Guitar and Vocal Tracks

I Finished up recording the final tracks on the upcoming "Strange Phenomenon" release. I threw out the scratch guitar tracks that I originally played with the rhythm section on "Nothing's Got Me," and "Living the Lie" and re-recorded them. I had my hands full with the "Nothing's Got Me" solo which took me about five takes to get right. I also blew up a Soldano 50 watt head in the process and had to switch over to a 100 watt Marshall head. My fingers are sore and I don't feel like playing guitar for a week but I have a show to do the day after tomorrow (Joke: How do you get a musican to complain? Give him a job).

It was a good day and I'm pretty satisfied with the way everything got recorded. I also recorded the vocal tracks for both those songs and two others, "The Spirit" and "Blood on the Streets." It took me about four hours which ain't bad I suppose. "Strange Phenomenon" will be a half live, half studio release and should be out year end. It has been fun recording it.

Ahh.. The Japanese Pizza!

In my never ending pursuit of culinary delights, I bring you the world famous Japanese Pizza. Here it is, brought to you by "Strawberry Cones," the Japanese pizzeria of choice, the "Natsu" (Summer) pizza, divided into four separate tasty zones:

Top Right: Chili Con Carne

Bottom Right: Shrimp and mayonnaise

Bottom Left: Squid rings and Basil Sauce

Top Left: Teriyaki Chicken

There are stranger ones yet, I'll be on the lookout.

-CJ

Mixing the new CD

It is a hundred degrees here in Japan today and even though I'm not at college teaching (it is the Obon vacation in Japan so school is out) , I can't bare the heat outside. So I'm in the air conditioned studio mixing my next CD. Yes, there is an engineer who is supposed to do these things but I figure I can get it in shape as much as possible and have him work out the fine details. The CD will be called "Strange Phenomenon" and has five live tracks and five studio tracks.

The five live tracks were recorded at a concert I did in Tokyo late last year. The venue is wired to an SSL studio so I hired an engineer to record the show. I am playing so loud that my guitar is bleeding in every channel. It is even in the bass track. Go figure, the bass is recorded direct and not with a mic so I'm playing so loud that his pickup is picking me up. Pretty funny. No escaping from Chris Juergensen's guitar!

Basically this means that unlike all live albums, I can't edit out anything. If you didn't know, most live recordings are completely re-recorded after the fact, they re-record almost everything and even double the audience track to make it sound like a million people are at the show. Not so with mine, it is a genuine live recorded concert that you'll get if you happen to buy it. Anyway, you'll finally get to know the truth, can I play the same way live as in a recording studio?

Three of the live tracks were originally recorded on my last CD "Big Bad Sun:" "Sweet Melissa," "Tell me a Story," and "House on the Hill." The other two tracks are "Born to Love You" about something I can't talk about without getting myself in trouble, and "Boot Hill" which is the only cover on the record (once before recorded by Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

The other five tracks were recorded in the studio and cover a wide variety of genres from Rock to Blues and Gospel. I recorded all the tunes during a very complicated time in my life so there is some pretty good story telling going on. Should be ready for release by year end.

-CJ