Fanbridge, the service I use for my mailing list, has just added a new feature called “Fan Questions.”

At first I ignored it, thinking it would be presumptuous of me to assume there would be people out there dying to ask me a question.  But then I realized that so many emails in my inbox are actually questions – often the same questions.

For example, here’s one I get very often…

Q: What (lap steel) tuning do you use?

A: I use a C6 tuning.  Specifically: 6G 5C 4G 3A 2C 1E

And just this morning I answered another common question (this one was asked through Facebook)…

Q: How do you pronounce Bougie?

A: g – is pronounced as ’s’ in ‘vision’
boo-gee
boo – rhymes too
gee – rhymes with see

It sounds like this.

See!  I do have questions to answer!

OK.  I’m probably opening up a can of worms here, and I can already imagine how my friends will abuse this, but here it is anyway…

We just finished up our second day of recording the TUXEDO! album. One more day to go. I dressed appropriately for today’s session…

…and I look pretty wiped!  It’s been go go go for the last ten days in my world.  But that only helps with the frantic energy of this album.

If you know my music at all, this album will probably surprise you.  It’s pretty nutty guitar music.

Here’s an outtake/false start captured on my phone (don’t worry – the album will sound much clearer than this!)…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

That’s one of the two original tunes I wrote for the album. Well, it’s the first “A” section, anyway!  Joey did the bulk of the writing (six tunes!), and we recorded four cover tunes (all Jimmy Bryant).

Tomorrow will be the third and last day of the recording.

Wish me luck!

I think I watched 14 episodes of The Twilight Zone…

Jason Fowler…

Brian MacMillan…

John McDermott…

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…or the one.”

Eamonn and George…

George Koller, trying on some truck stop hats…

No comment…

Getting ready to play the Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival with John McDermott. 5 shows in 3 days.  I’ve played (lap steel) with John before, but this time I’m subbing for Gary Craig on drums. I’m laughing as I type those words — these are the situations that make me feel a bit like Forrest Gump. Subbing for Gary Craig?

Here’s a clip of the band (with me on steel)…

(click here if you don’t see the video)

So we arrive back in Toronto at about 6am on Monday morning…and I start recording the TUXEDO! album 4 hours later!

3 days of drums with John McDermott to 3 days of telecaster and lap steel ridiculousness with TUXEDO!

I think I’m going to have to borrow Jason’s guitar to do some practicing on the bus.

[I decided to work on compiling a Discography page on the site.  My goal is to add a couple of albums each month. This is the 4th entry.]

This was one of the best experiences I’ve had making an album.  The most low pressure environment ever.  We’d hang out all day, and eventually make some music at night.  Marty would capture it, but it never felt like “OK. NOW we’re recording. This better be good!”  It always felt like we were just playing to play.

Here’s the top secret location where we stayed for a week to record…

We got snowed-in on the last day of recording.  As you can imagine, we weren’t too upset about it.

I wrote more about the album in a blog post on the day it was released (September, 09).

An early morning (oh so early) performance of “Low Sail” on Q:

Buy the CD here.

Download the album from itunes here.