Ropin' the Wind

It's been a great two days off and I have to say, surprising.  Kory and I have been in constant contact and he's most likely going to come over for drums Monday at this point.  Mason says he's been listening and wants to come over during the week next week to record his fiddle parts and that he is almost certain about what he wants to do on most of the tracks.  But!

As many talented musicians I've ever hung out with, I don't know that I've ever had a chance to sit down and just hang with someone as "vibe" oriented as Tim Smith.  We didn't talk about vibe per se and I didn't light up any incense or candles like Jesse and I used to do, but he definitely "feels" the music and understands where his role needs to be.  It was really refreshing.  

Tim laying down the blues harp on Two Friends of Mine

He told me he'd show up around 3:00 or 4:00 in the pm and much to my delight arrived right at 3:00.  It was a drizzly, dreary display of weather and he lugged his bag of harmonica's in the house in short order.  After grabbing a smoke and a beer we started tracking Two Friends of Mine, since he'd played that with us before on a few occasions.

Nailed it, I believe first take but we ended up punching in the ending because I wanted him to play a little harder and do a solo of sorts to end it.  He had been laying back because he didn't want to miss the ending.

Then Cheesy showed up.  I was actually forewarned that he would be coming by and it wasn't a problem, the more the merrier.  He posted up on the love chair, basked in Tim's glow for a bit, took some pictures and jet.  

Cheesy hanging out watching Tim work his magic

Next song we worked on was Tears on the Pavement.  This song really needed something to start it off and Tim worked on it a bit before he found what he wanted to do.  We got his parts in a few takes and Eric snapped this picture while he was recording.

Tim laying down some blues harp on Tears on the Pavement while I man the computer

Another beer, another smoke and 20 minutes later and we were moving on to another song again.  Billy the Kid (the strumstick song) was next.  Tim was totally feeling this one and he laid down the whole song in a couple takes.  We weren't feeling the solo section though after a listen and I grabbed the strumstick and we worked out a few parts.  I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's awesome.  Nailed it in 3 takes and we wrote the book on the Billy the Kid song.  It was off to Ropin' the Wind.

Ropin the Wind has Tim momentarily stumped

 While it was in the same key, Ropin' has a totally different feel from the strumstick song and Tim wasn't sure what he wanted to do.  He knew he needed to be in there and he knew where he needed to be but wasn't sure about what to play.  After being stumped about 10 minutes, he went out for a smoke break.  I went to tidy up the kitchen while he was out there and started feeling the house shake and a low thud...

Tim burst in through the front door: "I got it!"

Tim working out what he wants to do on the bridge for Ropin the Wind

Since we're tuned down half a step all these songs are a little difficult for Tim.  He's gotta use harps he's not used to playing and some of the ones that he has aren't in the octave he wants... He was making due but he wasn't happy with the performance at first.  I set the bridge on loop and let him got at it. We ended up snagging a good take pretty quick.

With that we called it a night, 4 tracks in the bag and probably only 2 more getting worked on tomorrow.  I burned Tim a CD of the tracks and we had a good conversation about what I expected from him.  His thought was "these are your tunes, what do you want" and my response was "I don't care about it, play what you want".  

This confused him at first but it's not that I don't care what people play so much as, I don't know what's going to sound good until it's there so I'm not going to shoot anything anyone does down until there isn't any way to make it work.  The Cowboys of Porridge tunes are supposed to be fun and in the moment and while I've scripted out certain parts for Jesse and I and I have a general feel for what I want drums to do, I'd rather have the players on the album be happy with what they've put forth than their creativity stifled by my dictatorship.  Roger Waters I am not.  I kind of wish I were... but I am better looking, I suppose.  

But I digress.  

I want everyone on the album to have fun and be proud of the project they helped create.  He got it and is totally stoked for tomorrow.

After all, at some point this is all the band was:

Jesse and I doing a Cowboys of Porridge tune at a family reunion