GREAT VOCAL DAY

Today was a great vocal day.

Thank Christ.

Ask any singer and a "great vocal day" comes around once maybe twice a month.

It's not that you sound like absolute rat shit every other day it's just...

a minute amount of a difference (in how it's all coming together for you vocally)-

that when you're standing in front of a microphone-

can make a HUGE difference.

There are so many variables to where your voice is on any given day-

your diet, sleep, water, drink, warming up, warming down, seasons, allergies, tension, stress, a woman's cycle (sorry guys), how much you sang the day before, whether you slept with the A/C on or off, the rising of the moon, the Return of Saturn, whether the restraints in the mental ward are tight or loose...

it's ridiculous really.

As a natural control freak, I used to absolutely wig out about this when i was younger. That was until i saw an awesome interview with Harry Belafonte where- after he had just sung brilliantly on some chat show- had mentioned that he was not having a great vocal day but, 

"ya know....ya just wake up in the morning, figure out where it is and you work with it."

That's pretty much been my motto ever since and i've been MUCH happier for it. Trust.

Anyway-

today was a really really great vocal day.

I was clear, rested, had some sweet 'spin' going on....

so i not only recorded vocal tracks for two new songs i went back and basically re-recorded almost every lead vocal on every track i've put in the can so far. About......six? Yeah. Six.

I'm having a ball editing the vocals now.

it's always so much more pleasant to listen to your own fucking voice for hours on end when you're not thinking you're the greatest hack that ever lived.

Ahhhhh, good times.

good times.

Anyway-

burning through some music over here-

will catch up where i left off on the second half of the BALM IN GILEAD song, i promise. But in the meantime, let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes about singing:

"Before i was a perfectionist. I was never 100% happy with any performance. Now... I've accepted what life has put into my voice."

have NO idea who said it.

I clipped it out of a newspaper years ago and it's just been up on my wall ever since.

oh...

and one more thing before i let ya'll go to sleep...

quick recording tip.

When you unplug your refrigerator to record stuff.....

really really really try to remember to plug it back in.

Especially when you've just bought groceries the day before.

I'm actually wondering if i should put the cost of all the shit that died a very sad and tragic death my fridge on my CD budget.

Ok loves.

Goodnight.

More soon.

Promise.

xo

dl

Why Carol Burnett is awesome.

Carol Burnett is awesome because she has agreed to write my 'CD Essay'.

The CD Essay is...

even tho I buy CDs, and should have noticed this practice-

the essay that someone writes about you and you put it in your CD booklet.

While i understand the reason for it...

the idea of it is a little uncomfortable to me.

I just...

feel like the music should speak for itself and....

if someone's reading the essay it means that they've already bought it anyway-

cause it's IN the booklet...

sooooooooo, it seems a bit like getting a letter of recommendation to publicize?

But.

I also understand it's the thing to do....

and....

I wanted to find someone that I'd worked with who i felt really got me.

Who i was, what i did, how i participate in this crazy world of music and theatre.

And for me, that's Carol.

For those of you who don't know-

Carol wrote an autobiographical play called Hollywood Arm with her daughter Carrie, and Hal Prince cast me to play Carol as a young woman.

It was one of the most magical times of my entire life, not even so much working on the play but working with her. She is, one of the most extraordinary, selfless, loving, giving women I have ever met in any capacity and I am proud to have had just a little sliver of life with her.

Anyway.

There are so many more reasons why Carol Burnett is awesome, of course...

but, this is today's.

She is truly a class act.

xo

dl

Somewhat good news.....

Regarding the complete melt down of my MONUMENT song files...

the VOCAL has remained UNSCATHED!

So.

YES!

Slight victory.

I can now just back track and use the vocal as the guide-

and orchestrate back around it.

at least, the time it took to figure everything out on this-

the pedal steel guitar sound, the timing, the charts-

that work is already done.

i just have to go back and re-record it.

shouldn't take me more than 2-3 hours.

she said optimistically.

Thanks for all your emails of support regarding my minor meltdown last night.

It was 3am, i'd been working all day and I was just really not coping all that well.

But.

This is good news.

This is great news actually.

I am grateful for this favor from the Universe.

Thank you.

xo

dl