Sunday, June 26, 2005

Musicking and Computing (as usual)....

Up at 8:30, which as you know is late for me on a Sunday – a quick surf on a couple of sites (HMV have a new sale – same old stuff though as far as I can see) and the ESPC (Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre). I find a great house in Anstruther but Anne’s not up for moving to Fife...

Off to Ian Sclater’s for 10 and his first guitarist, Tom, is already there having driven down from Crieff – that’s dedication....

We work on two of the three songs Ian wants him to play. Unfortunately, due to other demands on his time, Tom’s not been able to make himself familiar enough with the tunes and so much further learning is required and many breakdowns ensue. We manage to salvage a much spliced and edited version of “Candle to St Valentine” though....

Ian’s second guest guitarist of the day, Ian Pettigrew, who’s worked on the album previously (in fact did a version of “Candle to St Valentine”) arrives around 1:30 or so. He’s here to re-record another track he did last time, “This Time Around”. Unfortunately, he’s not quite au fait with it....

So while Ian S is off with Ian P running through the latter’s performance, I try to record Tom playing “Country Boy”. This breaks down and so Ian P returns to do “This Time Around” while Ian S takes Tom off to run through “Country Boy”.

After laying down the basic track and providing an overdubbed slide solo, Ian P makes his exit around 3:45 and Tom returns to record “Country Boy”. We abandon plans for him to record “She Paints Landscapes”, as he needs to get back to Crieff.

All in all then, after six and a half hours of work we have three more recordings. A hard grind but, as it turned out, a lot of fun....

Ian’s invited a piano player to record two more backing tracks for the album. I’m hoping the piano player will have learned the pieces before his session, which should be sometime next Sunday...

Back home and Anne and I relax in the sunny back garden listening to The Durutti Column’s first album, then indoors for a healthy salad and to watch the second half of Argentina v Mexico in the second Confederations Cup semi-final which Argentina win on penalties after extra time.

After watching Joey and Two and a Half Men, two very funny programmes on Channel Five, I have a quick chat on MSN with me old mucker Grantyboy – the biggest Alice Cooper fan I know (apart from me of course...) , while I continue to back up my Jukebox to the computer - now up to nearly 2,000 tracks...

Yet another reasonable day....can't complain really

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