Still 5 days behind in diary and recording, will it finish in time?

Denis Larocque laying down country licks

It was six days since the Blue Christmas recording project started and we were laying down the individual tracks with Denis, Bunnie and Tom. Despite extremely busy work schedules they gave up Monday and Tuesday night in our quest to record a Christmas song.

By the end of the weekend, all we had done in the recording was lay down the backing tracks on a digital recorder and get the chorus to sing their version of the song.

Things looked up on Monday as Denis Larocque and Bunnie MacLean promised to come after supper and record their best tracks. Tom LeClair was slated for Tuesday night.  

Ronnie “Bunnie” MacLean came early and unlike last Thursday, we had the studio ready for him. He seemed in a good frame of mind for a guy who just changed real estate offices. His drumming was a step up from last week with rolls and fills.

Ronnie "Bunnie" MacLean on snare and hi-hat, the quintessential kit

“I like that,” I said after one take.

“I wasn’t relaxed last week,” Bunnie replied. “Just came in off the street and didn’t know you. But I think I do know you.”

“You were in the Blue Crystals, right?” I asked as he smiled and nodded. “You played the CGA Christmas dinner dance in 1980 and I thought you guys were great. All those old rock and roll songs. After that I liked to check out where you were playing if I got a Saturday night off.”

“Did you see us in Fort Augustus?” he asked.

“Oh yeah, Diane Hughes from Tarrentum worked for me then and she took us there. We were warned to sit near the wall to avoid getting hurt during the fights.”

We had a great chin wag during takes and one hour later he was done.

Denis Larocque arrived shortly afterward with his fancy new guitar. Despite working 14 days straight with long hours, he was ready to give Blue Christmas a whirl.

I don’t know if you know Denis but he’s deadly serious and a serious comic all at once. He was pretty intense working on getting those special country licks in the song.

About 10 pm he looked like he was finished but I coaxed two more takes out of him looking for another angle, a more mellow sound. Denis smiled and obliged. I know he was happy to quit and get home to bed. The guy starts his day around 6 am doing luthier work so he won’t be pre-occupied when customers show up at 10 AM.

10 reps

Tuesday morning I had a physio appointment at the QEH for what reason I don’t know. It was made 6 months ago. When I got to Physical Medicine they handed me a sheet of paper with 9 points. Four of them were reasons they would cancel my treatments. Great! I didn’t know why I was there and they wanted to cancel already.

The physio was friendly but businesslike. I’m on a new regime of 10 reps times 10 exercises a day. Expect a new marathon runner by June.

Tom LeClair, almost fell asleep listening to Denis' nice country licks

Laying down the bass

Tom LeClair is one of the most unflappable bass players I’ve met. He doesn’t complain. He just accepts the mic you give him and started to play along. We set the levels and started to record.

“That last one was no good,” he said. “I almost fell asleep listening to Denis. I was thinking “that’s a nice lick he was playing.'”

I turned Denis down in his headphones and we finished out the hour with 5 takes. He was right. Denis’ guitar does get your attention.

The song will really come alive with Tom’s stand-up bass. Most people play electric bass these days. The sound of an acoustic bass can’t be beat.

Tom had worked through the weekend and said he was glad to go home and get some sleep.

Next – an easy start to the week would soon have the train off the tracks.