The Editing Begins

Rained out and maxed out.

Dear readers,

Michelle, a dear friend of ours allowed us access to her Brooklyn rooftop for our final location in New York. Forboding hints along the way indicated rain but as we were so lucky on weather conditions most of the trip, we kind of took in in stride and Marcin the DP was quite set on making a tent up there so as to get the rain and some instrument shots. As a backup plan, Michelle gave us free reign of her space should the rain continue. We soon realized the rain would not only make things uncomfortable, but could result in possible electrocution. As non-cinematic as this was, the crew set up some lights in the room and we went to town with Toby's brother Christian. En route, we had picked Christian up the prior day at Princeton and he is an eager player on this inclimate day.

Christian's story is interesting in that he basically had to make the decision between music and baseball as he is about to be drafted into the minor league as a pitcher. As it turns out, his window for baseball is even slimmer than the one for music so he will be getting back to music perhaps later in the game. He is a good well rounded collaborator and seems interested in the process that we go into, having a small home studio in his dorm.

The tune today seems to fall squarely into the eighties sort of New Order world so we roll with it. Clark and I are into it but find out that the elaborate setup on the roof has managed to piss off the building supervisor who is now blaming us on an elevator no working. As none of our equipment weighs that much, there is a collective suspicion that he is trying to extort us. This is the same man that Michelle informs us found her missing iphone and not only demanded money, but followed her to an ATM so he could further collect. New Jersey politics . Anyhow, Clark paid him off the next day and we all said our goodbyes as Toby and Jason are singlehandedly driving the RV back to Los Angeles before the insurance runs out.
I am happy to be finished with stage one. It was an exhaustive process to have been involved with. There will be more work to do on the songs back in LA and a hell of a lot of editing.

It has been an amazing adventure! We've managed to develop some really cool new songs with greater texture, variety and scope than before. We hope you enjoy listening to our efforts in a couple of months when it's finally unveiled!

Finit,
Nathan

Location Twelve - Brooklyn, NY

Location Eleven - Philadelphia, PA

Gina Rocks

The Philadelphia branch of Paul Green's School of Rock answered our SOS by recommending a sixteen year old prodigy named Gina. We find the school mid block by a pizza restaurant. Muso rugrats running through the halls were pretty brilliant to behold. We played this day with a young genius.

That said, we had little time to spend with her. Her mom was impatiently waiting for her so we got some good licks and a stand up bass run through but that was all the time she had. I was not happy with my contribution this day lyrically which means I will have to fix it in LA.

We are now off to New York city!

Nathan

Location Ten - Columbus, OH

The Ohio State University

Dear Readers,

We were intending to go straight through to Pennsylvania when it struck Clark that perhaps we should hit a University in Ohio and break the drive day up. This also meant we could approach total strangers at a better hour.

After stepping off the bus at the Columbus' Ohio State, we immediately ran into this cool looking student Stephen and his girlfriend and sprung the question of collaboration. He mentions that his twin brother Shaun plays trumpet and entertains the idea of working with us the following day.

As this was a last minute decision, we had to do this without faculty permission at the start so we found an ampi-theatre by the man made campus lake to potentially setup.

As Clark and I sat there on the steps with the mobile recorder coming up with musical ideas, we sat through a jazz dance class (hysterical) and then an apparent stare-down with two academic looking people on the opposite side of the stage. Clark runs over to quell a potential wildfire and finds they both are hosting an Aztec dance on the stage in the next hour or so. Of course that precludes our usage of the space, but they like the idea of what we are setting out to do and are under some sort of impression that we'll be able to help populate the audience. They talk to someone in the Honor's department and before we know it, we have permission to set up in front of the tudor style Honor's building and can pretty much work through the night.

The brothers eventually meet up with us after classes let out. They are identical twins distinguishable by Stephen's beard and borrowed saxophone. Shaun is studying genetics, a subject he's very excited about. They turn out to be a good players and what starts out as cacaphony eventually graduates into an understanding of how they fit and counter into the song we've began.

It's lovely when we open up our process to the company of strangers and show them how good they can sound. Both brother's faces illuminated as they watched what appeared to be fragments tun into a mosaic. All the time they're playing their horns, there is another kid who has been sitting around in the sidelines kind of waiting for his turn to join in who's name is Markus.

After we are finished with the twins, Markus gets onto the electric piano and blows us all away with his effortless chops. Having played since he was four, this talented and handsome kid is going to be a success story. He is studying social work at the school.

We wrap up around one with no interruptions save the occasional drunken frat herd wandering by.

The song we created has a bit of a nostalgic seventies vibe, especially after the wurlitzer and horn application. It is a fairly optimistic tune with Merritt singing the chorus. The mood in the RV is alright considering the fact that some are feeling worn down and sort of sick. We have only two stops left on this journey.
Next stop is Philadelphia with a young, multi-instumental girl that the School of Rock has hand picked from a large list for us.

Well napped,
Nathan

Location Nine - Louisville KY

Southern Hospitality

Dear readers,

Our contact in Louisville Kentucky is none other than our good friend Adrian Grendier (The Man Responsible for Everything) who is meeting up with us one night to make music and then we are all going to the Kentucky Derby the next day due to his association with Budwieser company. The hotel we are staying in is right across the street from the manufacturer of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat and in case you miss that fact, there happens to be a forty foot statue of one leaning against it's exterior. The 21c Hotel is fantastic as it's owner Steve Wilson is a pretty big collector of modern art and basically decks out his hotel with his auspicious trophies. We are treated with fine accommodations at the hotel and then later on we learn he has kindly opened up the barn at his magnificent bison farm for us to record with Adrian.

When we first get out to the property, we are amazed by how large and beautiful his land is, and we share the stable with a beautiful pregnant mare and Steve's seven year old grandchild, Avery, who is quite eager to play his electric guitar with us.

Steve is ridiculously well dressed and manicured gentleman who informs us that his barn's foundation is a remnant of the civil war and survived the fires that consumed the original walls. Steve then provides catering for us and splits for parties surrounding the Derby. We are waiting on Adrian who's flight from Chicago is massively delayed due to storms so he has to drive five hours to make our date. By the time he arrives, we have an idea or two but choose to begin something fresh so Adrian plays a bit of guitar with Clark on bass/drums and me on Moog. The ideas start to take shape and then.... Adrian is forced to go on into town to the Budwieser parties he's obliged to attend. So Clark and I continue to work on the several parts we came up with plus vocal trial. The rain here is torrential and throughout the night, a river basically flows through the barn which Tammy the horse tender and a couple of children are kindly battling for us.

We wrap up around three to find ourselves rained in at the ranch so Clark sleeps in the barn while the rest of us stack up like sardines in the RV. Good thing we all get along...

The next day is Derby day, so outfits are in order. We find some exceptional vintage digs at a store called Nitty Gritty, settle into the hotel and make our way to the race. There's a fair bit of headache involved with finding parking for the RV so we basically parked miles away and somehow convinced this ice-cream man to stuff us into his van and get us close to the track.

The Derby is fun. We get the surreal experience of walking everywhere with Adrian who has to stop every second to sign autographs. We were taken to the paddocks to follow the horses in posed with jockeys etc. Such a change in situation. One minute we are hanging out with a guy like Guidry or Clarence and the next, we're rubbing elbows with tycoons and debutants in big hats in box seats at the Derby. Sometimes you win.

The race itself was great fun to watch and a couple of us won a little, but a very sad event was about to take place. Phillies are apparently quite a rarity on the track, finding it hard to keep up with the other sex. At the races end, the one mare to have competed since the eighties broke both front ankles and had to be put down. This made me very sad and I wondered about the ethics of entering mares into such competitions.
Steve's hotel was in full swing when we arrived with guests steadying themselves against sculptures and after we're fed, again complementarily, we are asked to play some music so Adrian, Clark and I do three songs which everyone is drunk enough to enjoy.

Writing from Columbus,
Nathan

Merrit's Photos so far

Daddy Mac

Readers,

As we roll into Memphis, we meet up with our impromptu host, a really nice guy named Tad invites us into his strange kitchy world on indoor airstreams which he shares with his adorable crotch nipping dog Howdy and fish, Murkey. He lets us park the bus and we seek accommodation for the night. Stepping out onto Beale for some food, I find it's a bit of a cuisine nightmare for me as everything is deep fried and meaty. There are a lot of beggars in Memphis, but it's cool to see this vibrant birthplace of rock. We are near Sun studios and the projects where HE was brought up.

When we arrive the next day at Tad's space, another man steps out of one of the trailers that sit here within the large warehouse space. Like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, you kind of forget you're indoors. Tad runs a tour of ELVISLAND in a 55 caddillac, the same model THE KING bought his mother after scoring his record contract. He takes a few of us the next day to meet up with our collaborator, a blues man named Daddy Mac. We wait for mac at his garage, a dark place where he squeezes out a living between spots at local juke joints and touring. He arrives and is a nice guy, but it becomes pretty clear that his interests in our process are more financially related then anyone else we worked with. That said, we come to an agreement even though he seems reticent and has to leave by dusk to visit his hospitalized father. So we quickly get to Tad's to start with the limited time given.

An hour later Daddy gets there and we jam a bit on blues. I know nothing about what I'm doing, but Daddy takes it in stride, soloing without apparently ever tiring of it. I try and show him the chords we quickly came up and he doesn't seem too interested in this so he feeds me some chords he'd rather solo over and we play a while. We decide the lyric should be based on things Daddy is talking about, primarily places around the world he's been. It's an interesting thing, being thrown into the salad bowl with someone so hardwired to a specialty. Getting him to sing the part as written was really a chore, but he was a good sport about trying. And trying . And trying.
When he left, we were a little saddened that he had so little visible interest in what we were doing. It may have well been a cultural thing, or that Daddy Mac has been screwed over by people for some time now, but he really was the least enthused partnership to date. Still, the man could play the guitar like a bad ass. We will undoubtedly be using some of his licks in the song.

When he left, Clark and I had our work cut out for us and were up until three thirty turning our crap attempt at being bluesmen into something a bit more Wilburys and GLish.

I wish we had a bit more time here to see Graceland, but Louisville Kentucky awaits. We have been invited to the Kentucky Derby by our good friend Adrian. Time to bone up on the horses. God, that sounded awful.

Nathan

Location Eight - Memphis, TN

Black Guidry & things in three's.

Hello readers,

The Bayou is a strangely eerie place. I first caught wind of our collaborator Guidry Black from an experience my parents had riding on his tour boat through the swamps when they were in Louisiana helping rebuild homes after Katrina hit.

Upon entering the area where Black's boat is docked, we meet the owner of the business who receives a call while we are there on his old wooden deck that his brother in law has shot himself. He then reveals that if he can survive his son's death of a couple years prior, he's able to take anything.

Guidry arrives a few minutes afterwards in his Honda Element, though the Honda logo is covered by a Kia cutout sign. See, Guidry is kind of an actor also and was in a couple of Kia spots. Perhaps he feels obliged to camouflage the logo. I couldn't really tell. Probably old time Cajun humor seeping in.

His boat is called The Cajun Man. Talking to him, you get the feeling that he's the last of the line, an old gossamer carrying the final spirit of these nova scotia transplants beneath his broad rimmed hat. He's probably right. The swamp is a lonely, bug ridden place with it's own brand of quiet beauty.

It is hard to tell whether the Guidry experiment worked. There were a couple of ideas strummed and hummed while Black's boat engine pushed us out into the wild, with Guidry's pat swamp guide routine coming in and out of the headphones. Eventually, after seeing a few alligators and such, we come to rest in a descent area to make music. We only brought a few guitars and a recorder. Guidry tries to jump in on the song, but there's probably too many chords as Black is a country rock man at heart. His instruments are an old Guild and a cajun accordion which is brilliantly composed of a number of disparate objects.

After kind of moving on to hear Black's own songs, we are startled every time he sings with his enormous swampy yelp. Fun stuff for sure. Guidry's has old stories about the bayou many contain people and old dogs that we randomly, awkwardly find out are dead.

Toby and Jason have been writing a comic masterpiece on the bus so today on Guidry's boat, we are all dressed in medical scrubs and goggles. Of course, we manage to coerce Black into acting in a few scenes on the boat. He is more than happy to oblige for showman is clearly in his blood.

Later that night, we spend the creepy evening literally on the swamp in a makeshift zoo Black recommends.

I find them nice folk and a little sad as well. The woman's prior husband (you guessed it) died no long ago. Her newer cajun beau gives us a mosquito filled tour the following morning showing us their enormous pet gator Troy along with a bevy of penned indigenous creatures. I needn't go much further on my views of this as it only furthers my sullen mood on Louisiana vs the animal kingdom. We barely escape the menagerie alive as the mosquitos have been known to devour californians from time to time.

Nathan

Location Seven - The Bayou

Scrubs.


Mosquito feast.


Gas price.

Dorkbot

Our experience today had special value to us being avid synth heads from the eighties and getting a chance to see someone basically retrofit old atari and commodore computers for use as electronic instruments. Yes folks, we were lucky to meet sound farmer Paul Slocum in Dallas at the art gallery he lives in the rear of. When we first arrived at the Andor (not the Ewok planet, btw) gallery, Paul was in mid-combat with the owners of the second hand store next door who apparently had an issue with the fact that we needed to get their car moved in order to load in. After much waiting for the smoke to clear, we hauled all our crap into the narrow white room. Paul looks a bit like Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins which is of course quite cool and is really focused on his somewhat nerdy world of math music.

His 8 bit atari setup was particularly fantastic given my history with the 2600 as a teen. I dug how he used the pong paddles as filter controls and even reprogrammed certain games with new blippy music. For instance, his Berserker game is called Mr. Roboto and the seminal Styx song is used to great cheesy effect against the robotic pursuers.

We actually planned to finish the song by the time we left for a Karaoke bar with intent on performing our new song there. Unfortunately that didn't happen, but we did manage to finish at a reasonable hour. Paul's sounds are really inspiring. So much so that I was a little remiss adding too much on top of it. But that layering is kind of how we work and will undoubtedly thin it out in time.

This day also marked the halfway point in our journey so after we wrapped, we lived it up a bit at the Karaoke bar (which is strange in Texas as a LOT of people sing country and do so without sarcasm). Toby did an amazing Joe Cocker, Merritt did Prince, Clark on Michael McDonald and I crucified Rick Astley.

Before we split Dallas, Paul held a get together for fellow electronic artists called Dorkbot. I felt honored to be front row at their first ever meeting.

Location Six - Dallas, TX

A Bug's Life

A Bug's Life

Bugs and I have met before a few times in Portland back in the nineties. He claims we kissed once at a Karaoke bar, but I have no recollection of this. He is basically a Mexican Little Richard/ Bob Dylan looking cat who was stricken by the Beatles and other great popsmiths at a young age.

My good friend Brady Woodcock phoned me out of the blue and when he learned we were going through New Mexico to record in Marfa Texas, (well, we ended up in Valentine to be specific) he mentioned this character we used to hang with.

The main thing we were going to see in Marfa was the fake Prada store that is an art installation in the middle of nowhere sort of designed to fall apart. Approaching it all illuminated at night was quite a surreal event. That's where we met Boyd Elder, a famous artist Toby's dad knew. During the seventies, Boyd was renowned for his Eagles album covers. He looks a bit like Carl Lagerfeld outside this art facade. A couple of us join him in his souped up 1969 Mercedes only to realize that the trailer fell off our RV. After sorting that out, we are invited to spend the night at Boyd's ranch. We agree to spend the following night there as we are already reserved at the Thunderbird motel, but follow him into the desert to rid ourselves of the awkward trailer. I spend the night on the RV with hopes of seeing the famous "marfa lights", a mysterious light phenomenon first reported in the 1890s. The only thing disturbing my sleep seemed to be a very loud feline sex party going on in the brush. The stars are so incredibly bright out here, it's amazing.

Next day in Marfa, Boyd has hooked us up with a radio interview at the NPR affiliated 93.5 FM and after completing some much needed laundry action, we head off to Boyd's ranch. He leads the way after we run into him getting gas in town.

Boyd's ranch is incredible. He has mostly lived here throughout his life. He was all over the sixties. Met everyone important. The trip to his ranch today, he resembles much more his good friends Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper, a real cool easy rider type, sussing out his leather clothing line from this remote compound with his three cats, two dogs and a couple of horses. Admittedly socially awkward, he relishes his privacy and laments the growth spurt Marfa is apparently experiencing.

He used to raise chinchilla in the building we set up recording gear. He begins cooking us our meal as Bugs and I start the mexican inspired tune. Bugs has brought with him a guitar-like Cuban instrument called a tres which inspires the key of the song we eventually get to..
Bugs is very blues inspired, which is great. He is truly at home on a fret board and during my interview, the group comes up with a blues jam, which I try and jump into but eventually burn out as it sounds like another band I cannot name. Clark feels we can still make something of it, so we leave that and move onto another song.

After turning in around three AM, we wake up the next morning to begin our long journey to Dallas and the antique music technology of Paul Slocum.

Location Five - Marfa, TX

We all want to move to Marfa and do nothing.


Bugss.


Spike checking out Boyd's ride.

Time is not my friend.

Good Readers,

Our recording this day in Madrid New Mexico has been our most challenging one yet. We are utilizing a metal-smith's shop as a studio where we're surrounded by his cool steel art pieces. The collaborator this time is a woman who plays fiddle named Linda, but she tells us when she plays her instrument that her name is Violinda. It is a very small town where a lot of artist seem to live.

Toby has taken the RV into town to gas up and is followed back to the studio by a drunkard named Lane. I somehow assume this guy is Toby's dad who is to meet up with us there. He proceeds to hog time playing our instruments and vocalizing. We stick mics on him and make the most of it until Violinda turns up.

Tomorrow is helper Toby's 31st birthday and right now he is learning to weld us a Good Listeners metal sign. Another sparkling element added to the chaos of sound in the room that has been partially made from an old train car as are many of the buildings in Madrid.

This day, we've decided to unearth the piano and make that the starting instrument as I was under some sort of impression that Violinda was a classical player. We wrote something in a good key for violin and by the time she got there, we had sort of a waltz for her to play to. As it turned out Linda was more of a fiddle player but was a very nice and youthful woman who put down a number of fills (she's a little fill happy) that we'll chop up and use I'm sure.

After she laid down some serious movements, we got Spike and Merritt to contribute and though covered in filth (Madrid is a coal town after all....) we left with a pretty cool and haunting piece with drunken sad man providing the main hook in the verse.

Later, said sad man snuck away and managed to flip his car over on the drive home. He is OK but spent the night in jail. It was a bit depressing but hopefully he will learn from it all. A sweet man with a lot of unused talent.

I am writing from the RV on the way to Marfa Texas to make sound with a man called Bugs.

Nathan

Location Four - Madrid, NM

Spike inside Michael Austin Wright's Metal Shop, Madrid, NM.


Merritt, that damn camera & Toby, our personal iron smith.


Lane, our stuble'inner collaborator in the trailer, pka, piano room.

Wild West Junction

We arrived at the motel in Williams AZ. today and moved into our rooms which were converted train cars outside of the town. We were told that the trains have a ghostly history, but the two nights spent there revealed no phantom powers.
Clarence Clearwater was the artist we worked with today in a fake old west town someone built with the intent of giving visitors kind of a Knott's Berry Farm experience near the Grand Canyon (which we somehow managed to sneak in).

Clarence is exactly how I imagined him, a real cool character full of stories and laughter, Like Bingo before him, he truly has a lust for life and his girlfriend, Kat is really chill as well. Clarence brings with him two nice acoustics and four capos.

Everyone in fake old west land is anachronistic, even the "sheriff" packs a real sidearm and is actually running for actual mayor. Strange and fun stuff!
We set up in the middle of a very windy courtyard amongst fiberglass cowboys and dilapitated "old" porches and waited while Clarence serenaded us with his own material and we got to one he made sung in Navajo which is essentially a prayer from a man to his horse. Absolutely beautiful. Clarence has made a number of albums (six) and goes on to say that in Mexico, a version of this song is quite popular. He generously says we can have it for ourselves and wants nothing in return.

Recording goes into the evening and the freezing wind becomes a real issue for the microphones and the crew. Thankfully, we end up with a great recording in which Clarence did his own dynamic backups. We are very pleased with the results. Later, we eat with them at their fave diner and stories galore occur. Clarence is quite a storyteller.

The next day,we went on a field trip to the train Clarence is a musician performer on. I took part in a cheesy costumed skit that the train company performs daily (I am the captive kiwi tourist) and then we headed off toward Santa Fe. Clark forgot his suitcase in the train motel and lucky for me we went back cause I left my boots there as well!

From the terrifying bouncing cabin of our winnebago,
Nathan

Location Three - Williams, AZ

Marcin filming Spiker and Nathan.


Grand Canyon.


Nathan poised as a tourist in faux Gunfight.

Arcosanti and the Arconaughts

Good day, good readers!

For the second song, we recorded at Arco Santi, an experimental town in the deserts of Arizona overlooking a rugged canyon. We arrived at eleven and found our guide who didn't want to be filmed but was kind enough to take us through Paulo Solari's unique architecture which looks a bit like the digs that the simians from Planet of the Apes lived in. We were taken past the bell foundry and ceramics labs where the small community of sixty maintain their meager but comfortable existence through the gift shop. Spike had dreams that night of shrinking monkeys. Personally, my dreams that night were laced with images of Ben from Lost bursting into my room with a gas mask on. There is a kind of Dharma Initiative vibe about the place which of course gave way the next day when we me the Others.....

The following day, we set up the studio in the outdoor shelter of two enormous arches and waited while our team picked up our collaborator, Cindy and her boyfriend Jerry in Phoenix. Clark started making a jazzy little ditty now called 'everything is useful' that he thought Cindy might be comfortable singing. In the wait, I came up with another less appropriate track we might eventually get to in the trip.

When Cindy and Jerry arrived, I was taken by how sweet and energized about this crazy ass project she was. She had some reservations about doing this, but after meeting Merritt and our team, they quickly melted to zero and she was completely onboard, even co-writing the lyrics. After recording a couple of passes we tried unsuccessfully to hypnotize Jerry who has been Cindy's accompaniment for years to add to our song. That said, I think they both really had a good time and I felt strangely touched by working with Cindy. She carries with her not an ounce of pretense, which is a very refreshing change from the the pool we usually swim in. Being a friday night, we were allowed to play till midnight, but around eleven the Arconauts started arriving with beers in hand so we stopped and joined in the shenanigans.

We are now on the road heading toward the Grand Canyon where we'll continue our movie-making which we are doing between songs to ease tensions (except poor Marcin who has to film it all). Oh, I almost forgot. Our movies. Last night, there were these CRAZY goatlike sounds coming from every drain in Doctor Suess land. We finally caught one of the little culprits in the act of hopping through our makeshift studio after an insect. Yes, frogs. Little guys issuing these enormous belches. So anyway, our movies today revolved around utilizing the frog sound in absurd ways. The place we are staying tonight is in a supposedly haunted caboose in Williams and then tomorrow recording in a boxcar in Madrid Arizona. Nobody has ever been killed by a ghost, right?

Carsick,
Nathan

Location Two - Mayer, AZ

This is not one of us.


Our home for the next 25 days.


Cindy Francois, our collaborator for the day, Merritt, Nathan & Spike.

Bingo And the Integratron

Bingo And the Integratron,

It's no doubt that aliens have been here. Integratron was built by Van Tassle, a Hughes test pilot after receiving instruction from aliens on it's design. Largely funded by Howard Hughes, the dome-shaped wooded structure is split in two layers, the upstairs having great acoustic properties and an almost Sistine Chapel feel. The couple that own the land are vibrant and speak of the building in a very general way, neither admitting nor dismissing the alien aspect of it all, but offer the notion that whether or not it was true, they concentrate solely on the healing quality of the building and use it for sound therapy sessions people attend.

When Van Tassle died in the late seventies, the Intregratron was stripped of its mechanisms so mostly what remains on that front are aluminum and copper wires and the row of spinning antennae that encircle the structure. His aim apparently was to basically use the building like a giant Tesla coil, harvesting hundreds of thousands of volts into the space. People were then meant to enter through the doors and leave with cellular improvements and perhaps longer life spans.

Our collaborator, Bingo knows these folks well. He is a really gifted and truly free spirited guy who's kind nature was undeniable. We jammed for a bit this kind of Zeppelin number and then later turned our attention to the acoustics of the upstairs, utilizing it for a variety of fun and silly vocal experiments which reminded me a fair bit of Ligetti. We settled on a kind of hypnotic pop song that Bingo played banjo on. He was very good and things flowed very well for us.

Our morning was spent packing and doing a stop animated film with Bingo as our evil nemesis ala Power Rangers.

Things were alien indeed.

Location One - Jousha Tree, CA

First stop, the Integratron in Joshua Tree National Forrest.

butterflies and land mines

How does it happen? You picture something in your head and then, voila. Well, that is what's happening today. Nathan and I are packing our recording studio into a trailer that is attached to an RV and we are heading to New York City. We are going to stop in 12 towns along the way, set up our studio and collaborate with a local musician within our 'song-a-day' practice. Every odd day we travel to a new town, every even day we set up and record. We've got the first 4 locations hammered down and we are working daily to plot out the remaining locations.

We've got a group of 5 additional folks traveling with us to help make this happen, they are mostly comprised of the film crew as we are documenting this journey. (more on them later)

We will all take time to put up messages here, so please check back daily to get the latest updates.

I'd like to thank A'dge and John Loar for making this trip possible.

Please send us your good thoughts for safety and adventure. Ok, I'ma gonna get packing!

Clark