Stuck!

What happened? I was navigating through the channel nicely then – whump! – I ran aground.

Nothing’s working – especially music. I got up to a point in the recording sessions and lost my way. I’ve got some solid tracks down – I even took a couple of trips to a vocal coach in the process. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the material except that I’ve fallen out of love with it. These songs are looking for a ride somewhere. Maybe there’s just no room in the car or maybe I’m afraid to pick up these strangers – you can’t be too careful these days. Or maybe – just maybe – I’ve got too many metaphors in the trunk. Or in the ship’s cargo. Oh, never mind.

I was thinking of convening an expert panel to help me with this. I was always planning to hire musicians later in the project but now I’m thinking of bringing them in on the design phase.

Fear of Pedestrians: I think I have a fear of producing something quite average. If I follow the standard prescription – lay down the performance-style tracks then add stuff, stir and bake – then I will end up with just that. Another path is to play the songs with different musicians until they find their way.

An example of what I’m taking about is the Joan Osbourne song, St. Teresa. If you can imagine what that song might sound like “as written” it would probably be a good, but ordinary, acoustic tune. The recording, however, starts up with an upside-down drum beat and then the mandolin lick which end up defining the song. I’m looking for the middle process that gives songs a reason for living in recorded form.

Good Company

I guess it's normal to appreciate you child's progress in fits and starts but what do I know. Last Friday I let Jackson stay out of school so he could help me deliver cookies to some of my best clients. It was a whirlwind tour of Greater Boston with exciting ports of call like Burlington, Lexington, Quincy, as well as Our Fair City. Jack took to the project with great zeal, always wanting to know the next stop so he could be ready. In Woburn we loaded up my back seat at the cookie vendors and proceeded on our mission.

I discovered that Jack possesses Good Will Ambassador genes. Charming and friendly, he shook everyone's hand and wished them a Merry Christmas and was a natural at shooting the breeze. Now this may not seem all that extraordinary for a 12-year old but it wasn't that long ago that he was bouncing off the walls and speaking Russian. I was really taken aback at his level of maturity. I'm accustomed to being proud of his athletic ability but this was a different kind of pride.

The best part is that Jack is good company. We've crossed some kind of threshold where he gets my sense of humor and gives it right back. He's a kids with a million questions. Some are normal curiosities like "what does this company do?" and others are questions from the fringe ("If you bought all the cars in the United States how much would it cost?") So for the better part of the day all the worry about ADHD and school and friends just vaporized. My son hung out with me, helped me get a job done and we had a good time. I'm not used to anything that simple.