Georgia

I don't know where to begin. Georgia is as near to a home to me as any State is so a trip there is always special to me. This last one was as expected, magnificent.

I headed South to start a new album and to shoot a Live DVD. James Salter of Atlanta was to be the producer on the record and, of course, Tim Gill was heading up the film dept. I made a hasty dash for Atlanta on Nov 29 to get settled in and play a show at Eastpoint Corner Tavern. The tavern is the 2nd home of Heather Luttrell, a new friend and a great Sunday night gig in Atlanta. There I met Derek Murphy, hired gun drummer who was to play on the new record and perform with me at The Loft in Columbus for the DVD. Derek is a little guy (about my size) with very little to say and very much to play. He was immediately interpreting my musical approach and developing ideas for the record and was a breath of fresh air to me.

We (James and I) headed to Columbus on Monday afternoon, got set up in the studio and after Derek's arrival we began getting sounds with Steve Meadows (The Lofts chief engineer) and laid down one track before heading to the bar to relax a bit. The first song set the stage for what would be one of my favorite recording experiences to date. It was as quirky and solid as I'd hoped for, Derek's vision was very cool, very simple and delivered on a large scale. As opposed to the common drummer, Derek had an array of tambourines, multiple snares in use at once, a wooden box for a kick drum (or rather Low End), some conga-type drums and wacky cymbal selection. He was right on for everything that I wanted to record and as we processed the feel of the record that night in the bar we came to the conclusion that it would be a 'medium rare' project in that we didn't want to get to tight on the performances, rather we wanted to record a very high quality, fat, garage version of these new tunes of mine. Our only concern was that we find that glorious place that musicians go to when they first nail a song. A good song that gets the initial attention of all the musicians playing on it and while the subject is strong in the singer/songwriters mind comes to a peak very quickly and then over time seems to lose it's luster no matter how hard we try to keep it's magic. It's a birthright of songs. They have the most magic there, and that's what we wanted to capture.

Day 2. We took our drunken ramblings to the live room on Tuesday and began the execution of the plans we'd laid. 13 hours later we had 10 more songs roughed in and felt solid that we'd done something great. Along the way that day, a photographer from Atlanta and a female vocalist from LaGrange, Ga had come to join us along with the arrival of Tim Gill and Marshall Ruffin. Marshall is a Columbus native and was on the bill with his trio for the following night which Tim was to film. The female vocalist, Chansy Kennedy is a successful songwriter who is a friend of James Salter's and she was there to put down some pretty notes on a couple of my songs and also to get ready to perform with me on Wednesday. Another trip to the land of frothy beverages and we'd be ready for Wednesday.

Tim Gill and I tried to make a list of the things we needed to do the next day to be ready for the filming. The making of the list (and some cheap whiskey) took us well into the next day.

Oversleeping horribly and now in a rush we coffee'd up and headed for the loft. Tim got started with lighting and power checks, staging etc while myself, James, Steve, Burt and Marshall put down a couple more tracks. Then the race was on to get the studio synced with the venue downstairs, the soundchecks, stages and lights finished up. Steve Meadows choreographed all of the technical audio work and with the help of several students from CSU and a ton of gaffers tape we were ready.

The shows came off without a hitch. Marshall put on a stellar performance, followed by Heather Luttrell and I cleaned up the nights drama with what I felt was a very solid and entertaining show. Marshall and Chansy both did a tunes with me. Derek was rock solid and very exciting to perform with. The film crew claims everything went well and now we're waiting for audio and video production to see the final result.

As for the record, we're cleaning up the outtakes and passing the tracks off to my good friend Eric Weaver in Los Angeles for the finishing touches and then plan to master and release as quickly as my budget allows. Derek and I have a special little something planned for the release which I'll tell you about soon.

Well good. That's off my chest. Thank you Buddy (owner of The Loft), Steve, James, Tim, Marshall, Chansy, Burt, Pat (Marshall's manager), Allen (Columbus film fella) and everyone else who helped us make that happen. It was a great experience that I'll not soon forget.

Lotsa love
jf