Last Friday's gig, June 11

Joining me at the Heathman last Friday was Kevin Deitz on the bass:

and Dave Iula on the guitar:

Now, you all know "I heart Madeleine Peyroux", and would love to sound more like her. Madeleine is a guitarist, and she does this laid-back beachy vibe thing on her guitar. As much as I could try to emulate it at the piano, it just wasn't the same. Somehow it sounded more like Michael Buble than Madeleine Peyroux! And we all know from an earlier post ("And...I'm laughing at myself"), that me playing guitar isn't really an option.

So, having Dave Iula on acoustic guitar is what did the trick. Dave is a very versatile player and can handle just about any style. I played him some Madeleine, showed him my charts, and all of a sudden my music sounded just like I hoped.

Kevin Deitz is a well-respected bass player in Portland - and of course he was rock solid at the gig. He is capable of impressive virtuosic solos, and the tone he creates when using the bow is like rich dark chocolate. But for some of my songs I need something really simple from the bass, like whole notes or half notes. Nothing fancy. He said, "Well I'm not paid by the note, so if it's whole notes you want, that's what you'll get." I said, "No, I AM paying you by the note. That's why I want whole notes." He thought that was pretty funny.... I think? Either way, I got my money's worth. He was great.

Next month Bill Athens will be back on the bass, and Lucia Conrad joins us again on violin. Hope to see you July 9!

Pre-production

Hello everybody!

So pre-production is fun, exciting, new, and challenging - I'm lovin' it. Today Dean and I tackled my song "Hey, yeah". I wrote this song a couple years ago - it's about a bunch of things that I love, that I think of when I need to be cheered up. It's got this funky groove / Sara Bareilles feel.

Dean had some great ideas for the song - a breakdown in the 3rd verse, subtle lyric changes, jumping straight into the bridge after the 2nd chorus, a funky fade out for the ending... (am I giving too much away?) So this is pre-production. And this is what it's like to have a producer! Here is Dean driving the sound ship:

During the recording of the scratch track (the track you eventually "scratch", or erase, but use as the template for recording all the other musical elements, meaning drums, bass, piano, vocals, etc.), Dean encouraged me at the piano to terrace and build the song, saying things like "be sneakier at the beginning.... then do some higher register octaves in the chorus". On vocals he asked me to emote more - pick certain words to sing specific ways, become an actress if I needed to. I can tell he's going to do his utmost to drag the best I have to offer out of me.

The brim on my black hat kept bumping the screen in front of the mic, so I turned it backward - all of a sudden the gangster style just started flowin' out. Just kidding.

I'm excited for the CD. I look forward to sharing these songs with friends/family/the world - and I'll do my best to record them well.