the 11th hour

i'm going to crystal clear sound

to master the new cd tomorrow

it's going to be called "ciphers from snowing"

11 misfits that didn't quite make it

or

if i'd stuck to my guns and done the double cd

these tunes would've been sides 3 and 4

(of the vinyl)

jayme is almost finished with the artwork

it's fantastic

the cover is one of her paintings

called "cipher in the snow"

thus - the title of this record

we got lena

to handwrite the titles

just like she did on snowing

(thank you lena!)

it's all going to tie into the first cd

really nicely

i'm actually way more excited about this release

than i'd thought i would be

but one song in particular

has been bothering me ever since we tracked it

it's called "anywhere but here"

it's about my son growing up

and moving away

i guess it has a lot of sentimental value to me

i wanted to get it right

but something inside kept telling me

it wasn't right

i asked rip to come over tonight

in the 11th hour

and work on it

as always

he was there in the clutch

we re-visited this song

over 1 year since we'd last walked away from it

rip re-cut the drums

with a great tom mallet part and then brushes on the snare

i re-did the lead vocal

my voice really not in top form but i still beat the original vocal

and then pancho rowan suggested i re-do the acoustic guitar part

on my nylon stringed spanish guitar

it was a really good suggestion

and proved to be the final touch

that took this song from out-take status

to being as good or better than anything on snowing

at 1am we sat in the car and listened to our mix

in the darkness

we both felt like we'd just done something really good

thank you rip

i appreciate all of the things you've done over the years

more than words can say

love

s