now that frank, john and paul have left martha’s vineyard, where do the recordings stand?  they left for the vineyard in cold, clear weather on january 21.  they had recorded the backing tracks for 14 songs in new york during november-december and hoped to finish overdubs and vocals on the vineyard. 

the band spent their time camped out at producer andy chase’s house, near the highest point on martha’s vineyard, with carly simon’s home also in the neighborhood!  the home doesn’t have a built-in studio, so andy and ruddy (production assistant) rigged a recording area and adjoining control room, complete with an ocean view. 

as frank said in his blog entry, he got sick on the vineyard and was unable to sing for a few days.  good thing he didn’t get steaming before going out to martha’s vineyard, or it could have been much worse!  for the sessions, one of the first decisions they made was that “the abba song” (working title) wasn’t ready for the album.  they hadn’t written complete lyrics for the song and decided to leave it behind.  they’ll hopefully be able to use the recorded backing track at a later date, once they write some suitable lyrics.

while frank was recovering, john and paul recorded various guitar and other instrumental overdubs and everyone continued to work on lyrics for a few unfinished songs.  one of the songs giving them trouble is “the jimmy webb song.”  they had written some lyrics for the original demo recording and rehearsals, but when the song was recorded in new york, it ended up a bit different and the lyrics no longer fit the song’s vibe.  they were also working on bits of “people”, “i hung my harp upon the willows”, “i wish you’d met her” and “down and out in new york city.”

after 10 days (returning to cape cod in a torrential downpour), they managed to finish all of the instrumental overdubs as well as the vocals for nine songs.  the four songs where vocals still need to be recorded are “astronomy”, “i just don’t know how”, “i wish you’d met her” (lyrics still unfinished) and “the jimmy webb song” (lyrics still unfinished).  one song, “down and out in new york city” was recorded a couple of different ways.  the band had an initial version and melody, then andy came up with an idea for a new melody, for which john wrote new lyrics and frank re-recorded the vocals.  the versions of the song are quite different and the band is going to wait until the mixing is complete to see which version, if either, will end up on the album.  

the next step is for the lyrics to be completed by the time frank returns to new york around mid-march to record the vocals for the four remaining songs.  john and paul may be there to lend moral support.  the album mixing was originally scheduled for february/march, but will now be pushed out a bit, probably sometime after march.  the band still needs to secure a record deal, so the album release date is still very much up in the air.   

as you can see from the band’s blog entries, they’re very excited about the songs for “album #5″ and want to be careful, making sure they license it to someone who will treat the album and the band the way they deserve…instead of being taken advantage of (by the way, they have written another song about their experiences in new york city and were thinking about recording it now, but are going to keep it in reserve for the time being).  although it has been almost 3 1/2 years since the release of weightlifting, which was released eight years after a happy pocket, what’s a few more months between friends?  

Hi all…We are days away from leaving Marthas Vineyard and finishing our recording. Our days and nights here have been filled with beautiful sunrises, blood red moons,  ocean views, crystal clear night skies, snowstorms, wild deer and rabbits… and our songs floating through the air … songs that appeared here, songs born at home, songs that became clearer here… the silence and beautiful isolation of this place has been great for the general muse.Last night, during singing breaks, we moongazed with the telescope, watched the fishing boat lights out near the horizon, and eventually watched the sun rise as we harmonised…. All the while sipping on hot cocktails… and thus..

My recipe for this blog is for an “Engine”. A Marthas Vineyard cocktail created by Rudyard Lee Cullers in early 2008. Take a half glass of hot herbal lemon tea (remove teabag), add half spoon of honey, add some apple and pear slices soaked overnight in Quantreau, a decent measure of Canadian Whisky.  Stir and sip slowly through the night, singing until the sunrises over the Atlantic……….. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

John x