Dockside Wrap-up

I'm home again in Indy after our SCB recording session. We finished Wednesday night. Everyone stayed up till the wee hours putting on finishing touches- everyone but me. I went to bed early so I'd be fresh for the 14+ hour drive home.

I managed to make the drive in a day. I don't remember much of it, but I did see a lot of the ice storm damage in Arkansas, Kentucky and Illinois. Trees and power lines were snapped in half like toothpicks and several interstate exits displayed signs reading "no services at this exit".

An interesting tidbit from the drive: when I entered Illinois, Rod Blagojevich was the governor (the sign even said so). When I left, it was Pat Quinn (who mentioned in his press conference he'd rather not put his name on the signs but would prefer something like 'The People of Illinois Welcome You').

I returned to more than a foot of snow at home, which we capitalized on today by sledding and building a snowman. My future father-in-law brought some homemade boudin over, which turned out quite well. Now I don't have to wait until I'm in Louisiana to enjoy one of my new favorites.

Until next time, keep on rocking.

More Dockside photos

Hey, I posted some more photos on myspace from the SCB sessions at Dockside:

http://www.myspace.com/tadarmstrong

Their are several guest musicians here today, so I've got some spare time, but as you can see by the photos we've been busy. We've got most of the basic tracks done and I think folks are going to dig what we've been doing.

Susan made breakfast this morning, and Mike and Mike are busy over in the studio now. The weather is beautiful today, so it's a good day for us to be out for a while.

Our hosts, Steve and Wish, have been very gracious, stopping in to visit us occasionally and even joined us for dinner the other night. I just got the word that Wish is making dinner tonight- steaks. Rock on.

Dockside

We're on about day 4 of tracking for the new Susan Cowsill record here at Dockside Studio in Louisiana. Aaron's working on a majestic guitar solo, and I'm waiting to do some keyboard overdubs.

Dockside's a great place to work- it's nice to wake up, have some coffee, and stumble across the yard to get to work. The engineers (Mike and Mike) have been great to work with, and the songs are coming together nicely.

I could tell you how hard we're working, how there's a lot of waiting around and repitition, but the fact is making records is one of my favorite things to do. I'd rather put in 12 hours here than work just about any other job, so I guess I've got it pretty good. I'd planned on writing some kind of daily update, but the fact is we do the same thing pretty much every day. Instead, I'll just try to post some new photos every once in a while.

Spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight. Susan's in the kitchen right now. Wish you were here.

Lafayette, LA

I'm at Dockside Studio near Lafayette, LA, making a new Susan Cowsill record. Actually, I'm not making anything right now, as Susan and Russ are working with some other players at this moment. I think I'll get put to work later today.

It was a 14 hour drive from Indianapolis (which I split up over 2 days), so I had plenty of time to think, listen to some great music, and hear the inauguration on the radio. A few random notes from the drive:

I left town on Martin Luther King Day, and I think I drove on several stretches of highway bearing Dr. King's name. But I had to laugh when I stopped in Nashville and saw a bus stop bench advertising the "Free At Last Bail Bond Service".

I picked up a copy of the Louvin Brothers' "Satan is Real" at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop. I'd long been an admirer of the album cover, but I'd never heard the music. It's beautiful and hilarious, and it will surely stay in rotation for a long while.

While listening to the inauguration on the radio Tuesday (somewhere in Mississippi), a truck pulled up beside me and I smiled when I noticed the Halliburton logo on its side. The Halliburtons are no longer in office, Praise the Lord.

Finally, I stopped outside of Baton Rouge for a Boudin Po Boy, which is delicious, but not suited for in-vehicle enjoyment. I wore a bit of it, but it was well worth it.

The studio is every bit as incredible as I've been told, and I'm glad to be holed up here for the next several days. Thanks to my friend Sonny in Birmingham for feeding me and putting me up Monday night, and to my friend David in Nashville for letting me hang around his shop for a while (and keep him from working).