Cantabile: in a fashion suggesting singing
September 13, 2005, 04:28 pmWe got in the studio on Saturday and Sunday and were very productive. It's always such a great feeling to get in there and get stuff down and have momentum and feel like you're getting somewhere!
We finished pretty much all the instrument tracking on Goose Island and it sounds awesome! We did the group vocals in the beginning and at the end Joe, Mark, Nickie, and I sang some "drunken, bar-room" style vocal "ahhhs". (Maybe you're asking yourself how I would know what "drunken, bar-room" vocals should sound like, to which I would answer, "Watch the movie Jaws, dude!") Then Nickie and I sang a couple tracks of harmony vocal "ahh" part at the end and it sounds awesome! I can't wait to listen to it all the time! :)
We also did nearly all of We Dream Alone. I had my harmonica go out on me (one of the reads fell out of tune and now it's minor! ack!), and while Nickie was kind enough to let me borrow her Bushman harmonica, I couldn't play it well. The comb was different and I couldn't get a very good tone reliably. But I bought a new harmonica, a Hohner Blues Harp, so hopefully we'll get that recorded soon.
I'm so ridiculously excited about the tamborines recorded on We Dream Alone! Brian, Mark, and I each played tamborine simultaneously, and the result is incredible! The song totally needs this huge tamborine on 2 and 4, and this is the best tamborine sound we've ever gotten!! I've gotta get some more tamborines... who knows what the 6-tamborine tone sounds like?!?!
Nickie and I watched the Man Who Wasn't There last night and I've been listening to Beethoven's Adagio Cantabile from "Pathetique" all day. I've gotta start practicing piano more.
My parents wedding anniversary was Sunday, September 11. That's always going to be weird.
My mom emailed me this morning to let me know that this incredibly kind, wonderful old man that lived next door to their cabin passed away last night. Leon (the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Hooterville") was always busy doing something and loved to tinker and despite having many reasons to complain (aka. deteriorating physical health), was always incredibly positive.
My parents have known him for maybe three or four years, and they were pretty good friends. I imagine that my dad's pretty bummed out about it.
The lake's going to be different without him. He used to say, “If you're lucky enough to be at the lake, you're lucky enough.”