up and did his thing with the slide. He brought a Gibson SG and a Martin acoustic, and after hearing back the tracks we all said in unison, "Acoustic".

All day everyone kept saying they thought the scratch vocal was great and I should just use it. I said "uh, NO!" I wanted to sing to tape!!! We tried a shure sm7 first, only because I always wanted to try one. Supposed to be a good mic for boys that yell. Well I hate being left out of things because I am a girl. So I was sure I could make that work. Nope. We tried several different pre-amps and though some sounded better than others, the end result was that it just sounded too damn harsh.

I always wanted to try singing through a "fathead" mic which is a ribbon mic typically used for guitars. I told Scott my desire and he played me a recording that he used a fathead on a duet vocal recording with one singer on each side of the mic (it's a figure 8 pattern) and it sounded so "intimate" and sweet. So we tried it with me standing about arms length back with the pre amp cranked and I loved it. It was just the lo-fi old Country sound I was going for. Granted there is some noise on the track with the amp cranked, but some of that can be cleaned up, and keeping a little of it will keep it sounding like an old song, which is very necessary for the theme of the record.

So I had a blast. I needed that!!! Oh yeah. and now on Thursday I am FINALLY gonna start mixing. Jim confirmed with me last night. And the tattoo artist I commissioned months ago to do the drawing for the front cover has something ready for me to see, I get to pick that up today! I think this thing might get done some day after all.

One side note for people who know me well...my boy is here now and he is going to the Nashville Auto Diesel College, the biggest and best Auto tech school ANYWHERE! I am so excited. He is doing very well and I am happy to say I am so PROUD of HIM!!!!! Go Gid!!!!

love bj

I am recording another song tomorrow. "I musta been High". The demo has been on myspace for awhile. It's gonna be so fun!!! I am recording at Fry Pharmacy Studio and this will be the first time I recorded anything to 2 inch tape. (We are recording the whole song on tape) Also will be the first time I got to go in and record a whole song from start to finish w/o all the waiting and scheduling and bullshit. I think 1 song- 1 day is a great way to do it.

I am mixing next week unless Jim Lightman cancels me for some reason, and I sure don't NEED to record another song! But I have been so frustrated because of all the setbacks, complications, headaches, delays...

ie, studio changes... I have used FIVE different studios for tracking and Megan Williams is adding violin to a song at a studio in Pittsburgh, so that makes 6...

My main player and producer, Chris Leonardi, lives 500 miles away from me...

and $$$ is always a problem...

I have been lucky to have some really awesome people donate their time and talent to help me out. I have also had to deal with some lazy retarded loser rejects.

and of course there was the whole "BONEHEADED RETARD" that mixed 3 songs for me and made me scream and cry!!! I actually cut my bangs short because of it. I hate when my bangs are short, but that guy made me so angry!!! and I took it out on my poor hair.

...out of the three songs he mixed, the one that sounded the LEAST terrible had the organ about twice as loud as my voice. The other two songs seemed to be missing THE GUITARS!!!!

I am now convinced that I must look exactly like his high school sweetheart that must have cheated on him with his brother AND his dad. He must REALLY hate me or something because those mixes were so bad there is no way it was not intentional.

So anyway, recording tomorrow will be a good time and will help erase some of the bad stuff. AND I need to record this song to help complete the story that is "the Rise and Fall of Merle and Grace". That will be the title of the record.

One more thing...I had all of these plans to make my next record a real foot stompin twang fest, and I have written a couple songs that could be just that... but lately all of the stuff that has been coming to me has been more of the "songwriter" sweet/sad ballad kinda stuff. It's not my fault. I dont write the songs...the songs write me. I just take what I can get.

ok, thanks for reading.

love bj

I have now officially been sick for 2 weeks.  Instead of getting better, I'm worse. I have no voice. There are chunky green balls rattling around my chest. I have not been inflicted  with this type of ailment since I was a smoker. I quit 3 years 2 months and 25 days ago. Does this mean non-smokers can have chunky green balls too or am I still paying the smoker price?

I regret that I have to cancel my show tonight at Foobar. My friend Daniel Walker will be playing instead. Thank You Daniel for helping a sick girl.

I finally have mixing dates scheduled! It is finally gonna happen at the end of this month. Woo Hoo Rah Rah Yippie Yay!!!

Thank You to the people who pre-ordered the CD! You can still do so anytime. Just paypal to bj_omalley@yahoo.com. Let me know if you move!

I also want to the thank the friend who paid me $100 to cut his mom's hair to help my cause!!!

and a BIG FAT thanks to the SUPERFREAKER that donated $600!!! That's right people. Someone I don't know...one of my Myspace friends...sent me $600 to help me mix my record. He wants to remain anonymous. But I can tell you who he is. He is freakin Santa Clause!!! That's who he is. Thank you one million times...plus one million more.

Now I get to start working on the artwork for the record which is just as fun for me as singing and recording. I have some interesting ideas for the front cover. I am meeting with an amazing tattoo artist today to share ideas with him.

Joshua is gonna take my pictures in February for the back cover. I am so excited about that!!! Photographers usually make me really nervous but I don't think he will. He has a very strong personality and is very open and honest. I like that. I don't need someone to be soft and sweet. I need someone who would say "You shouldn't make that face. You should NEVER EVER make that face again!"

Then I will probably get a tax refund sometime because I am poor and it should pay for most of the duplicating process, and voila!!! I will have another record. Yummie. New records are fun!!!!

love Miss Omalley

OK... so I know this is about on the level of begging for change in the street. I KNOW! I need your help.

My record should be finished tracking this Thursday. It's been a long process. Almost 1 Year! It's also been a costly process! I have saved, borrowed, begged, cleaned, pulled weeds (and got a bad rash from some weird grass I guess I am allergic too). to help me pay all of the studios. I bet stupid Carrie Underwear doesn't have to pull weeds for studio time! I am not above hard work, I just wanna make records.

Mixing the record is the next step and It's going to cost me $1200 to mix...and that is with me getting the "Please please help me and give me a discount because I am so poor rate"! I offered to clean Jim Lightman's place in trade for hours, but he wants cash folks.

THEN there is the cost to have the CDs made, which is how I plan to spend my lovely tax refund! those freaks want cash too.

So... at the risk of being forever known as the girl who begged for studio time... Please help me. Can you pre-order the CD for $10? I will send you your copy as soon as it arrives on my doorstep! Or can you just spare a dollar to help an artist complete a stupid heartbreak record?

I will soooooooo appreciate it. I MEAN IT! Someday if your kid is selling cookies, or I see you broke down on the highway or you need someone to sing Harmony on YOUR record...I will help you right back.

If you can order the CD or you just wanna put a dime in my cup... please send me some Paypal $$$ to :

bj_omalley@yahoo.com

Thank you freaks. You will get good Kharma for helping a poor country singer. love bj

I finally get to use the fancy blog editor? It's never worked for me before. Why now?

Anyway...I am going to yet ANOTHER new studio next week for my sweet friend Miles to finish up the guitars for me. I am excited to check out the place. You should go to their space and see all of the anolog shit the guy has.

 http://www.myspace.com/frypharmacy 

I am going to record my "Old Time Mountain Hillbilly" Record there too. In fact, that should be the name of the record too.

I spent 4 hours yesterday before work just playing and playing and playing songs I wanna record, songs I already recorded that need a better chance, songs I demoed but never recorded, new songs, old songs..and even a few covers I used to do but stopped. Like "I Saw the Light". That song is cool. I had a lot of fun playing my living room concert by myself for my dog.

I am an Agnostic or an Atheist. I am not sure of the difference exactly. (Please don't write me to explain the difference, because I really don't care.) I just think it's weird that I am a non-believer that likes old Country gospel music. I think it's the style I like...all of the harmonies and stuff. and I think it's that I like singers that sing like they mean what they say and they are truly feeling the things they are singing. and Gospel singers often meet that criteria.

I have often wished I could sing like a black lady in a Baptist church. (If one person dares to call me "politically incorrect" for saying that you can just go ahead and kiss it baby.) Black people know they are black, and they don't mind me saying so. When Jennifer Hudson sang that I ain't leavin' song in Dreamgirls, I got a shiver all over my body. What a great singer. (and Beyonce ain't so bad either.) Then everytime Jennifer appeared in the movie after that song, I started crying. Sure, maybe the ole hormones were in overdrive that day...but also, I felt her pain when she sang the song and that is what it is all about to me.

You feel hurt...you wanna yell and scream out that "This fucking hurts God dammit" and singing is a way to do that w/o getting arrested for disturbing the peace, or for being a stalker, or people just thinking you are crazy for screaming in the middle of a bar. But you can sing in a bar, or in church, or in your house or car and get the same frustrations out that you would if you just screamed.

Some very drunk guy tried to sell me a burnt copy of Beyonce's new record in the Laundromat the other day. I was like "No thanks". He smelled so bad like cheap wine. I wonder how much he wanted for it.