Hi Folks,

A while ago, I asked a couple of the guys I've met at local jams and events to help me put together a few songs for a demo cd. They agreed to do it, so I scheduled a practice session right away. We met and talked about our rehearsal schedule. Don King, the rhythm guitarist, told Dick Barnes, who plays upright bass, and I that he was leaving in three weeks for Florida to spend the winter. So we kind of put things on the fast track and I reserved studio time that same day. We got together about ten times before the session. Our list of fifteen songs quickly got whittled down to six.

We practiced the songs over and over until the day of the appointment at the studio. When Jimmy Schellberg (the engineer/owner of Sonic Landscapes Recording Studio in Jackson, MI) heard our sound, he wanted to record us live, so he put us all in the same room together and we just played the songs. This took a few takes; it's amazing how easy it is to mess up when the tape is rolling. We all had a great time doing it and I learned a lot about the way things are done these days in a recording studio.

We have begun preparing to approach music agencies and labels with the demo cd. After eons, I want to get back to playing music publicly, something I haven't done much since soon after my mother claimed I was Elvis' kid in 1978. The search, need, desire for genetic proof is still foremost but, having asked virtually everyone for a DNA test to no avail, I feel that it is ok to focus on playing publicly again as well.

Tim