oh junior!

STUDIO DAY #17

If you've been watching the videos lately you've probably noticed there are a lot of shots of me with the mandolin (that odd shaped guitar looking thing). What's funny about all of these shots is that out of all the days (today) we actually used the mandolin on the album, we did not get any footage of me playing it. However, here is some interesting facts about my mandolin:

1.) I got it for free with a 100 dollar guitar offer from musiciansfriend.com in 2003
2.) it is made by Johnson brand instruments
3.) It doesn't stay in tune very well

We had a nice time trying to get the mandolin to stay in tune for it's minute and a half part in "Giving It All To You" - it was very much a pain. I'm no mandolin player as it is, not only that, Johnson does not make very reliable instruments anyway. Out of frustration with the 'mando,' I came up with a slogan for Johnson instruments today and it goes as follows .... "If it doesn't say Johnson on it, it's probably a better brand."

After working out my wicked mandolin part we had a fellow come in by the name of Junior Knight who plays a mean pedal steel guitar. He was a very nice guy and has been a performing musician for almost 50 years. You will hear his work on "Giving It All To You" - a little bit in "It's Not Over" and he's the starring role in "Who You Are." He really knows his pedal steel.

Afterwards Toby started to track harmony for a few songs. These are what I call "stunt vocals" because I'm too afraid to do them. Not really, but for some reason my voice kept going into falsetto and it did not sound right.

We have 4 more days in the studio and I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but I'm excited about this record.