Recording My EP on Music Row

Today was bananas. In the BEST possible way.

Remember when you were a kid and you'd go swimming ALLL DAY long on a hot day with your friends? And at the end of the day you'd realize how exhausted you were, but it didn't matter because you had so much fun playing Marco Polo, Sharks and Minnows, and doing flips off the diving board?

That was today. Only the pool was the studio.

It was an entire day of eyes bugged from being so focused...
Heart racing from adrenaline pumping...
Ears buzzing from amps blazing...
And brain spinning from quick decision making...

I was "Mayering" all day. Definition of Mayering: Tweeting all day about recording an album. :) I liked that one. John Mayer has officially become a verb. :)

I knew today would be amazing. But I didn't REALLY know all at the same time.

This time I am coming from such a different perspective. We recorded the first record before we had a band and were playing out very much. So playing with the musicians was the first time I had heard the songs with a full band. But THIS time, we have been playing these songs for a while. I know them all so well. So hearing the new ideas and approaches the session players bring makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.

I can't wait to go in and listen to everything tomorrow.

You know what was crazy, though? The only cover song we did - "Devil Went Down To Georgia" was by far the hardest one of the day! That REALLY threw them (and me) for a loop! I wasn't expecting that at all. We have played that song for so long I almost forgot how tricky the form is. But it's not at all like the typical "verse, chorus, Verse, chorus" form. So you have to KNOW it to be able to play it. Michael Rhodes told me he was glad we did that because he had never had to play it before! And Gary said that he doesn't even think he has ever listened to the whole thing.
Everyone studying/ writing/ rewriting/ trying to understand their "Devil" charts


You know it's the REAL DEAL when 7 out of the 9 people involved in the session are wearing Chucks.


This was a puuuurty room:
Rhodes Basses & Audley's guitars


Gary's guitars - same room, other side... the one on the chair reminds me of a Vans Sneaker. Remember those?


Everybody! (Well, CJ, the studio manager, was taking the pic)
Left To Right:

James you know... Bavendam :), Audley Freed, Gary Burnette, ummm... me, Greg Morrow, Ben Strano, Scott Velazco, Michael Rhodes

The 1/8 note I found on the pavement in front of the back door of the studio :)


And just so you know... THIS is what you get when you pay for a high class studio on Music row:


I can't believe today just happened.

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

Writing with Pat McLaughlin

I wrote with Pat McLaughlin today!!!!! I feel SOOOO freakin cool. I LOVE his music and his feel and his groove and his guitar playing... and... and.... SO I was PUMPED when this appointment hit the books. I have seen it on there for weeks now, and I was anxiously anticipating this day. I had some ideas going in, but nothing too specific.

We started with one idea... which led to another... which took us somewhere completely different, and then by the time we got to the one we actually wrote we had probably started 10 different songs.I LOVE writing like that. That's how you find the magic :) We continued bouncing ideas off one another until we eventually ended up on this whole "Step By Step" thang. I LOVE it!!! We recorded a quick video of it to share with everyone. Don't mind my "waking up" the computer in the middle of the song so the screen wouldn't go dark :) And the image is reversed, so it looks like I am a left-handed fiddle player!!! It freaks me out a little....

ENJOY!



Not bad for the first time writing together, eh? :)
When we finished recording he said, "I wasn't ready for that 'amazing' adjective in the beginning there...." :)-

Step By Step we'll all get a little Peace. Love. and Fiddle.
~nat