The Sundowner Sessions / Part III

This past weekend, well the one before it, we recorded the last song (and title track) of our full length.  It’s called “Sundowner”, I’ve written about 5 or 6 versions of it, I like the one we stuck with.  I was reading Interviews with Tom Petty when I decided on the title of the record, mainly I like the sound out of it but I have a couple interpretations of the title.  Of course that’s another thing we will have to discuss in person which means it is either too simple or complicated to put in print.  Let’s go with too complicated, maintain that rocknroll myth and what not.

This song came about a little differently than most of the ones I’ve written, they usually come out in fits and bursts, a verse and chorus at a time.  There’s not much work in it, only working to a point where something honest can come out of you.  For the song Sundowner I knew what I wanted it to be before I wrote it and it took a bunch of tries to get it “right”.  We went down to do this final track with our friend John Ralston at a home studio called Elegabaland in Lake Worth.

Elegabland is something to behold, part commune, part cat refuge, part high class recording facility.  We got in around dinner time on Friday and started getting some room sounds, we were lucky enough to have the great Charles Dye (google: Charles Dye + Ricky Martin) help us get some amazing drum sounds while I fiddled around on a couple of the studio guitars.  All good stuff, everything had it’s purpose.

I was still trying to remember lyrics when I got in the room, something about a church and booze… no that sounds too much like a Richard Sherfey song, not necessarily a bad thing.  Jeff Snow and John started to play along as the song took shape, my worries were relieved pretty quickly.  What we worked on ended up being one of the most organic tracks on the record, maybe only behind All My Love which we recorded live in a take with acoustic guitars and mandolin.

I realized more and more how lucky I am to have such talented friends support what you do.  Its such a simple and important thing.  Theres a lot of bad stuff on tv, in ads, on the internet.  They mistake negativity for conflict.  Support your friends, that’s all I’m saying.

Anyways, putting the final touches on this record has been rewarding and challenging.  There’s no doubt that it is an ambitious record.  We’re not pulling any punches.  I don’t think there will be any second guessing once its out there.  We’ve made time for glockenspeils, mandolins, violins, banjos, beach boy harmonies and harmonicas.  It’s our little ode to joy.  It will be out there in the ether for everyone to make it their own, it won’t be ours anymore and I can’t wait to set it loose.