5 full days working in the studio at 6 Nassau under the very capable hands of our engineer, Jeff McMurrich. We recorded all the bed tracks for 8 songs, and a few musical surprises too. Days 1 and 2 were primarily band days, getting the basic instrumental track down, finding the sounds we liked. I had brought in my Wurlitzer, which, being a VintageVibe refurbished one, sounds gorgeous. However, we got there and discovered that a local radio station frequency was coming through the speakers and nothing we could do could get rid of it. Thanks... radio. In a flurry of texts sent out, Jeremy Darby of Canterbury Studios saved the day and kindly lent us his Wurli. Thank you, Jeremy!!

Day 3 we spent time on drum overdubs. Phil Melanson, our drummer visiting in from Montreal, played a series of additional drum parts, some free, some regular time, that we'll be using, affecting, and inserting as additional parts for a few of the songs. He's such an elegant, powerful player. It sounded beautiful!  Hugh Marsh also stopped in and took some live photographs of us (a few of which you see here:)

Much overdubbing and edits later, I started on vocals. Luckily, with most takes, there was a clear winner and we were able to quickly identify which versions of which songs I was going to sing over. In recording there always seem to be a few songs that take longer to solidify, or don't sit right, need tweaking here and there. It's always the songs that seem the most straight ahead, too, that become problem ones.

I sang and played a solo version of Persimmon, which will be slightly different than I originally thought, but I have to say it sits pretty nicely the way it is at the moment. It will be the one track on the album that is just me on piano and voice. 

The next day we had Thom Gill back in the studio for some electric guitar overdubs. He added all sorts of shimmer, funk and soul throughout various tunes. 

I then got started on the bulk of the vocals. We tackled Battlefield, See Us Through, Trust Me, and It'll Rain Today. A lot was accomplished, and much of it we're very happy with!! An achievement, for sure.

Now comes plenty of listening, editing, and the additions of Hugh Marsh, Tom Juhas, and a couple of secret Hammond B3 players. Maybe even strings? Stay tuned. MUCH more to come. 

xox Michelle