Alright, real quick-like, 'cause I've got a mess of deep, deep lyrics to memorize by Friday, here's what's up...and what's been up....
I spent a good bit of last week in The Switchyard, cutting lead and backing vocals on 5 or 6 songs, as well as guitars on a couple of other tunes.
Our engineer/co-producer Michael Saint-Leon & I also dug into what will hopefully be the final mixes of a couple tracks, one of which I've posted on my site @ www.dennysmithmusic.com If you get a chance, check out "Sherrybaby", which we've been working on a video for with our buddy Darrell Frasier. Our scenes are all shot(I think), so the rest of the work is in his hands. We should have some news on where and when you can see that soon.
I ended up rolling out of the studio late Friday night with a CD of 11 tunes....not all complete, mind you, but several of which are well on their way to sounding release-worthy, which gives me hope and I'm actually starting to see a light at the end of this long tunnel...for The Great Affairs' EP at least.
There is only one tune from the EP that is just drums at this point, since Patrick & I pretty much covered the rest. I even got to do my best Thin Lizzy-inspired harmony lead on "Dyin' To", pretty much off the cuff and winged, to the best of my ability, with some coaching from my cohorts in the control booth. That, and "Rock N' Roll Heart" are shaping up to be a couple of guitar-heavy slabs of goodness that I can't wait to bring to the live show. But, first things first.....
................................we must become ALL STANLEY......................
Yeah, it's THIS Friday(10/5)....9 relatively obscure(well, 7 of them qualify) tunes made famous(or not, in this case) by the great Paul Stanley of KISS. No, we're not donning makeup, although I personally wish we were. Instead, it looks like I may be the sole TGA member who will be celebrating Paul's 'Animalize' look, an ensemble which you may recall favored a variety of leopard, tiger, and other jungle cat prints. Since I am unable to cultivate such an impressive tuft of chest hair, and my associates refuse to get painted up, this is the least I can do to celebrate a largely overlooked and under-appreciated era of Stanley fashion. We hit the 12th & Porter stage at 9. I hope to see some of you there, but pray that you won't remember a bit of it the next day.
With that out of the way, we should be back to our old selves by Wednesday, October 24th, when we open an all ages show at The Hard Rock Cafe here in Nashville. We're playing an early slot(doors at 6, we go on at 7 sharp...real time), since Kenny has to take off later that night to play the Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man Cruise with Bonepony for the next several days, docking and rolling back up this way just in time to climb back in the van and head to Bowling Green on Thursday, November 1st, so we can do Penny Draft Night and "an evening with The Great Affairs", where it looks like it'll be just us, playing everything we know until WE run out of songs, or THEY run out of beer. Make your plans now.
Alright, I'm starting to ramble, so let me just throw out this one last bit of information. In addition to streaming "Sherrybaby" on MY site, if you go to www.thegreataffairs.com , there is a new free download track for October. Some of you may already have this one, since it was one of the first tracks I laid down when I got this new recording rig, but for those that don't, "Won't Get It Here" is there for the taking. This tune was one of the contenders for the last fORMER record that unfortunately(or not...you decide) didn't make the grade. Check it out. It's a bit more "rock" than the last few tunes I've posted, and I'm sorry to those who have it already, but I just haven't had time, with all that's been going on, to fire up the rig and track a new one. I promise I will deliver fresh goods for November.
Best,
Denny
The Great Affairs