After another late night (though not as late as the past couple), I woke up on the couch to find Eli’s claws in my shoulder.

To clarify, Eli would be my cat, and 6am would be an hour past his usual feeding time.

I’m proud to say that, realizing how busy the coming day would be — and that this would be my last day of true break — I actually got to work right away.  I began by sitting down with my guitar to finish writing “It All Comes Around.”  I’ve had the first verse and chorus for months now, but it took until the morning of the recording session for me to finish writing it.

I should probably also apologize to Nicole for making her listen to it so many times before she left for work at 10, but I think she enjoyed it.  🙂

I spent the late morning and early afternoon at my friend Dan’s house practicing for a three-song set we’ll be playing at an open mic night at the high school in March.  We’ve been playing these songs on and off for the past several years, but we’re finally honing them and finalizing arrangements instead of just jamming aimlessly.

Although aimless jamming can be quite fun, as well!

By the time I got home, had a late lunch, and was ready to record, it was already 4:30.  Thankfully, Nicole went out with friends from work, so I had from then until 7:30 to lay down drum tracks (which took FOREVER on this one) and to record acoustic guitar, a lead vocal, and overlay harmonica on the entire track.  I did the harmonica track in one take, and though it’s not perfect, I’ll probably end up keeping it for the overall feel of the performance.  It’s hard to recapture the energy of a song when you get it just about right the first time.

And so, after 13 recording sessions in August, October, and February, the principal recording for The 2010 Project is complete!  I’ll be hard at work overdubbing and then mixing and mastering the album in the next few weeks, so I’ll continue to post my progress here on this blog.

As always, thank you to any and all for taking the time to read what I write, and I hope to have good news and good music for you very soon!