Monty Harper's latest CD for kids and parents, The Great Green Squishy Mean Concert CD, is finally here! Creating this recording was a labor of love; many hundreds of hours went into the effort, with many bumps and stumbles along the way.
Monty made regular entries to his blog (online journal) during the entire process to keep his fans updated on progress. Below is the complete gripping story, as it unfolded, from August 2004 to May 2005.
Howdy, Friends and Fans,
I have begun work on a new CD. I spent most of yesterday on it,
making simple demo recordings so I can see how the various songs
might fit together.
Last night I met with John Howk, a guitar player I worked with
a couple of times last semester. Since many of the songs I want
to record just wouldn't sound right without the audience participation,
John is helping me put together a band for a live performance.
The plan (it's still early now - this could change) is to get
four players together for rehearsals and then put on a show or
two in November with tape rolling.
The new CD will include tracks from the live shows as well as
some songs recorded at home in the studio. I have a list of 17
songs I'm considering. I don't want to say what they are because
some of them will inevitably get dropped from the list, and others
may still be added at this point. I'll just say that I'm selecting
songs based largely on your requests. I'll finally be recording
many of my "greatest (unavailable) hits."
So please stay tuned - I'll keep you posted here about progress
and about when and where those live shows will happen so you can
attend and be part of the new CD!
It's been a long couple of weeks, trying to set my plans in motion
for the new CD. After many setbacks, yesterday we held our first
rehearsal.
Right now the band consists of myself, John Howk on electric guitar
and/or bass, and Cody Byassee on drums. John and Cody are students
here at OSU and have played together before. They are professional-minded
musicians and are working hard with me to create arrangements
well-suited to each song. I'm lucky to have found them!
We still need either a keyboard player or a bass player. If you
know anybody, shoot me an email - monty@montyharper.com!
We worked on three songs yesterday: "Trick or Treat, Smell My
Feet," "Hanging Out With Heroes at the Library," and "You're a
Dinosaur." I brought home a recording of our best efforts for
evaluation. We have a long way to go, but I'm very excited about
the direction it's taking! This CD is going to have an energy
and excitement to it that will make it a real standout recording.
Our first live show (out of three) is tentatively scheduled for
November 10 in Stillwater, so mark your calendars! The recording
engineer will be Steve McLinn of Ojas Studio in OKC. Steve is
a recording guru - he knows equipment better than anyone I know,
and he has a fantastic ear. He'll capture sparkling recordings
of our shows.
We are working on the idea of providing a CD for sale immediately
after each program. Of course it will be offered "as is" with
all the glitches inherent in a live performance. But audience
members will be able to take home the ultimate souvenir - a recording
of the exact concert they just saw, with their own voices cheering
and singing along.
The commercial release will consist of the best performance of
each song, selected from among the various programs, and the sound
will be improved with careful editing, mixing, and mastering -
just a bit of polish to make sure the CD will stand up really
well to repeated listening.
Stay tuned!
We had our second band rehearsal for the new CD yesterday. We
welcomed Brad Hardy into the group on bass. Brad is a teacher
at the Middle School here in Stillwater. We're glad to finally
have the line-up finalized with John on electric guitar, Cody
on drums, Brad on bass, and me on acoustic guitar and singing.
We started with "Big Red Fire Truck" and it was a blast! This
song was meant to rock and I've never been able to do it justice
with an acoustic arrangement. So it was almost like hearing it
for the first time once we kicked into the groove. Very cool!
Cody in particular seemed surprised and delighted that we were
rocking out to a lyric about a fire truck! Fun, fun fun!
Next we worked on "Loose Tooth" and then we re-visited "Trick
or Treat Smell My Feet." Last time we'd given "Trick or Treat"
something of a Reggae feel. This time we brought the arrangement
closer to being its own thing. I relaxed into the vocal, and it
feels like it's starting to click.
I'm so excited about this new approach! I can't wait for you to
hear these songs!
On the performance front, November 10 is no longer on the calendar.
I'm working on some other possibilities, but I don't want to say
anything yet. As soon as we have a date and location firmed up
I will let you know.
We held our third rehearsal Wednesday, and it was a productive
one. It only took half an hour to set up (as opposed to the hour
it took last time) now that we kind of know what we're doing.
So we got in more time, and we worked through six (count them!)
songs: "Pop Up Sit Down," "The Frog Song," "Silly Song," "You're
a Dinosaur," "Hanging Out With Heroes at the Library," and "Big
Red Fire Truck."
It was a challenge to explain to the other guys what some of these
songs are like in front of an audience, but we soon got the communication
thing down. Basically what I needed to learn was: "Shut up and
sing!" The same principal applies when performing, if you want
the audience to do something for you I've learned the less said
about it the better. Over-explaining will lose them every time!
Poor Cody, our drummer, hadn't gotten much sleep. When I asked
if we could do one more song from last time, he said, "You know
which one I want," so we did "Big Red Fire Truck" just for him,
and it perked him right up! I can't wait to perform these songs
for you all - it's only going to be the funnest concert ever!
Which brings me to the performances - sorry, no news. It's been
a frustrating week on that front. All my tentative plans fell
apart. So I am working frantically to figure out when and where
we'll play. As soon as I know anything I'll post it here.
We are also interested in rehearsing at least once in front of
a group of kids and parents. If you have need for entertainment
some evening in October and room for a band to perform, let me
know!
OK - Good news!
I finally have the first of (probably) three concert dates set
for recording of the new CD!
The show will be at the Student Union Theater on campus in Stillwater,
Monday November 22 starting promptly at 7:00pm. Doors open at
6:30. Admission is free. Mark your calendars and tell all your
friends! This is going to be one exciting show! More details to
come!
Alright, we've got another concert date set up. This one is in
Oklahoma City at the City Arts building on the fairgrounds. The
date is Saturday November 6, at 2:00pm, doors open at 1:30. Mark
your calendars! Tell your friends!
This is the same venue used by the Oklahoma Children's Theater
by the way. We recently enjoyed our first visit there with Evalyn
to see "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" which was very cool. We bought
season tickets.
Wednesday's rehearsal got us through the rest of the songs I hope
to use on the CD - "Horny Toad," "The Great Green Squishy Mean
Bibliovore," "Love This Baby," and a new one, "Can It Be Over?"
I put together a mock-up of the entire CD using recordings from
rehearsals. I listened in the car today, taking a few notes on
spots that still need work. For the most part we are right on
track and I'm very pleased with the sound. I can't wait for you
all to hear it. I keep saying that, but, hey, I'm excited!
I visited with Steve McLinn today in Oklahoma City. He'll be our
sound and recording engineer at the programs. We tested out some
headset and guitar mics. Steve says he'd like to play in the band,
but he has gigs those days, ha ha. If only he had four arms! He's
a great musician as well as a brilliant equipment nut. The CD
will be in great hands with Steve!
I also dropped off an armload of flyers at the City Arts Center.
Now the promotion has begun, so it feels like I've passed an important
point of no return.
There are two shows scheduled for recording the new live CD. Saturday
Nov 6, 2:00 PM at City Arts Center in OKC, and Monday November
22, 7:00 PM at the Student Union Theater in Stillwater.
I'd like to know how my promotion is going and how many people
to expect at the shows, so I've set up a registration page. If
you fill in the short form you will land on a page with a printable
coupon. The coupon is good for $5 off any CD at the sales table.
That will include advanced orders of the new CD. No catch! I'm
basically paying you $5 to register and say you'll come to one
of the shows. (I also ask for your email address so I can keep
you informed about the shows, but I won't use it for anything
else, I promise!)
We had our fifth rehearsal today. We worked on "Loose Tooth,"
"Horny Toad," "Frog Song," "You're a Dinosaur," "Can It Be Over?,"
and "Big Red Fire Truck" - that's half the lineup. This time our
drummer, Cody, went all out and wore his plastic fireman's hat
for the fire truck song. Don't ask him why he has one, he just
does.
It was our first with a new bass player - Bob Moore of Oklahoma
City. Bob is a full time musician and sits in with all sorts of
bands around the OKC area. We're very glad to welcome him to the
group - for a while there it looked like we might not have a bass
player at all. (Brad had to back out due to the time committment.)
It also looks like we'll be adding one more public performance,
in Bartlesville. This one has been tentative on the calendar from
the start, but we had trouble with the venue. It's a long story,
and not all that interesting. Suffice it to say, it looked like
a yes, then it looked like a no, now it looks like a yes. More
details soon.
Boy if I'd known how difficult this would be to coordinate I -
well, I still would have done it, but I probably wouldn't have
planned on getting anything else done! Now I just have to promote
the shows and fill those seats. Tell all your friends!!
Last night was our sixth band rehearsal. Boy, sometimes it just
feels like swimming through jello.
First we tried to take a photo for use in flyers and such. I may
post the results here later - or I may just skip it. We wanted
orange shirts - purple was the only color I could get in the right
combination of sizes. We didn't have a camera-person handy so
I set up the video camera on a tripod and we stood outside on
an overcast evening while I ran back and forth adjusting the camera
and posing in the shot. Well, the photos we got this way are grainy
and shadowy - we all have very dark eye sockets so it looks like
night of the living dead children's musicians. Well, photoshop
helped a bit, and if I use them small enough, well... I wish I
had a budget for photography - maybe next time.
So that ate up a good chunk of time, and after everyone filled
up on Lisa's banana muffins (yum yum!) we worked on "The Great
Green Squishy Mean Bibliovore." This one seemed to take forever
to come together. It's a very complicated arrangement, which I
never realized before, playing it on my own. We've been through
it once with the group, but hadn't sweated the details until now.
It just took time. But we got it - it sounds great!
Then we had time for only two more - "Hanging Out With Heroes
at the Library" and "Love This Baby." On "Love This Baby" Bob
is playing Mandolin and John is playing bass. The mandolin on
there sounds really great and it'll lend some color and contrast.
After grinding through six songs last time it was a bit frustrating
getting to only three. Meanwhile the number of rehearsals left
keeps dwindling!
But we're very close. Bob only has three more songs to learn,
and then we can start just playing through the set over and over
to reinforce everything. Most of the arrangements are pretty well
set. Tell me to just quit fretting and keep practicing!
Well, we've added one more show to the Family Rock Concert live
CD recording tour!
This one is in Bartlesville, November 19 at 7:00 at Tri-County
Tech in the Osage Room. It will be part of Tellebration, put on
by the Tallgrass Tellers. The band and I will perform either before
or after a set of stories by several tellers. It promises to be
a really cool eveing of entertainment. Mark your calendars! Tell
your friends!
What are you doing this Sunday afternoon? (October 24)
We are having a technical rehearsal. This just means the band
will run through the songs while the sound engineer records, making
sure that all will go well for the real thing on Nov 6, 19, and
22.
One pair of mics will be aimed into the audience, but it would
be a shame to record silence, especially on those songs that hinge
on audience participation.
If you'd like a sneak peak (or listen) to hear the band before
anyone else, come to the technical rehearsal. Drop by anytime
between 3:00 and 4:00 Sunday afternoon and stay as long as you
want (we'll be out of there by 5:00). It's kind of informal. We'll
be starting, stopping, and doing over I'm sure, so it'll have
a different feel from a concert, but it'll still be fun!
We'll be in the Student Union Little Theater on campus here in
Stillwater.
Mark your calendar! Tell your friends! Hope to see you then!
I just had to post this and brag on and thank a few fans!
Last night I sent a message out to my email lists in Stillwater
and OKC asking for help distributing some handbills about my upcoming
concerts with the band.
Yesterday I printed up 1500 hand bills, feeling a bit nervous
that I wouldn't be able to get rid of that many.
Then the emails started coming in, with folks requesting anywhere
from 10 to 400+ copies to hand out. Now it looks like I'll need
to print more!
I am always amazed by and thankful for the devotion of my friends
and fans. I couldn't make music without you!
I hope that when each of you hear the new CD you'll get warm fuzzies
for knowing that you helped make it possible!!
Thanks!
Well we had our technical rehearsal yesterday at the Student Union
Little Theater. Our sound guru, Steve McLinn, joined us to record.
Our purpose was to make sure everything will run smoothly at show-time,
and boy is it a good thing we did this.
I invited my mailing list but I don't think anyone showed up for
a sneak peek. Which is just as well since the front entrance to
the theater was covered with plastic because they were painting!
(I didn't actually see anyone painting but I guess they had been.)
If someone did try to come and was thwarted by a wall of plastic,
my apologies. I wouldn't have invited the public if the Union
had let me know this was going to be going on.
And this was just the first of our troubles! It took much longer
to set up than anticipated. My voice had some wild distortion
on it that we had to track down and eliminate. And then we were
experiencing strange acoustic anomalies. I would sing and play
and hear myself coming out of the sound system a split second
later, which is very disorienting. Steve says it's not his system
- it's the room, which is basically round, and focuses all the
reverberation back to one spot, which was where I was standing.
It's the visual focal point of the room, and right there the delay
becomes noticeably much worse than anywhere else. (If you know
the little theater, this is the rounded end of the stage.) Steve
says it's acoustically the worst place he's ever stood. And Steve
has stood in a whole lot of acoustic places.
But fear not, from the audience everything sounds great. (So they
tell me!)
So it took some time to try to figure that out, and after struggling
through a couple of tunes, We finally decided I should stand further
back, closer to the other band members. I usually like to be right
up where I can see the faces in the audience, so I was now out
of my comfort zone in that respect, but, I could hear a lot better,
and we zipped through several songs sounding great.
Lisa and Evalyn (my wife and 3 year old daughter) arrived in the
theater just about as we were starting to run through songs. Evalyn
was cute - she came up on stage and whispered in my ear - "Daddy,
be careful how you sound." I asked her if there was something
wrong with the way I sounded. "You're too loud." (We were still
making adjustments.)
In the end we had eaten up so much time solving problems that
we only got through ten out of thirteen songs. (I was hoping to
do them all at least once, some twice.)
But when Steve played back the recording it sounded great, and
that is the main point!
As we packed up, little doubts were creeping into my brain. Will
we be able to set up on time for the show on the 22nd? Will I
be able to give a good show and make a good recording at the same
time? It seems that the requirements of each often conflict. Plus
general fear of the unknown - this band has not performed for
an audience before and I'll be recording a CD!! Am I nuts?!
I guess it showed on my face because John and Steve and Bob and
Lisa all offered encouraging words. I'm definitely facing a steep
learning curve here, performing with a band for the first time.
But I'm very lucky to have surrounded myself with talented people
who care about the quality of their work! I know that if I give
a great performance I can depend on the rest of the group to back
me up and all will be well. So I'd better go put in some practice!
Here I am in Locust Grove, killing time between shows. I'm at
the Early Learning Center. I sang for Pre-K and Kindergarten this
morning. They were a great group and gave me their attention for
a whole 40 minutes. We ended with "Trick or Treat" which is kind
of a tradition for me here at Locust Grove, and even though it's
been a couple of years, the kids jumped right in on the chorus!
It's always fun when they know my songs!
I'll sing for 1st and 2nd grade here pretty soon and the councelor
assures me that they know the songs even better!
Last night we had our ninth band rehearsal. This time we didn't
record, but just ran through the songs two or three times each,
working out any kinks that still remain. For the most part the
songs are sounding great! We'll have one more rehearsal before
the big debut show a week from Saturday in OKC.
Hi Lisa and Evalyn! I love you!! See you soon!
We had our tenth rehearsal last night, which was also the last
one before the first show Saturday.
It went really well! All the songs are sounding great. We ran
through the entire set - twelve songs. Lisa provided banana muffins,
which is always a lift. I felt much better about the program at
the end of the evening. A lot of apprehention (left over from
the tech rehearsal) melted away and we just had fun playing the
music. At one point we even broke into a 12 bar blues jam.
Who knows what will happen Saturday? It'll be a great time for
all I think - I hope to see you there!!!
Boy am I worn out!
Our first show for the new CD was this afternoon in OKC. We had
about 45 people in the audience, including three who came all
the way from Plano, TX! Hi, Keith and Sarah and Chad! - It was
great to see you there today!
Evalyn made a new friend - she can't stop talking about Rachel,
who came early with her mom to help us out with programs and the
sales table. Thanks Monica and Rachel and Evan!
Folks purchased CDs of the show afterward (they'll be in the mail
soon) so it couldn't have gone too badly! I was just glad to survive
it. I will get to hear the recording Tuesday, and I will reserve
judgement until then.
Even though we had a small audience, they were great with the
participation parts, and I'll be excited to hear how that turned
out on tape. (Well, on disc I guess I should say - it's all digital!)
Most of the folks there were fans, so it was a good chance to
find out how the show with the band compares to just me. Most
of those I had a chance to talk to said they liked the band -
it does give the songs some extra kick! One dad said that something
is lost performing with the group, but something also gained,
so it's just different. If you were there, please post your impressions!
I drove to OKC Tuesday to meet with Steve and get a rough mix
of the first show. Rough is the operative word. The entire recording
was an hour and seven minutes long. We only had two hours to mix
it. So we didn't try to make any corrections. At home I removed
all the unnecessary talking between songs and got it down to fifty
minutes. Everything sounded good, but there is a problem with
the audience sound, which is that the microphones picked up more
band than audience. This introduces phase problems and makes it
really echoey if the audience track is brought up too much. So
it will be a real challenge to mix.
The performance sounds much better on the recording than I remember
it in person, but it still could be much improved. It's frustrating
because we sound so tight in rehearsal & I want the recordings
to come out as great as I know we can play. We are hoping it's
a matter of spending a bit more time and focus setting up so that
we can hear and see one another better during the shows.
We had a rehearsal Wednesday night and worked hard on a few trouble
spots. We also wrote down the optimal tempos for several songs.
Trick or Treat was a challenge to nail down - too fast and the
verses sound rushed; too slow and the chorus plods. I was under
the impression that as a solo act I sing the verses slower than
the chorus, but Cody measured it with the metronome and if anything
the opposite is true!
At one point while I was singing with the band it hit me that
even if I spend all this money and don't get a stellar recording,
at least I got to play with a band and hear my songs the way I
imagine them - some of them really rock! It's fun. And I'm glad
I took the risk. Better to try and fail than not to have tried
at all. Plus, Lisa reassures me that the recording I already have
will make a good live album, so I've really already succeeded.
Now I just hope to make it even better.
One more rehearsal before I head out to Bartlesville. We're hoping
to have a really great crowd there on Friday the 19th since I'll
be visiting all the elementary schools that week. Then the following
Monday the 22nd is our final show in Stillwater. After that, a
short break, then I start editing and mixing! It's hard to believe
we are so close to being "over the hump" and ready for post-production.
Wish me luck!
Here we are in the library at Jane Phillips Elementary. I've done
both my shows for the day. Lisa is chatting with the librarians
and Evalyn is getting to know Dewey the stuffed panda bear, who
just got a set of reindeer antlers to wear on his head.
I added "Big Red Fire Truck" to today's programs, and that went
really well. I haven't performed it a whole bunch yet, so I'm
still learning how to interact with the kids on it. In both shows
they started singing along with the chorus with no prompting.
That's always a good sign! Fire Truck is one of the songs that
I think sounds especially great with the band - we'll be recording
it during the show tomorrow night.
Last night I spent a couple of hours practicing in the hotel room.
"Can It Be Over" is the one song in the program for tomorrow night
that is new to this project. It's a fun song and it shows off
each band member, giving them a chance to solo. It's also very
simple, but frustratingly difficult. I think all the band members
feel that way about it. But that's the story of my life - If I
can make a simple thing difficult I'll find a way to do it. Anyhow,
practice practice practice. I'll try to get some more in tonight,
then the big day will be here and it'll go how it goes.
I really hope to see a lot of the folks from the schools out at
Tri County Tech for the show. Everyone's been very very friendly
and helpful and the kids have been fantastic. If I get half the
enthusiasm at the big show we'll end up with a great recording!
Signing off...
I didn't get another chance to blog you from Bartlesville, but
we're home now and I thought I'd take a moment to catch you up.
Sorry if you've tried to visit the website at montyharper.com
and run into trouble. I don't know what's going on but I'm trying
to get it figured out. You can visit here directly at montyharper.blogspot.com,
but then here you are, so maybe you knew that!
The last school show was at Kane elementary yesterday morning,
where we packed all the Pre-K through 2nd graders into the library.
For a moment it looked like they wouldn't all fit, but we found
places for everyone. I don't know if I've ever had a better group.
Those kids participated with great enthusiasm, but even more impressively,
they quieted themselves between songs. I don't think I had to
ask for their attention even once!
We were packed in so tightly I didn't dare try "You're a Dinosaur"
but I had heard on the morning announcements that the word of
the day was "Voracious" so I couldn't resist doing "The Great
Green Squishy Mean Bibliovore" which has the word "Voraciously"
prominently featured. The kids and the librarian got a kick out
of that.
Well you're probably wondering how the evening show went! We got
into the room early and it was set up like a restaurant (which
is basically what it is most of the time) with big heavy tables
and chairs everywhere. I found the building manager and she was
unaware we needed it set up differently. She looked a bit pale
when I told her - the tables were rather hard to move and there
was nobody around to do it. Anyhow to make a long story short,
after a brief period of panic (during which I also found out that
Steve, the sound guy, was stuck in traffic) we got the process
of re-arranging the room underway. My wife, Lisa, gets credit
and thanks for most of the heavy scooching.
Steve arrived and identified another challenge: the room lighting.
Basically there was no light on the end where it made the most
sense to put the band. Steve helped fix the problem, teetering
on a ladder trying to move track lights that seemed unwilling
to budge. We also set up a couple of floor lamps, which at least
improved the situation.
We managed to get all the equipment in and set up before John
and Cody showed up, and were ready for a sound check, but the
bass player, Bob was still at large. Just at the moment we were
about to run a sound check without him, in he came. It turns out
he was also stuck in traffic, and with a cell phone that wasn't
working.
My show was hosted by the Tallgrass Tellers, a Bartlesville storytelling
group, and was part of Tellebration, an international storytelling
event. I thought they were very accommodating to allow me to bring
my rock 'n' roll band, after all it doesn't exactly fit the image
of a "storyteller." Even though they knew that my songs tell stories,
it was going out on a limb a bit for them to try something so
different, for which I was very appreciative.
So I began to panic again when we did the sound check and members
of the Tellers were making sour faces and putting their hands
over their ears, because we were - LOUD! The room was pretty small
and responsive, and even when we made sure we were playing as
softly as possible, we were still loud.
However, and in spite of a vocal mic that was trying to make me
look like an idiot by constantly lowering itself, the show went
very well. Once we had people in the seats (about fifty of 'em)
the band didn't seem quite so loud, and once the audience began
grooving with the music I think all the presenters relaxed a bit.
I haven't heard the recording yet, but Steve did a lot of grinning
during the show. He says the audience came through beautifully.
They were very enthusiastic participators. And that cantankerous
vocal mic sounded great on my voice - much better than our previous
attempts to record using a wireless mic. Standing in one spot
to sing felt a bit weird to me but I got used to it.
The only problems I anticipate with the recording are due to my
own mistakes. As Lisa says, I get nervous, wanting it to be perfect,
and that causes me to make mistakes. It's a psychological Catch-22.
But we set up the sound in a new way and could all hear better,
so the band was much tighter than last time. I think at the last
show Monday night I'll feel more relaxed. Hopefully between the
two we'll have great takes of every song.
After we all signed autographs and ate cookies during the intermission
and we made sure John, the guitar player, had a ride home (a whole
other story) it was nice to relax and catch at least part of the
second half of the show. The Tallgrass Tellers provided three
storytellers. I was glad to see that most of the audience stayed
on and enjoyed the more traditional storytelling part of the evening
as well.
Evalyn did so well! She latched onto a new friend, 6 year old
Kiara, and they played together before the show. They sat together
during the show, and Evalyn was a great audience member for me!
By the end of the show Evalyn had conked out across some chairs
and was sound asleep for the entire second half and the tear down
afterward.
Bob had to scoot right out to another gig, but the rest of the
band capped off the evening with a late night trek to the local
pizza joint. It was nice to have a chance to relax, socialize,
and eat! (I'd only had a chance to grab a few apple slices and
a couple of cookies since lunch!) If you're ever in Bartlesville
check out The Pizza Place. That's what it's called, honest. It's
a tiny building but the pizza is superb.
It's weird to think this week is over - I've been preparing for
it for so long! It'll be even weirder after Monday's show, when
I move into a totally new phase of the project: post production!
I hope we get to visit Bartlesville again soon. All the kids were
wonderful and the trees were outrageous this time of year - bright
yellow and red. That was Evalyn's first observation when we arrived.
I said, "We're in Bartlesville Evalyn, what do you think?" She
said, "I like the trees!" Her other favorite was the hotel swimming
pool.
Anyhow, I need to thank Fran Stallings, my main contact who put
together the public events, and Mary Birkett who drummed up the
funding and arranged for all the school shows, as well as all
the librarians who hosted me at each school and all the other
Tallgrass Tellers who worked hard to publicize the events - everybody
made me feel welcome and appreciated.
I just got in from the last show. It went very well. I was a bit
nervous about the time constraint - we had to be in at 5:00, ready
to play at 6:30, and out by 9:00. But we were able to get in a
bit early and with previous experience we got set up quickly and
had plenty of time to run through a few songs before the doors
opened at 6:30. We had none of the trouble from the room that
we had at the tech rehearsal and I felt more relaxed before this
show than the others.
We could hear each other well, and the band played very well together.
The audience was great! We had a good sized group - they filled
the front middle section of the theater and spilled over into
the sides. The band enjoyed watching the kids rocking out in their
seats!
One piece of bad news from Steve - apparently the computer he
was recording on suffered a glitch and failed to record all of
"Horny Toad" which is particularly aggravating, since I felt we
did our best job ever performing that song. For those who ordered
a CD of the show, I'm not sure what this means - I may be able
to edit together a short version of the song. We'll just have
to see how big the "hole" is in the recording.
I'll head for Steve's studio in OKC tomorrow evening to pick up
all the recordings and load them onto my own hard drive. Then
begins the post production process of editing and mixing. I'll
keep you "posted!"
Here's an update on the new CD...
I've been working on the live concert mixes. These are the concert
CDs that some folks at the concerts pre-purchased. Each one contains
an entire concert with little or no editing. The Oklahoma City
and Bartlesville concerts are finished and shipped out. I'm working
on the Stillwater mix as I type this.
It has taken longer than I imagined to get up and running - I've
been learning new software on a new computer in order to be able
to do this. But now that I've got it going, it takes about a day
to mix one whole concert (the first one took a lot longer), and
another day to make final adjustments, burn cds and address envelopes.
I should have the Stillwater show in the mail soon. (I also have
two more school shows this week, so I'll be juggling my time back
and forth.)
The reason I can do it so quickly (yes, a day to mix 12 songs
is very fast) is because these are rough mixes - I'm not doing
any editing to fix mixtakes or auto-mixing to fix fluctuations
in levels. All that will be done though, for the final CD, once
I first decide which version of each song will go on it.
The more I work with these files, the more I like what I'm hearing.
Each concert got better than the previous in terms of the performance,
and even the first concert sounds pretty darned good! After listening
over and over I have a new appreciation for all the work and effort
my band members put in - they each did an outstanding job for
me! Once I polish it up a bit, I should have a really great CD
on my hands!
I've also gotten a lot of positive feedback from people who were
at the shows, and even from one CD recipient already. I'll take
some time after I mail out the Stillwater CDs to put those comments
up on the website. Until then, if you were there, feel free to
post a comment here on the blog!!
Good grief it really has. We've been sickies around here the past
two weeks, passing various cold symptoms around amongst ourselves
and my parents. Yesterday we took Evalyn to the doctor for the
third time since Christmas, this time with a painful ear infection.
Lucky for us, although her latest was the worst, it was also the
shortest - today she already seems to be back to her normal self!
But Lisa has now lost her voice. My turn for something next.
Anyhow, with all this going on I've been mixing when I can, and
I have two songs at the "done for now" stage. I'm just burning
them to a CD as I write this so that I can try them out on various
players to hear how they sound and determine whether further adjustments
are needed. Then they'll go into Steve's studio for some finishing
touches and mastering.
Only eleven more songs to go!
Things should move along more quickly from here out, supposing
we all feel healthy. Now that I know the software pretty well,
having taken many wrong turns, I will get into a work groove with
no wrong turns and start cranking them out.
The two songs that are finished: "Horny Toad" and "Silly Song."
One reason I started with them was that each presented unique
technical challenges to be worked out, i.e. they were two of the
tough ones. So like I said, now I've learned a lot and it will
go faster.
I've been struggling to get enough time in at the computer editing
and mixing the new CD. It's been slower going than I'd hoped,
but the results sound great. I'm just about finished with "The
Frog Song." That one was particularly tricky due to all the audience
interaction - lots of little bits to get just right. Later this
week I plan to meet with Steve, my sound dude, to tweak the mixes
I've got so far in his studio. That will give me some feedback
on how I'm doing.
I took some mixes to Steve McLinn at Ojas studio in Oklahoma City
this weekend. Steve is the one who recorded the live shows for
my upcoming CDs. He'll be mastering the CD and he's advising me
on the mixes. It was great to get a second set of ears listening,
especially a set as knowledgeable as Steve's. I just spent the
past two hours implementing his advice on the "Horny Toad" mix
- things like: a bit of reverb on the snare (just the initial
reflections, no tail), gate the snare, small adjustments to the
EQ on bass and kick, put a limiter on the kick, pan more toward
the center, a touch of plate reverb on the vocal, more acoustic
guitar, and presto! Did you catch all that? It sounds much better,
trust me, - Thanks, Steve! - and it sounded pretty darn good to
begin with if I say so myself!
That was an important meeting because it gave me confidence in
the mixing settings and decisions I've made so far. Many of these
will be the same for all the songs, so mostly what I need to worry
about now is editing - selecting the best bits from all three
shows, pulling them together, correcting yucky mistakes where
possible and smoothing out the peaks and valleys, one song, one
instrument at a time.
It's incredible what digital editing lets you do! In "Horny Toad"
alone, get this - there was a computer glitch during the Stillwater
show and one section of the song did not get recorded, but Stillwater
was the best performance otherwise. So I filled in the missing
part with the Bartlesville show, which was recorded in a different
room, and even at a different tempo-!! You can't hear the switch!
It's smooth as silk. I even flew in a single word from the City
Arts show (in which a different vocal mic was used!) to correct
a missed note in the vocal - Steve couldn't tell, and his ears
are golden. I reconstructed a bass line from individual notes
because it had been played wrong and clashed with the other guitar
parts. These were just a few of the biggest challenges I've tackled.
It can get tedious, but when I hear the results it's a lot of
fun to look back and know what it took to make it sound so great.
Don't worry - I'm not perfecting it to death. The energy and "liveness"
of the recording is still very much present. I'm walking that
fine line carefully. I was tempted to use two different acoustic
guitar parts simultaneously - one from each of two different shows
- but that was just a bit too odd - suddenly there's a phantom
guitar player on stage? I nixed that idea. I want to keep it real,
but also take out the clunkers so that you'll love to hear these
recordings over and over.
Well, I'd best get back to work. I know I've said it before, but
I think I'm at the point now, for real, where I'll start cranking
out mixes at a much faster pace. More soon.
Oh, and the title of the new CD will be (drum roll please)...
-- The Great Green Squishy Mean Concert CD --
Leave a comment. Let me know what you think.
(My graphic designer will probably want to kill me when he tries
to fit it on the spine!)
I've been editing and mixing "Love This Baby" this week. It took
me only three days to "finish"!! I put finish in quotes because
once I burn a mix to CD and listen around I always find a change
or two to make.
On this song Bob, the bass player, played electric mandolin, and
John, the guitar player, played bass. Bob's performance was better
at Bartlesville, but my vocal was much better at Stillwater, so
I used liberal portions of both shows to construct a "best" performance
overall.
This one cleaned up very nicely. The wonderful mandolin sound,
Cody's drumming with brushes, and John's solid style of bass all
team up to give it a distinct feel.
Four down; nine to go!
I just finished a first mix of "You're a Dinosaur." This mix only
took me two days. I'm definitely getting quicker at it!
This is one of the rockingest songs on the CD, and it features
John's distinctive electric guitar part on the verses - it's an
energetic little groove accented by a high pitched harmonic on
the "and" of four. Very cool. This one also features the audience
roaring like dinosaurs, and doing the "hadrosaur hoot" - which
may be one of the most distinctive sounds ever captured in bits.
(I almost said on tape - but this is a digital recording!)
It won't be too long before you can actually hear what I've been
talking about - I have registered a domain name for the new CD
and will soon put up a website to include sound clips of the mixes
I'm working on along with lots of other exciting stuff.
You can check it out at www.greatgreensquishymeanconcertcd.com
- yes, it's mighty long. But there it is.
Right now there's nothing there. But you will be able to say you
were the first visitor!
Well I finished another song Friday - "Pop Up Sit Down." Actually
I made two versions of it. If you know the song you know that
I say a lot of things other than "Pop Up" just to play with the
audience a bit and try to fool them. So each performance of this
one was unique. I may find a way to release multiple versions
so that once you learn what to expect on one you can surprise
yourself by listening to a different performance.
It's been a long two days so far this week. I wanted to get the
rest of the songs loaded up and ready to edit. I was maybe even
going to do a quick mix of each so I could start working on sequencing
the CD as a whole. Instead I've spent most of the time battling
the computer. I won't bore you with the details, but I've done
a lot of file copying and moving trying to get the software to
deal properly with the audio so that I'll be able to take it to
Steve later for mastering, bla bla bla. Anyhow, it's a lot of
trying this or that and then waiting 20 minutes while big files
get moved around. And I can't work on 'em while that's going on.
And I may have just made a big mistake. Waiting for files to copy
right now in an attempt to fix it. Very frustrating!
My guitarist, John, is coming over this evening to hear some of
the mixes. It'll be the first time any of the band have heard
the post production. Hopefully I'll have all this straightened
out before he gets here! Wish me luck!
I've been working on my editing and mixing since I got back from
Ft. Worth. I've finished "Loose Tooth" and I'm working on "The
Great Green Squishy Mean Bibliovore" - should finish it today.
That will make 8 down and 5 to go! And I've gotten some basics
done on the 5 to go, so I estimate two or three weeks before the
mixes are finished, another week for mastering, another couple
of weeks for duplication.... I should definitely have these in
hand by May, to throw out a conservative estimate. Guess I'd better
get back at it!
Howdy friends and fans,
This week I finished a mix of "Hanging Out With Heroes at the
Library" and one of "Big Red Fire Truck."
"Fire Truck" really got me excited as I cleaned it up a bit and
the mix came together - it ROCKS! OK, I'm calm. After I mixed
the instruments yesterday, I listened several times through just
jamming out and enjoying the groove. I can't wait for you all
to hear it.
Well this makes ten down and only THREE to go!! "Trick or Treat"
is up next.
I am so sick of editing and mixing I could throw my computer out
the window! I want to be creating new music - not hashing through
stuff I recorded in November!!
I'm calm again. It's OK. Really.
When I hear the result, it's worth the effort. But I don't know
if I'll ever record this way again - too much post-production.
Maybe someday I'll be able to afford to pay someone to do this
part for me!
The other day I was bouncing around the house doing my Daffy Duck
laugh. It was scary. I'm going a little loopy being focused so
intently on this one project. But by the end of next week I'll
be able to move on to the mastering phase and that will be very
good. I'll have Steve to help me with that and we can go loopy
together.
Woo! Woohoo! Woohoohoo! Woohoohoohoo!
Bdb Bdbd Bd Bd That's all, folks!
Howdy,
Well tonight I am not editing and mixing - my computer is in the
shop. Last night when we went to bed we caught a strange burning
sort of smell wafting down the hallway and traced it back to the
vent along the top back panel of my iMac G5. Not good! I was able
to shut the computer down normally, but the mac folk advised against
starting it up again until technicians could check it out. So
I took it to Oklahoma City today and will find out tomorrow how
long I'll be without it. Now I'm very glad I bought the Apple
Care Protection plan.
Too cool - I just got an email from the Unisong contest. It looks
like their generic email sent to all the entrants to let them
know the winners have been posted. So my first thought was, oh
well, not this year. Last year when I took third place for "Diving
in the Deep Blue Sea," the first I heard of it was a message on
my answering machine. So I assumed that this year I didn't place.
Well it took a few moments of staring at the website to realize
that the dude in the photo is me. I took second place this time
in the children's category with "Loose Tooth," which will be the
first track on the new CD! Don't ask what prizes I'll receive,
cause I don't know yet, but I do know that to place in the top
three in this contest is a very high honor. The competition is
open to professional songwriters all over the world and it's very
tough to place. So I'm excited!
I'm also excited for my friend Joe McDermott. His song, "Baby
Kangaroo," placed second in the International Songwriting Contest.
That news just came out yesterday. You can hear Joe's song several
times a day on XM Kids. It's a great song - very fun and funny.
And I love the ping-pong ball percussion.
Well, I picked up my computer on Friday, so I only lost a week's
worth of work. When I'm down to the last three weeks, that's pretty
significant. But I spent the week working on other things that
needed to be done, including the CD booklet, so it wasn't a total
loss.
Over the weekend I edited and mixed "Trick or Treat Smell My Feet."
I know a lot of fans out there will be excited to get this one
on CD, and this new version is so much cooler than the old old
one!
Two songs to go!
I've been solid busy working on the CD. I brought home a master
today from Steve's studio. That means the recording is done! No
more changes! Whew, baby, it took some late nights to get to this
point! I'm excited, because it sounds fantastic!
The Cover is nearly finished. The artwork looks great. I hope
to post it soon, along with sound samples and pre-ordering information.
So many little things to take care of! Hopefully I'll send it
off for duplication before we leave for our vacation. Hey, I'm
a poet, but I knew that.
Anyhow the estimated release date is May 20.
In the mean time keep saying to yourself, "I must have The Great
Green Squishy Mean Concert CD" over and over and over...
Now you can listen to samples from each of the songs on my new
CD. They're listed right on the front page of my website at www.montyharper.com!