This past week, I was again at BaranStoll Studios recording for my upcoming CD. I worked on the vocals and guitar for “Elizabeth Dawn”. It’s one of my older songs, but truly one of my favorites. When I was recording the vocals, I was remembering how I ended up writing the lyrics. I got the idea while on a long road trip I took years ago headed down through the South from New York. I met an young adolescent girl along with her sister and mother at a campsite I stayed at while in West Virginia. They were “on the run” from an abusive husband and father and their story just touched me tremendously. They were also incredibly welcoming to me by helping me pitch my tent in the rain and cooking me dinner on their campfire. The experience has stayed with me all of these years.

The recording itself went overall pretty well. I am definitely learning quite a bit about how I work best in the studio. My main challenge is trying to get an authentic live performance to tape, so to speak. I’m recording vocals and guitar separately so far, which sometimes stifles my natural performance behavior. So, we are working on getting the best performance whether it means continuing to do the parts separately or together or having someone else play the guitar parts so I can concentrate on the vocal performance as if it were live. Stay tuned for some audio clips soon and tell me what you think. On another note, one of the rituals I am developing to do after the sessions is to make a trip to one of the best pizza places in NYC – TWO BOOTS!!! Two blocks down from the studio! Besides Grimaldi’s, it really is my favorite pizza! What a treat after hard work!

It’s going to probably be the end of the year before I finish the whole CD, due to availability of musicians, the engineer, the producer, and trying to come up with funds to make the CD. Although, my main goal now is to release some sort of sampler of about 3-4 songs from the CD by the middle of August. I still have a good amount to raise, so if you are interested in donating/pre-ordering the CD, please do, by clicking on the link at the top of my page. IT WILL HELP TREMENDOUSLY! I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH, LITERALLY, EVERY DONATION COUNTS!

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