Rappers

The guys from GrindHouse came in to record some more material for their upcoming CD.
Just to blow off some steam, they did an extended freestyle over one of the beats they brought in. They rapped right over the chorus parts and just riffed till the music stopped. The intention was to loosen up before the real work started.
After they left I pulled up those tracks and started assembling them into a pretty good sounding finished track. It's amazing how you can take parts and assemble them together without it being obvious.
Of course this was just for fun and practice... Their real tracks are start-to-finish with no editing. That's how they roll.
(I know. I'm so white.)

A Great Day

Wesley Orbison, Roy Orbison's 's son, brought his band by the studio today. In four hours they had 4 songs tracked. They sounded great and everyone said they had a great time.
Last year we did a CD on Delbert McClinton's son, Monty. (Notice a pattern here?)
I started back to working on the building when I got a call that really made for a super day.
Maurice Davis called from New York to tell me they expect to do two projects at RoughWood.
That could mean a six week lockout, or longer!
Now the reality is starting to set in that this could be some of the most crucial work I've done yet. Major market release and all. I hope I'm up to it.
Oh, and the stairs turned out perfect. I should forget how I did them pretty soon.

An update on Wesley's project:

I always tell clients to live with the music for a few weeks. Listen to it often and pick it apart.
Their drummer has a great ear, and he came in to 'tweak' the mix. Actually we made some major changes. It really sounds great now!

A big hole in the wall

When she came home and saw that I'd cut out the wall going into the new part of the second floor my wife said, Wow - we've got a giant hole."
I'd planned on skinning the wall on the outside - putting in the header, etc. - and leaving the wall in place for a while. (The inner-most part at least.) But everything was going so well, I just wanted to get it opened up. Also, I couldn't start putting in the ceiling in the addition till the wall was gone.
Well now the ceiling is up and we even got the super-duper attic door put in.
The 8 foot by 8 foot opening is sealed with a tarp and several moving blankets from the recording studio.
Tomorrow, the stairs!

Maurice Davis

Maurice Davis came in from New York to do his second annual Christmas concert at RoughWood Studio. He had to change up the songs because he'd blown out his voice, but he still sounded great. A few days later we were having dinner and he wanted to re-sing some of them to send to his manager. We recorded the songs that night.
Maurice is an amazing talent. Check out his myspace and listen to some of his music. His CD will be out in '08. "All lies are one size" is one of the new songs that made the cut. Fantastic!
You'll be able to tell your friends you knew about him before he became famous.
Also, I just found out that a producer from the glory days of Sugar Hill wants to come in to do new vocals on some previously recorded tracks. I'm proud he's coming here because vocals are some of the most critical parts to record. He heard good things about RoughWood and chose us over studios he'd worked with in Nashville.

Walls are easy - stairs, not so much.

This has been a slow time for the studio in years past. I thought it would be a good time to work on the add-on we've been wanting. Clients didn't let up this year, but I've been able to spend parts of days working on the 2 story project.
Walls, floors, even the roof have gone well. The part that has me stymied is the stairs. It's a simple run of stairs with no turns or fold back... but I haven't been able to get it done.
When I built the original building I did the same thing. Then, when I knew I couldn't put it off any more, I built the stairs in one day. (And that was with a turn on a landing.) But it was a month before I could build a little 4 or 5 steps to a room over the main studio.
It reminded me of an old star trek episode where a computer did all the thinking for a group of very nice, but simple people. When they needed to do something outside their abilities the computer would tech them how. Problem was that the know-how only lasted as long as the thing they had to do. Afterwards, back to idiotville. That's how I'm feeling about these stairs.

"Famous People"

Have you met many famous people? I've met a lot of them between broadcasting and the recording studio. From actors and musicians to politicians, I've noticed some consistencies.
Genuinely nice people tend to stay that way.
Not-so-nice people get much worse with fame.
There still seems to be a pattern of needing to be nice at first, then needing to be left alone as they get famous, and then getting nice again as they gain confidence.
If someone isn't really that much of a celebrity and they know it - they tend to overcompensate.
In fact, I almost don't want to meet someone I admire for fear they'll be one of the 'not-so-nice' folks.