Tonight was the most enjoyable session yet, with the inimitable Mike Fusco stopping by for a couple hours.  I played him three songs, and he played around with my tracks.

And that wasn’t supposed to sound dirty, but somehow it did.

The result of our collaboration last night will be stylistic across The 2010 Project: he taught me an apparently Beatles-esque double-tracking technique that has alleviated my fears about my vocals ending up either lost in the mix or sounding like Love Out of Fashion (which were good for that album, but not here), he gave me arrangement ideas on “No Lights, No Sound” regarding bass and the levels on my tracks; and he jammed with me on electric to find a new, much more satisfying effect for “Socrates’ Gulps.”

It all started with Mike walking in during my first take of lead vocals for “I Would (Prefer Not To).”  Before I even had a chance to listen back, I offered him the headphones for a listen.  His encouragement and advice across the three tracks that he listened to (some repeatedly) made me feel like we were old rock star pals paying each other a visit.

Before he left for the night, we jammed a bit on a couple of his songs, Mike on acoustic and me on harmonica.  It stemmed from a conversation about how I wish I had been more knowledgeable and had more of a range of harmonicas in different keys back in the days of mOu.  At one point, I tried a method he had used in the past of having a harp in each hand and trading off after each chord change, D to A on “I Would.”  It all ended with us jamming on “I Already Know It’s You (California),” one of Mike’s most gorgeous songs and one that he hinted he might contribute to our Dry-Knuckle BedHeads project.

Later today, I’ll be back in the “studio,” finishing my lead vocals for “I Would” and starting in on a new song, probably “You Will Thank Me.”  More to come on that later tonight, and maybe even the pics that Mike took while he was here last night!