In the meantime, I will be performing again this Labor Day weekend at the Metamora Old Time Music Festival at 10:00 AM on both Saturday and Sunday, September 3 & 4. I also have the privilege of serving as the emcee on the big stage at Lane’s End! Please come out and see me along with thirty or so other wonderful acts for free in beautiful and historic Metamora, Indiana.

This Celtic-themed CD has thirteen songs, including one self-penned song called “Going Back to Avalon”.  I am very pleased with the final product and have already received some nice comments.

My daughter, AKA The Daughter Who Wishes to Remain Nameless, did the cover photography and  literally put blood, sweat, and tears into the project.  We live just a few hundred yards away from a picturesque gorge formed during the last major ice age.  I thought it would be a good place for the cover shoot, so I put on my kilt and off we went.  We went into a small woods and that’s when the bugs decided it was lunch time.

She had just begun taking the photos and the feast began.  She was wearing shorts and was bitten so badly that her legs were bleeding.  Sadly, I was so intent on getting the photos that I didn’t pay attention to her plight.   By the time we left, The Daughter Who Wishes to Remain Nameless was more than a little upset, and rightly so.  The bites were so bad that we eventually had to call the doctor for treatment.  Strangely, I wasn’t bitten once.

Fortunately, the bites are now healing and she’s talking to me again.  I haven’t figured out a way to ask her about doing the next photo shoot though.  Maybe I should wait until the scars are gone.

The problem is that more often than not, when I get the CD home and listen to it, I find myself disappointed. The CD is almost always slick and overproduced, lacking the warmth and intimacy of the live performance. The human element seems to have disappeared and been replaced by all of the bells and whistles the modern recording studio can offer.

I have been hard at work recording a new CD, and I find myself guilty of the same crime. Well, rather than guilty, I plead temporary insanity. In the excitement of discovering what my equipment is capable of, I started putting together an elaborate production for the sake of showing off my so-called studio prowess. That would be great if I was Jim Steinman in the studio with Meatloaf working on the next epic rock opera, but I’m a folk singer. My best performances have been with just a guitar while sitting around a campfire with good friends. That is the feeling I want my CD to have.

With that in mind, I have deleted everything I have recorded so far. I’m starting over. This time, the music is basically being recorded live in the studio with me singing while playing acoustic guitar. I am adding a little bass and bodhran to fill out the songs, but the ultimate goal is to make it sound real. That is what good folk music should sound like.

The recording process should go much quicker and easier, which is good because my deadline is approaching quickly. I want to have this finished and back from the duplicator by Labor Day weekend. It would be nice to have the CD for sale at the Metamora Old Time Music Festival. (See how I couldn’t resist plugging the event?)