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.