New blog overdue, Ryan Meyers fiasco, & more!

I've been beyond ridiculous about keeping the blog updated. Yes, I've been busy, but it is no excuse. So my promise to you, the reader, is that I will provide interesting nuggets of information for you to ingest on a fairly regular basis. By fairly regular, I mean once a week. There is so much to say and it has been so long that its hard to know where to start.
First of all, obviously the blog has migrated over to this new site. The whopping 2 postings below were copied from the Live Journal blog that I started back in friggin October (now its March). I think blogger.com has a much better setup.
The last time I posted, I was beaming about how awesome the tune Quiet Cities sounded on the Ryan Meyers project. Funny story. . .after that post, I proceeded to clean off my recording hard drive without having the song properly backed up! Yes, we had to retrack the entire tune from scratch. Ryan was a great sport, although when I told him about it I could tell he wanted to reach his hand through the phone and smack me. So, after re-hiring Joe and Dan to come back, we actually ended up with a tighter track. Then it was time to pack some gear in the Mini and start the 15 hour trek to Mississippi (Ryan's work schedule wouldn't allow for him to return to the studio, plus it was my mistake so I took the burden of inconvenience).


All the stuff waiting to get packed in the car.


The remote studio


Ryan Meyers

Kate and I arrived in Hattiesburg and set up shop in a Hampton Inn. Ryan came over and banged out his parts in record time. It took him about two hours to do what took two days back in Steubenville. He was probably more comfortable, and the weather was definitely better. When it was all said and done, we ended up with a better track than the one we lost, so it was all good.
So, the ride back to Ohio brought Kate and I from the Gulf coast all the way to Lake Erie to pick up Mackenzie, and then back down to Steubenville. 20 hours straight in a car, another record. She is an angel for many reasons, and going on that trip with me certainly added to the list. The most insane part of the trip was that I was pulled over 19 hours and 50 minutes into the trip, and only three miles from home! I pleaded with the officer for mercy after the insanity of the previous three days. He was cool and let me go.
We received the final master of Ryan's project in the mail last week, and it is a very nice album, certainly one of our best.
The last few months have seen a lot of cool happenings. We recorded a few projects with my good friend Steve Soboslai from the band Punchline taking the role of Producer, and we actually make a great team. The two bands that Steve brought in are The Drama Summer from Toledo, OH (myspace.com/thedramasummer) and Fiction City from Toronto, Canada(myspace.com/fictioncity). Both bands recorded just a few songs each. From what I understand, The Drama Summer are now signing with an indie label and will be back to record a full length. Great for them and us! Fiction City have been getting rave reviews from their fans about their new music, and are planning a return to the studio for a full length as well. They made two separate trips to the studio so far, all the way from Canada (about 9 hours one way), at a great expense and inconvenience. For them to be willing to do that is very flattering and it tells me that we must be doing something right!
Other projects currently in the works: Peacefield (myspace.com/peacefield). Jeff Glatz came all the way from Texas to record a few new songs for a Peacefield EP. These songs are almost completed and sound amazing.
Righteous B is almost finished mixing his new album.
Bob Rice is continuing work on his Bluegrass album.
Joia Farmer is slated to begin her album in late April.
Finding Windemere (myspace.com/findingwindemere) are coming to track vocals with Steve Soboslai producing.
Eric Himan (www.erichiman.com) will be starting his new album in May
Chris Padgett's new album should be finished within the next month.

I love music.