Category: recording

Once upon a time–later. We had plans for Dave to come and do guitar tracks for some other songs, but fate (or the Mother Nature) had other plans. Freezing rain has made the roads deadly throughout our area. So I couldn’t even pick Dave up from the train. It also means our friends are stuck here with us all day. We’ve all agreed to make the best of unexpected circumstances.

So, I get a special silver lining. Finnguala (Nuri Olsen), having done a beautiful job with her pub sing vocals on “My Thirst”, has been collaborating with me on other songs that I was hoping to get female vocals for. She has an exquisite voice that is perfect for a couple of these songs…I did not realize she also had background in a Capella harmonizing and recording.

We have recorded a full vocal for the young girl in “Call Me Will”, and we’re planning some harmonies for “Lady of the Rose”, if time permits. Given the freeze warning keeps getting extended out, that might happen too.

The serendipity that has fallen my way on this project continues to startle me and fill me with gratitude.

Three very dear Scadian friends, all bards, stayed with us this weekend to attend the East Kingdom’s Twelfth Night event yesterday. The event was wonderful, and I will post more about it later. To my delight, they all agreed to provide backing vocals for the album recording of “My Thirst”, for which we’re trying to create a live pub sound. Arden was right: we can in fact build it track by track in the studio.

Okay, sound engineering all day is exhausting. But the instrumented track count now stands at 8 1/2 out of a possible 10 (one piece is spoken word, and I still have to finish writing the title track). Arden is amazing.

Arden spent the day in the basement, where we finished the instrumentals for “Call Me Will” and, we’re pretty sure, put the instrumentals for “The Name of the King” together in one go. That’s six songs that are instrumentally complete (or very nearly). For an album that is going to have twelve tracks on it, that’s a significant milestone.

My new audio interface should arrive this week, which should (a) allow me to record in the basement with our new MacBook Air most anytime I want (the old Firebox interface is discontinued, so there’s no driver for it on the new machine), and (b) has a bit more power and some state-of-the-art preamps, and so should be able to produce rather sharper and cleaner recordings for a consumer-end product.

And yes, I still have one more blog post to complete on Pennsic. Real life got in the way for a few weeks, and I should have that posted this week.

I’m pleased to report that Don Levey has lent his prodigious guitar talent to three tracks for the Hidden Gold album: “Call Me Will”, “The Name of the King”, and “Lady of the Rose”. Bit by bit, the project is moving forward.

[EDIT: I ended up having Dave redo the guitar for “Lady of the Rose” and “Call Me Will”, but Don can still be heard on the “Call Me Will” intro, and the album leads with his work on “The Name of the King”.]

Heading off for some much needed vacation (mundane, not all the wonderful camping events coming up the next two weeks, but still). Projects are proceeding apace. I have a new demo for “Lady of the Rose” that I’ll post when I get back. Also on returning I get some quality time with Don Levey (fellow bard, he of the guitar in my first YouTube video of “The Bastard’s Tale” in my living room), and we should be laying down tracks for maybe three more songs to move them forward.

Additionally, I’m pleased to report that my latest assignment is coming along. I’ve been instructed to pick up my guitar, shake the rust off it, and learn to accompany myself on John Dowland’s “Come Again”. (I’m playing only the top notes, not all the chords, but I’m playing a full contrapuntal rhythm which is tricky while singing.) As of today, I’m pleased to say I can sing and play the piece off book (I’m currently just singing the first verse…this is a one-verse arrangement), nearly at speed, although my fingers do stumble on some of the sixteenth-note runs. Still, it sounds like a song, and it’s been a long time since I actually tried to seriously play anything on guitar, let alone finger picking.

A brief check in (and a bit of a tease)…

In the year and a half I’ve been working on this album (which should be ready to drop next summer at Pennsic 44), I’ve spent some time pondering a title. Early this year, I realized I had a song that would serve as the perfect title track for the overall work, and bring the number of tracks to the 12 I want to include on it.

Only one niggling detail: I hadn’t actually written the song yet. I had a title, a theme, a tune, and even a chorus, but I hadn’t broken the story, so I had no idea what to do for the verses.

I broke the story a week ago, and today, I reached out to put words on a page and they finally came. I have a complete first draft.

I boldly leap now, and announce that my first album will officially be titled: Hidden Gold.

You know, unless something changes.