Longing for the day ...

Alive and Alone - the plan

In 2007 I released I am Leaving! I am Leaving! and toured the USA and Canada, playing some solo acoustic shows on my way to interview people and attend the Independent Music Conference in Philadelphia, at which I played more shows. The general response to my shows was unbelievably positive, but one question that came up was why my album was full studio production when my show was me and an acoustic guitar.

Reasonable point ...

When I returned, I immediately set about recording an acoustic album, equipped with what I'd learned from the first one, some of the original songs and some new ones. The plan was to release it along with what I'd learned from the first release and hopefully do better. Unfortunately, in the middle of the recording, a crisis hit and I got divorced, so never finished the recording. Getting back to that has been one of my goals for some time - the time is now!

I'm keeping it simple - each song will have a maximum of three parts, all played and sung by me, recorded in my study/lounge room. The main part will be me playing guitar and singing lead, the other parts a variety of instruments that I think suit the song. I've blocked out the three weekends of January (5-6, 12-13, and 19-20) that I don't have the kids with me, which gives me all day every day to record. The idea is to get down roughly one part per weekend, and I'll do the revisions and editing in the evenings through the week.

For the tech-heads, here's a video of how things are set up for this recording and a look inside the studio:



Here's the setlist (in no particular order):

1. Red Hot
   

2. Simplicity
   

3. Mighty Fine Day
   

4. Forever Mine (formerly Vital Signs)
   

5. When It's Over
   

6. She Don't Want Your Love
   

7. I Long 4 the Day
   

8. Home Free (formerly Be Free)
   

9. Heart's With You
   

10. Whiskey and History

If I get time, I'll throw in a bonus track or two.

First goal for this weekend is to get the studio set up and sounding good. Tomorrow I want to get some guides down, and hopefully most of the main guitar parts. I'll post updates and samples as they come along ...
Posted by Huge at January 5, 2013 5:32 PM