Few people decide to make three separate album projects in the span of one month's time.
I am one of those people.
Kearney was the place, Bluestem Psalter was the project and Emily, Kent and I crushed it. We ambitiously aimed to complete all the tracking by yesterday afternoon, but 2pm came around and I starting waving the white flag of surrender. By 4pm we had completed 14 tracks with 9 to go. The next time we're in the studio we will complete 9 lead vocal and backing vocal tracks and move on to mixing. This is an exciting prospect. Emily and I have been working and planning for this album for a couple of years now and to finally see it take shape and become what we've been imagining all this time is so rewarding. I can't wait for you guys to hear it!!!
Tomorrow Star Belle rehearses at Lisa's house for our show on Saturday night in Hastings. If you can, I would make the drive out there. It is going to be a love fest of the highest degree where we get to share with our friends and family the joy of being together and singing songs that took shape over the years we've been singing and they've been listening. Saturday night we record it live. If it's anything like our rehearsals have been, it's going to be magic in a bottle (and the bottle will look like a CD or digital download- easier to carry around). In the off season we've been working hard and showing up to rehearse old favorites and work out new ones. Every week we tune those instruments and fill each other up. It's so great. Fun side story: I was in Kansas City at Folk Alliance last weekend and a lady came up to me and asked, "Are you a Belle?" She had seen up perform in Denver and told me how inspired she was by our work. That's pretty awesome.
I've been gone a lot. I'm going to be gone for a week at the end of the month. Some people say they admire me for following my dreams, but following dreams can be real hard when means missing basketball games and pancake feeds and communion Sundays and kids singing in church. I know this is a blip on the screen in the big picture, but "the devil named Music is taking my life" right now.
Music is everywhere and that's exactly what I've been working for these past ten years ever since that first song struck me like lightning. I'm glad and I'm swamped and I love it and it's hard. But the richest treasures are like that sometimes, right? Thanks for being with me on the journey. I love you guys.