I was introduced to Michael Van Slyke, a wonderful singer, by Cedric Fithelere, who has provided the incredible strings for this album that I cannot wait to share with you. Michael and I are collaborated live between New Jersey and Texas today, as he recorded the part of Sir Palamedes the Saracen for the title track, “Hold the the Door Open”.
Later that same day, my dearest friend Bird the Bard began recording the part of Sir Gareth in Wisconsin. It’s crazy this technology age and the opportunities it affords us.
This means, for those of you keeping score, that our title track is very very close to finishing production. A month or so back, I had Eithne Inghean Mael Duin, aka Erin Mahoney, over here at the Oranwood home studio recording the part of Brangwin (and I and deeply annoyed that I neglected to get a recording photo, my bad), and I reworked my “final” vocals for Sir Gawain a couple weeks ago.
I’ll also mention that my Peer, Peregrine the Illuminator, aka Michael F. Moore, did a live remote studio session last night from Massachusetts where he recorded “Peer #2” for “The State of the Bard”, my Sondheim filk (I was able to get Toki, aka Mischa Dixon, to record “Peer #1” in the pop up studio at Known World Cooks and Bards on Labor Day Weekend—which, right, I have also neglected to post about. We’ll get back to that.)
We are not far from the point where the only people with outstanding recording to do for this album will be Dave Lambert and myself.
Yes, I’m excited.
Drake Oranwood 