I'm feeling a little funny this morning.
I'm having a difficult time processing all
of this. It's so overwhelming - in a good
way - it's great and awesome, but some
of my songs are pretty difficult emotionally
to sing over and over. I got up this morning
and just sat in a chair in the sun for about an
hour hoping to refresh my mind and spirit
before the electric guitarist arrived.
Enough of that crap - time to ROCK!!
10:00am Jonathan Anderson showed up to play
electric guitar. He brought 5 guitars, lap steel,
pedal steel, banjo, and a whole ton of pedals
and gear that I don't have the first clue with
what you would do. Little did I know all the tricks
he had in his bag...
Once again, here is a musician who has never
met me, has never heard any of my songs, and
is going to be creating parts for 10 songs in 2 days.
We are hoping to get electric tracked for about
half of the songs today. We’ll see…
We started with "March On". Ryan wanted to
go for a “T-Bone Burnett” sound on this one.
Jon added 2 electric guitar parts
(with different guitars, of course),
lap steel, and a little bit of banjo – just for fun.
I'm not sure if we will use all of these parts
in the final mix, but we'll record any ideas
just in case – even if they seem totally whacky!
I am beyond speechless!
I have no words to describe his talent.
I'm sitting here listening unable to process what is
happening. The music just cuts right to the soul.
You can feel it so deep within, which is exactly
what I'm going for. It’s a difficult thing - letting
someone else take over something you have
worked so hard on. To let them put their spin
on what you’ve created. It’s hard to let go and
trust that they will create something that is
“you” – that fits with what you are trying
to create. I have nothing to worry about here.
He's nailing it! My mind is blown!
We worked on “No Going Back” before taking
a lunch break. Some pretty awesome stuff in
this one too – a really cool hook in the chorus.
There is no way I’m going to be able to put the
experience of watching Jon come up with parts
for my songs into words. I cannot do this
experience justice. I am in complete awe!
After lunch we worked on
“Not Who You Said You Were”,
“The Rainbow”, “Run Free”, and
“So Long Insecurity”.
Everything he came up with was so incredible.
I’m going to run out of words to describe
how awesome this is!
Some highlights on each of these songs:
“Not Who You Said You Were” has a great little
riff in this special part – a second part of the
chorus. It’s the climax of the song. Jon definitely
added to the 50’s sound, but in a very modern
way ☺
“The Rainbow” was already pretty powerful
and intense. Jon added some parts that build
the intensity – which is what I wanted.
It’s very moving. I love it!
If you liked “Run Free” before – you will be blown
away by it now. Don’t worry – we didn’t change
the song - we just took it to a whole new level
of amazing. I can’t listen to it without an
enormous, uncontrollable smile on my face.
When Jon first listened to it, we weren’t sure
where we would even go with it, because
it’s pretty full already.; but he managed to come up
with something perfect for it.
“So Long Insecurity” has a full-on blues
solo. It is SO COOL! That was a lot of fun
to watch. He played through it a few times
and it was different every time.
By 6:30pm we had completed electric guitar
tracking for 6 songs – more than half!
Jon headed home.
I am seriously dumbfounded by his ability
to come up with something incredible, for a
song he’s never heard, in a matter of minutes.
Some extremely magical musical moments
today! I am so very happy with how all of the
songs are turning out.
We had dinner after Jon left; then we were
supposed to start some background vocals.
At about 9, after some discussion on songs,
Ryan put a song on for me to practice harmony,
went in to put his son to bed, and never
came back. Well… he eventually came back…
about an hour later…after he woke up and
realized he’d fallen asleep and left me!
I figured that’s what had happened.
We called it a night – earliest night by far.
Of course I didn’t go to sleep right away.
I stayed up writing this and now I’m going
To fall asleep working on vocal harmony
for the 7 songs I don’t have figured out yet.
Tomorrow Jon is coming back to finish
electric guitar on the rest of the songs, as well
as organ and piano. It was a fantastic day!
Very productive, very exciting!