Blog Posts

Rough Mixes

Now, the anxiety sets in. I haven’t given any of Sunday’s recordings a complete listen: too stressful. I notice everything imperfect: rogue drum fills, errant bass notes, off tempos. Its all there on tape: done, permanent. So I just won’t listen, until I have to… when I return to the studio tomorrow night. Not that…
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Begun In Earnest

Seven hours, six tracks, five beers and one Quizno’s sub later, Benjamin Wagner has left the building. Control One Studios, that is. Forgive me the derivative and self-referential lead (you won’t oft catch me referring to myself in the third person; I’m plenty comfortable with ‘I’), but it was a good day in the studio.…
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Bruuuuuuce!!!

Bono said of Bruce Springsteen in his Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction: “It takes guys to be romantic.” Equal parts preacher, poet, and provocateur, The Boss testified tonight at the fifth of ten sold out homecoming shows at New Jersey’s Meadowlands Arena. I was there. It’s good for us corporate Music Television types…
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Well Done, Boy

I step off the ACE at 34th Street, climb the stairs, and escape into the cool evening air. It’s 9:15. I cross 33d, and am in front of the post office when I pass two drunken Yuppies laughing and yelling at each other at the top of their lungs. I feel my hand brush something,…
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Rehearsing ‘Almost Home’

And so it has begun. I just got in from my first rehearsal with Tony and Rosa in nearly a year. And I can report that the new record is off to a good start. Rehearsals are intended to get us all in rhythm with one another. And rehearsals are used to block out parts:…
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The ‘Almost Home’ Tour

I like to write songs, record ’em, and perform ’em, but I hate to practice. Of course, I’m bound to write, record and perform better if I practice. So, this morning — seeing as I’m headed into the studio next week — I did. And in the midst of it all, I hatched what I…
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