You just can't beat a warmed-up Tofurkey Italian brat for breakfast, that is if the first meal of your day still qualifies as breakfast when consumed at 12:30PM. Whatever the case, that's how and when my Labor Day 2012 began, so happy Labor Day to those of you also seeing fit to celebrate by making poor dietary choices and oversleeping. Before I leave the impression that I'm chronically lazy, I did track, mix, and post a new solo demo over at http://www.thegreataffairs.com . This one is called "Right Down To The Truth", and it marks the first recorded appearance of my new mandolin. It'll be up there until October-ish, when I replace it with something else, as is the custom, so grab it while you can, if you care.
On to matters of actual significance, Kenny & I spent most of Friday in the studio with bassist Dave Webb(Sugarland), and our trusty engineer Michael Saint-Leon, laying down bass tracks for the first 7 tunes that we've settled on for the side-project record we hope to release in the not-too-distant future. The plan is to add a few more before we actually knuckle down on bringing in the full cast of guest players to help us flesh it out and polish it to a retail-ready sheen. As I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before, some of these songs have appeared elsewhere before, but never received their due respect, so we're dusting one or two of them off and giving them a second shot at life, placing them alongside a mess of new material in the album's sequence. We're hoping to improve on the originals, which is always a dicey proposition, but with the help of some ace players lending a hand, I'm pretty confident that we'll do them no injustice, OR you'll just never hear them, because I will dispose of any incriminating evidence.
While at The Switchyard, we pulled another half-completed track off of one of Kenny's hard-drives, called "Fists & Guitars". Salvaging the drum track, the plan is to tweak the lyrics, and add Patrick, Henry, and myself on our respective instruments, and let Kenny lay down a final vocal, so that we can add this to the new The Great Affairs EP. Speaking of that EP, 3 songs are nearly mixed to 100% satisfaction("Sherrybaby", "The Ring", and "Shame On You"), and we go in next week to cut proper versions of "Dyin' To", "Rock & Roll Heart", and "Gone", in addition to the previously mentioned overdubbing process required to bring "Fists & Guitars" home. We'll likely stop there, with those 7 tunes, but possibly adding some bonus material... more on that later. With any luck, we'll have this thing ready sometime in October or November, and Darrell Frasier, who we've been working on the "Sherrybaby" video with, will have a cut of that ready to go as well, so we can give the as-yet-untitled EP a proper launch.
Until then, I've got a solo acoustic show at Double T's in Morton, IL on Saturday, September 15th. It looks like I might be playing an outdoor afternoon set, and then a later indoor set, so stay tuned for details. I'm going to be in Illinois for a wedding in November, so I've booked another show there that weekend( Friday 11/16), as well as one the Saturday before Xmas(12/22), when I'll be in town to visit family and check on my record shop's holiday traffic.
For anyone who has messaged me about my Times News "Hearing Things" blog having vanished, never fear, they will reappear shortly. The publisher switched servers, and all the content is being transferred over the next week or so. They'll be back up, and I'll be back to spouting my nonsensical drivel in no time at all. In fact, I've got something on deck already, so please just keep your eyes peeled. I'll be sure to mention the new location on FaceBook, as soon as I have the details.
I think that's about it.
Sat., September, 15th Double T's. Morton, IL . Solo Acoustic set.
Fri., September 21st The Rutledge. Nashville, TN w/The East Side Gamblers @ 9, & The Decadence @ 10, TGA @ 11
Fri., October 5th 12th & Porter 9PM TGA as "All Stanley: A Tribute To The Songs Of The Starchild" (we do a full set of mostly obscure Paul Stanley-penned classics, before turning the stage over to Spades Of Ace: The Ace Frehley Tribute. This is gonna be a blast!)
Wed., October 24th Hard Rock Cafe, Nashville, TN 7PM w/DoryDrive
More shows TBA.
Beers,
Denny