I think I’ve said it before but I love the changing of the seasons with the transition from winter to spring being my favorite. I’ve always felt more creative in this transition as well as in the transition between summer to fall.
For the last 2-3 years, I stopped counting really, I’ve worked on and off on a project with Carl Burnitz and I think we’re finally seeing the finish line. The first single, “Knocked Down” will be released April 12th with the rest of the album hopefully out by the end of May. “Knocked Down” has had many iterations and I think this final one is the best. Carl cowrote this one with me and did all of the drums/percussion. Chris Compton added some kick ass guitar. It has been really fun to collaborate and procrastinate with Carl on this project. He’s the best in and out of the studio. He’s currently finishing up the mix/master as I type this and I can’t thank him enough. This collection of songs is titled Writing It Away. Maybe I’ll do a deep dive into how some of these were recorded in a future post.
Back in November over a 2 week stretch I recorded 10 songs all on a 1960s Rokkomann Japanese nylon string guitar. I got the guitar a few years back from a guy who’s dad had owned a pawn shop and passed away. His son was selling off the contents of the pawn shop that had been moved to a storage unit. There’s nothing particularly special about the guitar besides the songs I coaxed out of it. I’d only ever recorded it a couple of times before. The intonation isn’t perfect, the sustain is a bit weak but over those 2 weeks this guitar and I got along very well. These 10 songs have few overdubs (except for one, “Hungry for You”) and many were recorded in a single take, vocals/guitar on the same track. All of the main tracks are whole takes, no punching in to perfect stuff. Just recordings of performances with a few embellishments. For the recording I used my Neumann 149 microphone through a Shadow Hills preamp. The only other microphone used was for Jim Graddick’s fiddle over at Archer Avenue. Kenny McWilliams mixed/mastered the tracks for me and got them sounding great. I’m sometimes so close to the mic you can hear my nose whistle. My lovely wife Cully joins on viola for “Honey.” She also gave me the inspiration for a few of these tracks. The first single is called “Many Times” and it will be out April 12th as well.
cover art for the single “Knocked Down”
