The Ballad of Stayed and Gone 14

The album is mixed! Mastering will be done very soon and the artwork and design are being worked on as we write this.

It’s been more than a year an half since we started this project, but it feels like this is all we’ve been doing since the beginning of time. Not because it has dragged on (a year and half is not that long for an album), but because it feels like, musically, this is all we’ve been thinking about, and it has certainly taken up most of our music listening time.

But now our creative work is done. Now Nick Peterson will master, Joe Brzoska is doing the cover, Ali Nickles the photography, and Mary Gunn the design. And then we’ll have to play some shows and all that to back it up.

And then start thinking about the next project…

To celebrate this moment, here are two versions of Season of the Grape, the final mix one and the original demo one. I thought some of you who have been reading these posts about the record might enjoy the before and after experience. You can choose which one you want to hear first.

The mixed (unmastered) version of Season of the Grape.
Nathan Golub - pedal steel
Nathan Logan - drums
Stu Cole - bass
Alex Bowers - piano
Recorded in Chapel Hill at the Cavern Tavern (Rob Walsh bartending) and Ultra Fin Riz Studios

The first Season of the Grape demo, all done by Roberto in garageband with mostly canned instruments.

The demo was track 18 on the original demos group. The final mix is track 13. So we've cut at least 5 songs/ideas between conception and final mix. Good.

The Ballad of Stayed and Gone 13

Since we are not playing out as a band as much as we used to, I have been playing these small gigs by myself. These gigs are usually in a form that I would describe as songwriter showcases. Where two to four songwriters play about 30 minutes each, or rotate one song each. The rotation gigs can be fun, but you need the right mix of people since you are performing as a weird sort of band. Recently, I've been really enjoying the straight up line-up ones. In those, one has more time to develop the performance, and there is no need to be so strictly song oriented. The one line-up showcase that I've enjoyed the most, enough that I've returned several times, is the Songslinger's Showcase that Brandon Herndon and John Pardue put together. I like Songslingers for various reasons. One is that Brandon and John pick the people and for the most part I trust their taste. It's also good that they host it at our home base bar, The Cave.

Last night I played one of these gigs. It's usually three or four people and we each get about 30 minutes, which is just about as long as I can stand myself by myself on stage. And that is one of the hardest things about these gigs, the fact that I have to play by my lonesome. And boy do I get nervous. I've played for years and years in bands in all kinds of stages, and have never gotten as nervous about a band gig as I do about these solo gigs. However, recently I have figured out that two shots of bourbon and two beers is all I need to kill the nervous bug.

Last night I got there early and even though I've learned exactly how much I can drink, I was feeling good so I went ahead and doubled the dose. Four shots of Ancient Age later... I think I played one song all the way through. Mostly I'd start playing a song, then stop in the middle, to comment on something about the song, or something totally unrelated to anything, then I would realize that I didn't want to go back to that song, so I'd start another one. And so on. At some point I played part of Peter Gabriel's Red Rain as some kind of joyful celebration of the victory of red, which to most of the world is the color of the left, while blue is the color of the right. In the USA the colors are backwards. As was apparently my logic last night. So my 30 minutes turned into some kind of comedy routine. And, surprisingly, everyone loved it, nothing like a train wreck performance to captivate an audience.

Meanwhile back at the studio....

We are really close to finishing all the tracking for the record. We were hoping to release the record by the end of 2008, but it looks like we won't. But it does look like we'll be done with the tracking by the end of the year, so we should be able to mix and master and release it in early 2009.

In the meantime, here's a couple of songs in their almost-finished, unmixed, and unmastered glory.

Stayed and Gone - this one now has Alex Bowers on piano, and most recently Seamus Kinney laid down some sexy trombone on it.

Season of the Grape - this one now has Nathan Golub on pedal steel, and Alex on piano, and even a bit of cuica.

The Ballad of Stayed and Gone 12

We played a show last night. The first of a handful of shows we'll be playing to warm up for the release of the record. We played at the Reservoir for an excellent local crowd. The Alcazar Hotel opened up and they played some great cheaptrick spiced rock, very good tunes.

Diane and I played with Stu Cole on bass, Nathan Golub on pedal steel and Nathan Logan on drums. Jarrod from Damnit Online was there and he took some cool pictures (like the one above). It was one of the most enjoyable shows we've played. When even the mistakes turn out right, you know it's a good night. Great audience, great bar, great band, and Diane stole the show like only she knows how to do. I love you, love of my life.

What else could we ask for? Oh, it was a free show like all these pre-record release shows will be.

So today, I am recovering from the night's madness and my brain is too fried to write about anything else, and I'm not going to ruin last night's experience by trying to describe it in words, anymore than what I've already said.

Stay tuned for the next pre-record release show.