Way Back Close And Personal

Evenin friends,

Just a short note to let you know that I'm very close to finishing my very first solo CD with Billy Worley co-producing as well as playing many many parts and instruments plus being a huge help keeping the project on track through several major snow storms and being available to me, Pat Lawrence and Robbie Wells to help bring this project home before we leave.

I recut almost all of the vocals in 3 or so hours this afternoon which is amazing in anyone's experience but particularly regarding how well they all turned out.  Robbie adds mandolins to 2 more tracks tomorrow and then we mix it Tuesday night and I master it Wednesday and Thursday it goes to Bright Images to be duplicated where the sleeves await the CDs and I'll have it ready to take to France before we leave!

Mere words are not adequate to express the respect and awe I hold Billy Worley, Pat Lawrence, and Robbie Wells in and gratitude and love I have for them caring for my music like they did on this project.  I'm belaboring the point here I guess as they have ALWAYS taken such great care with our band and brought so much into our lives by just being who they are and playing the way they play.
Truly some of the absolute finest musicians and people we've ever known.

I'm so happy now I don't know if I'll be able to sleep much tonight.  What a day it was in the studio with Billy today!  I haven't felt this way since working with my friend and mentor Scott Martin in El Paso, TX, many many years ago.  True musical magic is so fleeting and experiencing it has always been a soul stirring revelation for me.

Needless to say, I'll be basking in the warmth of these guys through this project for a long long time....*

How I love them all so............*  And how I'll miss them so............*

Love to you all wherever you are.....*

sid

Goodbyes

Evenin pilgrims,

Just got back from Wardstock III and seeing some very good friends from the Hampton Roads area for what could be a long long time.  Even the drive from Lynchburg to Darlington Heights had a somber air about it and the memories of both the drive out and back will be littered with images of snow covered fields, trees, and what marvelous country we've lived in here in Central Virginia.  The irony of this day also caught up to me in a big way in that we've said goodbye to many of these people 13 years ago when we moved to Sioux City, Iowa, after Cassie took a job with Gateway Computers.  I guess whoever said the more things change the more they stay the same was dead on.

I also met some new people today who were so nice and who knew Cassie too before I ever met them.  It was a really fun but also sort of painful at the same time.  Is that possible?  There's no telling who if any of them will come to see us but hopefully some of them will.

Work continues tomorrow on my solo CD that I have to finish before Wednesday.  I set that goal to assure myself that I would get it done.  John Ward was gracious to play one of the almost finished tracks on his behemoth sound system today and I was gratified to hear that my tiny little M-Audio near field monitors we're dead on enough to get a good result which I'll confess was worrying me.  If everyone there had actually seen where I'm recording my album I think they'd think I was crazy but my dear friend Billy Worley is a genius and that transfers hugely into my process.  I'm so blessed to play with such amazing musicians.  Robbie Wells hopefully finished his parts today.

The twins spent the day with their pal Jonathan and had a blast and we ate pizza tonight from "our" Italian Restaurant Monte Carlo here in Lynchburg which is an all time favorite for them and me too.  The only thing missing naturally is Cassie who has always completed me and who's absence weighs on all of us even though we know it's been necessary.  Things aren't happening the way I'd hoped they would as far as some of what we wanted to do but again, it'll all happen in it's own good time.

Lots to think about tonight before I head back into the studio tomorrow to sing a whole bunch.  The positive love and warmth I felt today will help me sing true tomorrow.

I will miss and miss these people...........*

Love always,

sid

Plasma TV And 5.1 System To The Heights

Just a short post tonight to celebrate the transfer of our 5 year old plasma tv and 5.1 surround audio system to our dear friends Tray and Joanne Eppes in Darlington Heights near Cullen today.  I rarely get to spend most of a day with Tray but we had a blast loading everything here with some assistance from Paul Alcock.  Tray and I headed for lunch at The Blue Marlin and then off to the Heights.  We drove to his house and unloaded everything and hooked it up and had a blast doing that too.  I even got to hang out with the chickens for a while.  What a day!

Tray is a potter and made us 10 gorgeous plates and bowls to take with us to Paris that will remind us of our home and friends here in Virginia.  We couldn't take the tv or 5.1 system as they're all 110 and everything in France is 220 and all tv signals there are in a format called PAL as opposed to NTSC which is the standard here in the US.  Tray proposed a swap and it was a done deal. 

EVERYONE WINS!

There's a major space that opened up in our family room with the departure of all that AV gear and it's another marker that our time here is fast diminishing.  I got quite a number of hugs from Tray today that made me feel pretty special.  We've been used to talking at least weekly since we got here and Tray and Joanne are some of our favorite folks in the whole world.  To say that we're going to miss them is one of the understatements of the century.  The plates and bowls Tray made for us will be in use daily in Paris so they'll never be out of our thoughts and from I've already heard the plasma tv is a HIT.

I play my last show here tomorrow night with my pals Phil and Pam at the White Hart as part of The Black Madelines and Saturday I'll be at Wardstock III, Sunday redoing vocals for my solo CD with Billy Worley, and so it goes.

Ain't life GRAND?

Love to all!

sid

Watch Out Where The Huskies Go

Mornin Pilgrims,

I'm reminded mightily of Frank Zappa's "Yellow Snow" tune this morning watching it snow AGAIN here.  Things are moving forward but the inclement weather really slows things down.  One of the BIG projects I had planned with the twins was to clean off the back patio of everything that needed go to the landfill and where we'd normally put that stuff there's a 4 foot high snow berm.  I guess our buddy Paul Alcock will have his work cut out for him after we leave but we'll pay him well to do everything that'll need to get done.  Times have been hard for independent contractors in Lynchburg the last year or so after the economy tanked so the work will keep Paul busy for close to a month and hopefully he'll get more work from Betty Burch after we're gone.

Work continues on my solo CD and in spite of everything, Billy Worley and Pat Lawrence have both been brilliant like always and the love and care they bring to my music is priceless.  Robbie Wells starts putting his parts down tonight and Saturday and I go back to Billy's on Sunday to redo any of the vocal parts that need it.  Monday will be final mixdown and Tuesday I master it and take the final to Bright Images to get them pressed.  The twins have also been magnificent through my recording process and I plan to take them to lunch Wednesday and shopping to get them out of the house.

Cassie FINALLY moves in at 44 Rue Nic tonight!  She's excited and very pleased and will have the apartment ready for the entire crews' arrival on March 3rd.  It's going to be so cool to be back in Paris again and with my family too!  Awesome! 

It's starting to feel like a runaway train here but I'm enjoying the ride!

Love to all!

sid

Tundra

Mornin friends,

Who would have imagined that Central Virginia would look and feel like South Dakota this Winter after many years of less than frigid seasons.  I read other friends' postings on Facebook about how beautiful the snow is and all I can think about right now is how many things that need to happen around here aren't happening.......  This weekend marked that weather event that the press around here dubbed "Snowpocalypse" and actually for places a little further North of here it was of a sorts although I can't help but marvel at how unprepared everyone was for any kind of major weather event.  Our new Governor who's a "short person" really got to flex his short person persona by calling out the National Guard here to patrol the highways after thousands were stranded on the roads in the huge storm that hit us right before Christmas 09.  Here in Lynchburg, the city will "maybe" clean your residential street but usually only once and then I guess they all hold hands and say prayers hoping that the rest of the snow melts quickly but with temperatures hovering around freezing and going into the teens at night the snow from the 15 inch snow fall last weekend is pretty much still here and so what we got this weekend has added to that.

It seems as though everything will probably happen all at once instead of gradually for our move and I told a friend this weekend that I felt like Laird Hamilton must feel riding an 80 foot high wave wondering where it's going to deposit him.  I'm not getting spun up about it though as I'm still certain of our "leave behind" team Paul and Betty will have things well in hand after we leave if everything isn't quite done yet.

Pat Lawrence comes today for his tracks on the my solo CD "Way Back Close And Personal" and hopefully Robbie will do his parts either Monday or Tuesday.

Cassie returns to Washington D.C. on the 21st and I'm taking the train up to meet her.  We'll spend the night in a hotel that night in Georgetown and then go to the French Consulate the next day to pick up our extended visas and we'll drive home in the minivan Cassie will rent at Dulles that we'll keep until we drive back to Dulles on March 2nd to get on the plane and leave.

Wow, it's really getting close.

More later....

Love to all!

Sid

Runaway Train

What fun it is to juggle numerous processes all at once.  I think it was Firesign Theater who posited that Indians could be at 2 places at once, and that dogs had flown in spaceships, and lastly that the Aztecs had invented the vacation and then closed by saying, "and I bet you don't even know where you are......".

In times past I got spun up about the impending move just like everyone else around me but I have a far more peaceful countenance these days and successive snow falls and impassable roads have heightened that felling.  It'll all get done whether everyone gets tense or not and we are fortunate that we have a fantastic support team of Paul Alcock and Betty Burch and Teresa Weinmeister handling a host of small and also large details for us to whom we'll be eternally grateful.

Today it dawned on me that we have less than a month in this house.........  Gee, time sure does fly.  What a great run it's been here.  We'll miss this place and the people who've made the current tenure in Lynchburg fun and for their friendship and good cheer.

I'm gonna miss this house..........

Love to all.......

sid

Soon

Mornin pilgrims.  The date is set.  March 3rd we get on the plane and head to France.  Time speeds up now.  All of the basic tracks for my solo CD are done and the rest of the tracking will take place this coming weekend.  The artwork for the project went forward last week. 

It's so weird to know that we're in our last month in this house which not too long ago was talked about in terms of how we'd retire here and leave it to the twins when we were gone.  Cassie and I have always been about the adventure in everything we've ever done.  Why change now?  It's still a blast and what a neighborhood we'll be living in!  Amazing!  Even the twins exclaimed "cool" when they saw the front of the building at 44 Rue Nicolo (AKA "Rue Nic").

Will write more later today.  Off to Dudley's with Paul Alcock to plan the work that needs to be done to the house.

Love to all......

Sid