Encouraging morning! The guys killed it on "Little Blue Bird." For a song with as many emotional facets as it has, it turned out to be easy for the guys to play.
They kept it small, simple. Confident but contained. Left plenty of room for the vocal and the constant mouthful of lyrics.
We didn't overthink it. The one-take wonders gave it just a few passes and called it a day.
Daran was the only one with a difficult assignment for "Little Blue Bird." We asked him to give the song a modern feel with his instrument to keep it from being overwhelmingly Nashville. Just enough Nashville to remember that this is an homage to the Bluebird Cafe. Daran pulled it off, successfully integrating this song into our canon.
...
"Lighthouse": Played the scratch vocal and guitar for the guys a few times and gave them an emotional layout of the land. What the verses do, how the dynamics tell the story as much as (more than?) the lyrics. Sensitivity on the part of the guys to the emotional narrative is paramount. This song has so many verses and no bridge, so it runs the risk of becoming monotonous unless the instrumentation can divide each emotion from its neighbors.
Well, they got "Lighthouse" right too. Months spent figuring out how to sing that song and they figured it out in minutes.
Makes me want to write something for a choir of didgeridoos in 5 different keys and time signatures - just to give them something that's a challenge. :-)
Lunch was leftover heaven. Everything we ate this week- buffet style.
Today was the first really nice day since winter started. Warm and sunny enough to eat lunch outside. It felt like a perfect summer day. Birds chirping, fluffy clouds in bright blue skies, a hint of a breeze whispering in the trees and sunlight. Was a treat for me after cold drizzly days in New York.
Sitting outside on the deck, with Hill Country splendor in every direction, warm sun on my back, eating Chris M.'s birthday cake from yesterday, I thought to myself- This must be the most perfect moment in human existence.
