A little while back we all agreed things felt like they were starting to drag a bit, and since then we’ve been making rapid progress toward completing the recording of all the parts for all the songs on this record. This month has been another ambitious one.
Just a week or so ago we went in to Goody Sound with Myles Boisen, who brought his pedal steel guitar and his lap steel guitar, and proceeded to play on four of the songs.
As always these “Pleasant Valley Sessions” are produced by David Gans and Jeremy Goody at Goody Sound , with Goody engineering.
Moses
First, here’s an updated rough mix of “Moses” (work in progress), featuring Myles on both on those instruments, along with David on guitar, Dan Brodnitz on piano, and myself on vocals.
The Long Haired Kings
Another song from the record that was crying out for some pedal steel is “The Long Haired Kings.” Check out how Myles Boisen took this one up a whole notch!
This has David on guitar and backing vocals, Javier Navarrette on percussion, Myles on pedal steel guitar, and myself on ukulele and lead vocals:
Down to the Mountain
The basic tracks for “Down to the Mountain” were very spare: Dan on grand piano and me singing. Then Javier added percussion. Then David added guitar. Then I recut my vocals and added some ukulele fills.
Now we have Myles Boisen gracing the track with his lap steel!
Check it out:
The Ghost Door
The fourth song we worked on in last week’s session with Myles is “The Ghost Door,” the last song I wrote for this record (we were already recording it by then), which has a spare voice and ukulele basic part, with David and Robert Wade playing acoustic guitar over it.
On this one, Myles adds just the right ethereal otherwordly brushstrokes to the portrait on his pedal steel guitar. See if you agree!