FIRST DAY OF RECORDING

i woke up around 9:30 and drove to the studio north on 85 and promptly got stuck in traffic. some sort of construction i think. i arrived about 40 minutes late. awesome. by the end of the day, we had drum tracks for five songs, plus we added some loops and overdubs. it felt really great to actually collaborate with someone for a change. i've been listening to these demos for so long that it was exciting to hear some fresh perspectives. i haven't had the opportunity to discuss making music with anyone since the days of filboyd studge. so next week glenn and i will tackle bass and guitar, then we'll move on to keyboard and string arrangements i guess. i say (or type) all this, but i'm figuring this out as i go...

after we finished up for the day, i drove down south to explore atlanta and find a place to eat dinner. i stumbled upon a place called the varsity and quickly learned it was the perfect place for me at that point in time. the coke i ordered even had that special type of crushed pellet ice that makes for excellent crunching. then it was back to the home of beth hudson in brookhaven. she's a friend of my wife that has bestowed the incredibly gracious offer of a spare room. there is a post office, grocery, coffeehouse, package store, sushi restaurant, drug store, and pizza parlor within a mile of here. so i got that going for me, which is nice...

i'm listening to jonathan downing right now as i type. he's a friend of my pal dom guarnaschelli. i met jonathan a few weeks ago in tallahassee when i was in town to discuss the artwork for the album with dom. we played bocce on the lawn for a while and then ate steaks and such by a bonfire behind dom's apartment building. good times. another ensemble i've been enjoying lately is reading. last year they released an album with one of the finest design concepts of all time on debauchery records, a louisville label with several other solid artists including my good friend john whitaker.

by the way, the urban ministry center opens its new building this sunday, a very important occasion for the homeless population of charlotte. estimates are that about 5000 individuals go without shelter each night in charlotte, so the center provides free counseling, showers, laundry, phones, transportation, health care, and lunch everyday except sunday. lawrence cann and i are working on having on open mic night there soon. lawrence is the art director. once a year he organizes an art auction comprised solely of works by the homeless. and he also coaches the center's soccer team and traveled with them to the homeless world cup in edinburgh last year. please consider for a moment how amazing that is. if anyone has any instruments or materials they could donate to the center to assist with the open mic, please contact them through their website above.

so it turns out i haven't really included much here about recording. sorry. i guess it's only been one day. just stick with me everyone. now that everything is underway, i'll be posting more often.