At first I ignored it, thinking it would be presumptuous of me to assume there would be people out there dying to ask me a question.  But then I realized that so many emails in my inbox are actually questions – often the same questions.

For example, here’s one I get very often…

Q: What (lap steel) tuning do you use?

A: I use a C6 tuning.  Specifically: 6G 5C 4G 3A 2C 1E

And just this morning I answered another common question (this one was asked through Facebook)…

Q: How do you pronounce Bougie?

A: g – is pronounced as ’s’ in ‘vision’
boo-gee
boo – rhymes too
gee – rhymes with see

It sounds like this.

See!  I do have questions to answer!

OK.  I’m probably opening up a can of worms here, and I can already imagine how my friends will abuse this, but here it is anyway…

…and I look pretty wiped!  It’s been go go go for the last ten days in my world.  But that only helps with the frantic energy of this album.

If you know my music at all, this album will probably surprise you.  It’s pretty nutty guitar music.

Here’s an outtake/false start captured on my phone (don’t worry – the album will sound much clearer than this!)…

False start

That’s one of the two original tunes I wrote for the album. Well, it’s the first “A” section, anyway!  Joey did the bulk of the writing (six tunes!), and we recorded four cover tunes (all Jimmy Bryant).

Tomorrow will be the third and last day of the recording.

Wish me luck!

Jason Fowler…

Brian MacMillan…

John McDermott…

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…or the one.”

Eamonn and George…

George Koller, trying on some truck stop hats…

No comment…

Here’s a clip of the band (with me on steel)…

(click here if you don’t see the video)

So we arrive back in Toronto at about 6am on Monday morning…and I start recording the TUXEDO! album 4 hours later!

3 days of drums with John McDermott to 3 days of telecaster and lap steel ridiculousness with TUXEDO!

I think I’m going to have to borrow Jason’s guitar to do some practicing on the bus.

This was one of the best experiences I’ve had making an album.  The most low pressure environment ever.  We’d hang out all day, and eventually make some music at night.  Marty would capture it, but it never felt like “OK. NOW we’re recording. This better be good!”  It always felt like we were just playing to play.

Here’s the top secret location where we stayed for a week to record…

We got snowed-in on the last day of recording.  As you can imagine, we weren’t too upset about it.

I wrote more about the album in a blog post on the day it was released (September, 09).

An early morning (oh so early) performance of “Low Sail” on Q:

Buy the CD here.

Download the album from itunes here.

What is often mistaken for 20 years’ experience, is just 1 year’s experience repeated 20 times

Being on tour can be like that, too.  You’re just moving from city to city, repeating the same show over and over.  Time passes by but you don’t feel like you’re really growing.

I haven’t been on any long tours lately, which is great because I have so much to work on right now.  And this “down time” is actually the real busy time for me.

Playing 20 different shows with different bands and different music is much harder than playing the same set with the same band 20 nights in a row!

Sometimes being on tour feels like you’ve pressed the pause button.

How do you avoid that repetition of 1 years’ experience over 20 years?

• Do things that challenge you. Whenever a gig or recording session gives me anxiety and I start worrying about how I’m going to do it…or if I can do it!…I know that I’d better say “yes.”  It’s no fun if every single gig is high pressure and anxiety-making,  the same way as it’s no fun if every gig is really comfortable and easy.  You need to work in the learning zone at least some of the time.

• Work hard. Do I really need to expand on that?

• Make lots of mistakes. Hide them well, if you can, but make them.  Mistakes = experience.  Lots of mistakes = lots of experience!

(can’t remember where this photo came from…let me know if it’s yours!)

Not to worry, everything is ok.  Ali has Crohn’s. She’s out of the hospital and feeling pretty good. And thanks for all the nice messages and wishes.

Now I’m trying to regain some traction, looking at my calendar and trying to figure out how to manage my time over the next few weeks.  Here’s what I got going on…

• Writing for TUXEDO! I managed to get in a couple sessions with Joey this week.  We’ve been getting together and working out our ideas for the album. I still need to write a couple more tunes by the end of next week!

• Going up to Perth on Saturday to play with Jenny Whiteley.  It’s been a while since I’ve played those tunes, so it’s time to review.

• I’m working on a tune for Lori Cullen’s next album.  It’s a jazz standard, and she wants me to play guitar and/or lap steel on it.  Luckily, she knows I’m no jazzer, and she wants me to just play how I play.  I’ve started playing around with some ideas, and I need to finish it all by Tuesday.

• Dean starts mixing my album shortly, and I need to make a few more decisions about which takes I want to use.

• I’m playing drums with John McDermott in Cleveland next weekend.  Gotta learn about 15 tunes.

• More drums – I’ll be playing on the next Good Lovelies album.  (I think I’m playing drums?  That’s what I played on their last two albums) That’s in August, though, so there’s nothing to prep yet.

All this stuff to work on, but I think I’ll just get to bed early tonight and read a book or something.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Sam & Dave express my feelings…

Joey (Joey Wright, my TUXEDO collaborator) has already come up with a few tunes for the album.  I need to catch up. Good news : I finished one tune today!

We’re writing these tunes in the style of Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West...sort of.  Like this:

More TUXEDO news coming soon!

click to see all photos

Now that the recording phase is over, it’s time for mixing, artwork, mastering and then manufacturing.  Pre-sales have almost covered the entire recording costs, but I’ve still got about $4500 of expenses to go!

Thanks so much for all the contributions so far.