Carl arrived in Santa Fe last night to add more drums to the recording. I feel like I operate a regular shuttle from the airport bus to our studio. Tomorrow will be Carl’s last day here. Then it’s Ron’s turn in July to add the percussion, and then Mark will add the rest…
It is sounding great already!! The painting has a definite outline and most of the color are there. After this week I can relax and decide on the shadows and highlights and the subtleties.
Gary and Stefan fix the big 24 track 2 inch tape machine. A pin had broken on the Sony machine, a part that’s not supposed to ever break. I practice guitar for the first time this week. I had been sitting in the control room most of the week, watching Carl and Eric perform and didn’t get to practice.
Eric’s slide guitar sounds great together with the Flamenco guitar. He has an old guitar from the 1930’s, either a Dobro or a National, a wood body with the metal cone in the center. It gives our music yet another spin, a bit of a Blues feel. After all Flamenco is the Blues of the Gypsies.
Today we are recording Carl’s drums. We are dancing in the control room when we are listening to the song after he is done. This sounds unlike any music I have heard. I can recognize bits and pieces from many styles and traditions of music and it is undeniably my guitar work, but it is new. This brew is new.
As we get older the mixture in our heads and hearts gets more and more interesting. More years of experience, more of life lived, more taken in through ears and eyes and skin….WE ourselves ARE a work in progress!
Why do I have to struggle with a new sound for every record? Why don’t I just take Nouveau Flamenco as the blueprint and use that instrumentation every time? Because that record 8 years ago was the beginning of a journey for me, not the end. It seems funny to me that now there are people, musicians as well as listeners, who insist that a Nouveau Flamenco-style recording has to sound a certain way and has to use a certain instrumentation. In these last 8 years Nouveau Flamenco has become a new straight-jacket. Well, Nouveau Flamenco is my jacket and it will change and permutate a little with every CD.
Yesterday I had my usual doubts – but today I think this latest mutation is wonderful, and this new CD will be our best work yet.
