Just a short update on yesterday's recording session with Barry Finn and Neil Downey. Wow, what a time! Everything seemed to be working well. Barry and Neil managed to find our house here in Richmond, Maine, after the Friday music session at the Press Room in Portsmouth, NH, and well before midnight. We tucked them in and after a leisurely breakfast the next morning we laid down 24 tracks, most of which should survive the editing as "keepers." JudyB did a superb job of recording, and keeping everyone focused on what needed to be done next. She is a master at herding cats, but even her talents were challenged by the impetuous pair of Barry and Neil. We will issue a separate CD of outake digressions!

We did take a lunch break at the Railway Cafe, where since we were doing some "quiet" singing we attracted the attention of a traditional style Maine songwriter who just happened to be sitting at the next table. He's an older gentleman who I'd only heard about from his public radio programs and he soon came over and we had a great time sharing snippets of songs and swapping stories. We also took a supper break in the neighboring town of Wiscasset, refueling ourselves with lobster calzones and Barry's cheeseburger. So although we were all working intensely, we did take time to regenerate batteries.

Neil even took the time to work me in for harmony backups. He is certainly one of the best people I've run across for figuring out what harmonies work, and how to demonstrate that to other singers without terrifying them. We really had a lot of fun working out the songs, and at least two thirds of them were unfamiliar to me.

I expect that it will be some time before more than the rough draft of the tracks is available for review by Barry and Neil; they should have the rough draft by next weekend. But now this project is, indeed, outward bound!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble