HarDANGER , Scotsmen and Malena in the Evening

The Studio this week has been one of the best and most demanding expierences of my musicial life. Some things have come easily, another song, just my fiddle bit, took 4 and a half hours. My respect for Adam as a producer grows daily. A producers job is to hep you take your ideas and get them onto tape, and to get the parts out of You as perfect as you can play them. Which is most often much more than you think you can do, if you seee what I mean.

I haven't cried yet, but my language has gone rather foul a few times, hee-hee....If I have to tune the Hardanger again, they may roll tape. ( Just realized the actual spelling of the thing, HarDANGER indeed!!!!! ) Mine is a rather lovely one, with a carved dragon head, but it is very old, and the thing has, besides the regular four strings, four more that run under the finger board , they sort of vibrate in sympathy. Or rather agony if they are not perfectly in tune ....

Malena comes tonight, which does my heart good. It has been so very hard to be in the studio this week working without her. I want so badly for her to be there, and for her to be able to hear as the songs grow up and the bones all get some flesh. I miss her ideas, and her wit ( which , it BEING the studio, can get as foul as anyone going , and I include the boys in this ...) I miss her support and her strenth when I am on the 30th take and it still isn't going right. The good news is , we have a few hours on Monday before she goes back, and we are going to spend them adding a few more bits of her.

You can never have enough Malena!

( Mwwwwaaahahahahahha!!!!!! )

( Not sure why I thought that needed Evil Laughter...)

Mullie recorded his vocals on Song of the Cailleach Bheur yesterday, , which is a song with words by Jane Yolen and music by Adam, truly truly lovely. Oh, and let's just forstall the comments, hee-hee, no , no idea how to pronounce it, and Mullie TOLD us yesterday and SINGS it in the song...And I still don't know how to say it. Anyone??? My fiddle parts took nearly four hours, but I did get to write a new fiddle tune for the middle of it.

I truly don't mean to tease you with all the talk of the songs, we are just so exceited tho, we can't seem to stop. We want so badly to share them with you, and for you to hear them, and one hopes, you will love them as we do. We will post an MP3 or two as Soon as we have a mix.

Hmmm....I seems to have gone back and forth there from being One person to Two. Might just be that kind of day....

And of course, Malena comes at the end of it....

Love and best friends,
Lorraine

Studio things...

Un Zipped, eh? Well , my brain is certainly starting to feel a little un-zipped. The cd is going very well tho. I am sure I have much more to say on the process, but I , sadly, can't seem to think of it now. I am loving useing all the different fiddles, the electric is beyond cool ad I do think we may be the ONLY band in the history of music to use both an electric violen, complete with turbo rat and distortion AND an accoustic Hardunger violen on the same song...

Today Steve Mulligan from the Tim Malloys comes in to do some vocals on a song that Adam wrote the music to, Jane Yolen did the lyrics. Steve, or Mullie as he is known is from Scotland, Gasgow to be exact, and the song is very Scottish. ( Just for you K ! )

I am learning just exactly how much I don't know about music. I have been feeling pretty high on my horse lately with all these gigs and shows and very hot on the fiddle, but the studio takes it out of you and makes you know how very much work you still have to do.....Very humbling, but I am learning SO much!

More tomorrow, back at it now...

Love and tracking, Lorraine

Lorraine unzipped

Hey, Malena here. Lorraine is in the studio this week zipping around on her violins. Yes, three in fact. The Acoustic, The Hardinger, and the Electric. Yesterday, they worked on Personal Thing. When I heard it, I said, "Woah! Who is unleashing hell on that electric guitar?"
Lorraine...in her sweet voice said, "Ah, That's me, and it's on the violin babe."

The girl is FABULOUS people! They named her well. Today they are working on Tom O' Bedlam, which reminds me of Tom Waits as Renfield in Dracula. You'll see why I think that when you hear it. I can't wait to do the video and wear our straight jacket outfits. Let's just say we were temporarily channeling the sexy and insane.
All these songs are very different. Each one is it's own creature.

Only a month and a half left! Then you can hear the CD too! Yeah.

Maureen at Stardust and Alchemy is helping us Sync our blog so you can read it in your live journals. Lorraine and I are both semi-dinosaurs with this sort of thing so, it may take a few days. Like I say to Lorraine in times of desperation,
"I just sing"
That isn't actually true, but being around all these gigantic talents, you can start to wonder about yourself. Which is a good thing, I don't want a big head..too many of my body parts would fit that description as it is. he hee

So, send Lorraine energy! She is on a marathon of music this week. And this weekend is the Renn Fest. I can't wait. Haaaaa zzahhhh!

Fairy Land at the Teves house

When we moved in this house, I started putting my daughter's fairies on the side of the house for the neighbor kids to play with. Now, three years later, it has become the Mecca for fairy worshippers. Miles is being quite tolerant, being the King of ALL Hellish Creatures and all. He added his statue of Clint Eastwood from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly to "stand guard over the ridiculous array of fairy nonsense".
Few men would tolerate 30 feet of fairies, wouldn't you agree?

And....It seems the whole neighborhood is getting involved. Yes, now the entire side of our house is a fairy garden. In fact, just this week alone, some anonymous human brought a beautifully hand-crafted fairy house and another brought a rhinestone winged fairy. That's two new additions to the fairy estate. How fun! There is always a Mom with a stroller parked outside my kitchen window. It's so fun to hear the children playing as I make dinner or brew up some soap. It brings enchantment to our home that wouldn't ordinarily be there. Just thought I'd share the magic with our LaMies.

Tours , Hippies and Tea for the Soul...

Sleepy Good Morning's Everyone,

I came home last night from the Festival, long drive after a long day, in order to finish getting my Boss ready to go on his tour this morning. I think all is in readiness. I want to send him out the very best of wishes, Bon Voage and Good Luck from Lorraine a' Malena, we will miss you here, and yes, I will take care of both Cats and Garden, not to worry about anything.

Malena's husband sent me this link ( which after the sweet thing she got and posted from HIS Mother, is going to make this all the sillier, see where our minds are at , hee-hee ) http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Ultimate-Hippie-Vacation_W0QQitemZ5614695213

I can't stop laughing at this, it's up to about $4000 now, and they are going to film it as well for a documentery....

Today, the Festival again ( note to self, make sure you get a nap in ) and back home and then off to the studio to finish the record in the morning, hurrah!

And then on Friday, Malena comes.

That's all I have time and brain for this morning....Off to make tea.

Love and More Tea, Lorraine