Recording: Days 18-20 (with a new rough mix!)

The hot, humid weather has finally broken, and the last two days have been gorgeous. It's been spring weather: blue skies, puffy white clouds, and mid-70s temperatures. In other words - hammock time! Ben (and his kids, Ali and Cameron, who are staying at the house for the summer) set up this hammock in their yard, and it is soooo comfortable, that I want to get one of my own. First I’ll need to get a yard. ;)

Gordon Lustig flew out from Napa, CA to record in NJ on Sunday. Gordon is a longtime family friend, and also my first (and when, I really think about it, only) guitar teacher. Not to besmirch his skills as an educator, but I still don’t know how to play the first song I asked him to teach me (now, some might claim that The Who's Pinball Wizard wasn’t really an appropriate "first song" choice on my part... but all those folks are wimps). Gordon is an amazing musician and songwriter (check out his song, “I Am Not James Taylor” on YouTube, where its’ already garnered over 2,700 views), and I am so glad that he was willing and able to make the time to fly 3,000 miles to play on my record. The rough mix I'm posting today (the link is at the end of this blog entry) has some of Gordon's work on it, and it's fantastic.

On Monday we worked with Eugene Ruffolo, a well-known singer/songwriter in his own right. Eugene gave us some nice male background vocals on a few tunes.

Now, to go back in time for a quick sec...My childhood friend Juliana came to visit me in the studio in NYC last week, and took some really great pictures. I just got them, and I'm posting a couple here for your enjoyment...one is of Rich playing drums, and that other is Ben in an unscripted moment. Thanks, Juliana!

Today we had a “clean-up” day, recording some more piano (adding a part to “You’re Gonna Find Someone”), synthesizer (on “Sleep of the Dead”, which is really starting to come together), and listening through the rest of the songs to see if any vocal tweaking was required. I'm happy to report that things are sounding pretty clean!

And, as promised, I was able to secure a new rough mix to share with you. This song, called Halls of Your Heart, is one of my favorites…I hope you like it, too. You can listen to it by clicking HERE. Be sure to use headphones to get the best impact - computer speakers won't do this song justice!

Have a great evening…and THANKS for listening.

Steve

Recording: Days 14 - 17

Another week of recording is in the books! Working in Ben’s New York City studio was a totally different experience from recording at his home studio in the New Jersey suburbs. Not that the actual studio equipment was all that different…it’s just being IN THE CITY that made everything about the experience so much more intense. There’s so much to do! So much to see! NYC is a city of near-constant stimulation. I flew in on Sunday night, and settled in for the first three nights at a hotel in Times Square. The hotel had a very fancy elevator system…you punch your desired floor in on this keypad, and then it tells you what elevator to go to in order to get to your floor. It reminded me of the “smart” elevators in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, which were imbued with the ability to see a few minutes into the future...thereby enabling them to be waiting for you at your floor before you even knew you wanted them. Pretty snazzy, right? Of course, Problems ensued when these super-intelligent elevators became depressed over the simplicity of their lot in life, and simply elected to settle down in the basement. Here’s a transcript of the original bit from the Hitchhiker’s radio show…don’t say I never did nuthin’ for ya.

On Monday and Tuesday we worked on drums. Ben brought in Rich Mercurio…he looks young, but he’s got a ton of experience, and a great sense of rhythm…during those two days we put drums on all of the songs that needed them (12 in all – there are 2 that will probably go without), along with all sorts of other percussion (shakers, tambourines, etc.). One of the coolest things was to look at the “charts” that he – and later, the bass players – drew up to assist them in their playing of my songs. It’s like Sanskrit to me – some sort of secret musical language – that enables them to take detailed notes in a kind of shorthand. I’ve attached a couple of pictures, just ‘cuz I think it’s cool.

We wound up taking Wednesday off, since Ben had to attend an unexpected funeral (a friend’s father passed away in Philadelphia, Ben’s hometown). I took the opportunity to take care of some work for my legal clients (I’m not actually on vacation this trip, but trying to work on music during the day, and law at night). I have apparently become the exact opposite of a superhero; I do this incredibly cool stuff during the days, and at night I become...a mild-mannered attorney! ;) I got to see a little bit of the city that day, too…I’d moved hotels by this time to a place closer to Midtown (in Koreatown, actually, on E. 32^nd between 5^th & Madison), and I wandered around that neighborhood, and had my first decent kosher pastrami sandwich in I-cant-tell-you-how long! 2^nd Avenue Deli is now on 33^rd Street (don’t ask me why), but the pastrami was delicious all the same…they even served me a taste of bosco (chocolate soda), or maybe it was an egg cream..I don’t know, but it was good! In the evening I was able to visit with my old friend Jonathan, and his wife and son, which was very nice.

Thursday we started on bass. Zev Katz has been touring a lot lately, and was only in town for a day before taking off on another project, so Ben snagged him for the time we could get him. He did a great job, of course…he’s one of those players who doesn’t really seem like he’s doing much of anything at the time, but once the day is done and you listen back, you’re really impressed with the stuff you've gotten. One thing I’ve noticed about session players is the wide range of personalities you get…some are very “business as usual” types – come in, record, not much chit-chat, and not much interest in interacting with the actual songwriter (me), or even connecting to the songs themselves…these types of folks pay attention to what the MUSIC wants, but not necessarily to the gestalt of the song as a whole (if that makes sense). Zev was a bit like that. That’s in stark contrast to the bass player we had in today (Saturday), our first day back at Ben’s home studio in Ridgewood – Lee Nadel. Lee came to the session having listened carefully to all the songs in advance, and was so excited to work on them…he commented many times on how much he loved the songs themselves. Both of them did a fantastic job…it was just a bit more fun for me to work with Lee, who was so clearly excited to be there.

Thursday night I was able to spend some time with my friend Lori, who I hadn’t seen in years. It was a real gift to be able to reconnect with her. On Friday night my friend Gabrielle took me to a synagogue in the Upper West Side (B'nei Jeshurun) – a very cool experience, with a mix of all sorts of traditional and modern melodies, along with Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions (if you’re into that sort of thing, you fellow Members of the Tribe). That was followed by a fantastic dinner in the Upper West with some of Gabrielle’s friends, and an impromptu jam session with Eleanor Dubinski, one of Gab’s friends who is a really talented singer/songwriter in NYC. She does stuff in English, French and Spanish…you can check her out here.

I left NYC this morning, and took the train to Ridegwood, where we’ll be working all this week. Thankfully they post very helpful signs on the trains, to make sure the intelligenstia among us don’t hurt ourselves. My friend and original guitar teacher Gordon Lustig arrives tonight, which is very exciting – he’s flown out from Napa to record with us - and tomorrow we’ll be working with him to add some additional guitars. I expect to have another rough mix to share with you over the next couple of days…the “rough mixes” are starting to sound more and more finished, though, as all the instruments are being recorded. As Ben said to me this afternoon, everything we get from here on out is really just icing on the cake. I’ll look forward to sharing the new mix with you as soon as I get it.

That’s all for now, but more to come soon. Enjoy your weekend, and – as always – thanks for listening!