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).

Saskatoon

First of all, I stayed up too late last night. I couldn't help it. After the show, Ryan, Brendon and I settled in at the hotel lounge to sing some karaoke. We were pretty tongue in cheek about it until it actually started happening, then we got into it. We each sang solo numbers and sang a few together. After visiting with some of Bill's friends, Russ and Susan joined us and Susan sang a couple too. There were some talented patrons (and some less talented), and the whole thing made for a truly fun evening.

The bus, however, was pulling out only five hours later to head to Saskatoon. I was the last one on (though still only 10 minutes late). The bus ride was also ridiculously fun- we played cards, stopped for breakfast, visited some tourist sites, and I managed to nap for a couple of hours. Our bus hosts Blaine and his wife (who I should have asked for the spelling of her name- it sounded like Rain-deen. Oops.) were fun and very gracious. In a perfect world we would always travel by bus with them and their dog, Love (who took a special shine to Bob).

Again our accomodations are pretty swank, we're at the Sheridan downtown in Saskatoon. The casino (Dakota Dunes) was also pretty great, with delicious food and an extremely organized and capable sound crew. The show was as much fun as any we've played all year, and (as it's likely our last show of 2008) was a great way to close the season.

Now it's closing in on midnight and I've got a 4:15 lobby call to be taken to the airport. I guess I can sleep when I get home. I don't think the Colts play until Monday night.

Calgary, pt. 2

TV was a blast this morning. We did two songs live in the studio: Hair and Deliver Me. The latter is a song of Bill's, so it was a natural to perform in Calgary. There was a brief interview with Bob, Paul and Susan, and they were every bit as "on" at 8am as they are at an evening show (maybe even more).

I finally broke down and got some Canadian money, then put my $20 bill into a vending machine and got $18 worth of $2 coins back. I love the big two-tone coins and I'm happy to have a pocketful of them. Of course, we're in a casino, so I may not make it out of here with them.

Soundcheck is done, the photo shoot is in an hour. My shirts are ironed and I'm just relaxing until I have to be somewhere. Perhaps I'll see what's on my big LCD screen...

Calgary, Alberta

Yes, it's really 5am (of course, that's 7am where I come from). I'm in Calgary with the Cowsills and we've got a local TV appearance scheduled for this morning. I'm all clean and shaved and ready to go, so I'm enjoying some quiet time with my coffee.

Today's kind of a busy day. We've got the TV thing this morning, then an afternoon photo shoot, soundcheck, and the show tonight. Tomorrow we head to a show in Saskatoon. I just found out last night that Wayne rented a bus to take us there. It's nearly as old as I am, but it sleeps 12 and should be much more comfortable than a cab.

The Deerfoot Inn is one of the nicer hotels we've stayed in. I've got a big flat screen HD television on the wall, Starbucks coffee in my room, and I had a truly delicious steak last night. So far, I'm totally cool with Calgary.

Bill Cowsill lived and played music up here for many years. I'm interested to see what the crowds are like. No doubt there will be lots of people sharing their memories of Bill at the meet & greet tonight. I'm looking forward to another great show.

A Full Day

We began our day with breakfast at the Tudor house, served by Alvin. Alvin and June bake their own bread, and Alvin collects honey from bees right on the property. Needless to say it was delicious.

Russ had some business stuff to take care of, so Aaron and I headed to Smiley's Flea Market, "the South's Largest Garage Sale". It was indeed huge, and proved to be more than we could take in in an hour. We wandered around aimlessly for a while, then headed back to collect our bandmates and head to Charleston, SC.

We were making good time, somewhere on I-26, when the wobbling we'd been feeling from the van suddenly escalated into a full-fledged tire blowout. We were trying to get Susan to a radio interview, so Russ called ahead to say we'd be running late and we got to work changing the tire. It was hot on the side of the road, and it took us a few minutes to figure out the jack contraption, but a kind policeman stopped and offered to "try and make sure no one runs over you". After changing the tire we were all sweaty and filthy, so we stopped to wash our hands and fill up our spare.

We weren't sure what to expect at the radio interview, and were surprised when we pulled up to an old house in Charleston. Stephen, our host and interviewer, greeted us and invited the boys to a dip in the pool while he interviewed Susan. Shangri-La! He even had a snack spread for us, complete with water and beer. We discussed WeAreRadio.com, his excellent internet radio site, and many charitable organizations he works with. We lingered as long as we could, but eventually had to head out.

Before soundcheck, we stopped to visit friends Joe and Mary Beth. Joe and Russ are old friends, and Joe had a surprise for Russ. He had painstakingly restored every part of Russ' bike that was all but destroyed in Katrina, rebuilt it, and presented it to Russ along with some new bike shoes and clothes (as I write this, Russ and Joe have just returned from a morning ride). It was a pretty touching scene, and Russ was as happy as I've seen him.

Our soundcheck at Home Team BBQ went off without a hitch, and the show was rocking. The food was the real star though, the ribs were about the best I've had anywhere. We were treated well by the staff, and we had a great time playing, but I was exhausted by the end of the second set. We stayed with Joe and Mary Beth last night, and I slept like a drunken baby.

Charleston is a beautiful town, full of great people, and I look forward to returning soon.