Yesterday was a day for tying up loose ends. We finished guitars in the morning. The afternoon was spent with Marie, a lovely viola addition to the record. She played a bit on "King and A Friend" and "After the Fade".

We did a lot editing as well to catch up to be ready vocals.

It is a sad day. This marks our last day in the Hyde Park Studio..

We first attacked some group vocals, and they sound huge. We are closing out with some overdubs and percussion. That's the good news.

The bad news is that my voice is not cooperating so we will be doing vocals in a few weeks on a return trip.

Know anyone with frequent flyer miles?

I have peace about this as my throat is far from 100%, and I want my best on the table. Everything else sounds great, so it'd be silly to throw some sub-par vocals on the tracks. All in all, I am very happy with how things are coming out. We are spending the afternoon listening through everything and making some preliminary edits and production notes. So seriously.

Frequent flyer miles anyone?

Guitars. Oh me oh my, so tasty.  Taylor Johnson rockin' the 6-string. There were many layers to this birthday cake and no need for candles.

Something in the higher register.

"Wait, wait, wait...gimme another chance. I can play that better."


Great tones.


Listening back. Ears happy.

This fine day is dedicated to keys: rhodes, piano, pads, organs, and the like.

Chase Jenkins is cranking them out like a printing press. The next part more amazing than the last. The sheer width of the wall of sound is just lovely.

"Brown Bag" is an amazing lunch establishment that I recommend highly. Genius idea for ordering too. See picture below.

Taylor paid us a visit and heard our tunes for the first time.

Chase and I discussing keys.

Producer pow wow.

Aaron, Brennen, and Tim listening in.

DZ trying some keys options.

Taylor rocking the hat and the guitar.

4 things you need to know on day 4 in the studio:
1. The acoustic guitars are out.
2. The anti-biotics are in.
3. Ryan Booth our engineer is the man.
4. Chik-Fil-A is so special to me.

Things keep moving along.  We're getting there!

Check out the pics Ryan snapped today. He's ridiculously talented in many forms of art. He is helping document the process of the recording and for that I am deeply grateful.

So a family from Robbie Seay's church has adopted several kids and have 9 kids all together.

Wow.

Robbie and his band played a benefit concert for this family and then somehow got noticed by someone with the hook-ups in Major League Baseball. Robbie and this family's father were given 20 Houston Astros tickets and Robbie invited his band, some inner-city kids, and me to come along. We hung out in the clubhouse, and got to meet all your favorite players (i say "YOUR favorite players" because I do not watch baseball on TV. Attending a game is awesome however.)

Anyway, Lance Berkman and Chris Sampson are really nice guys.

Below is a picture of the crew from last night. From left to right in the back you have, Manuel, me, Robbie, Larry and Jon (a couple Ecclesia guys), Taylor the guitar phenom, Ryan the bass player with his Raybans hanging off his v-neck, and Chris Seay the teaching pastor at Ecclesia. In the front row you have all the kids that came along, some of them are children of the adults and others are just kids from church.

It's safe to say that this group of people will probably never be at the same place at the same time ever again in this life. Good times though, and very good game from the Astros.

The highlight of the evening for me was the foot-long hot dog I consumed during the 3rd inning. It was amazing. I do however, believe it cost $27. Ballparks and airports are bad places to stretch the already weak American dollar into a meal.