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