We are back in the studio next week doing more recording for “Tales of Dark and Light” The focus will be mostly on completing two tracks, “Grey Skies” and “The Pink Moon”.
These are two very different tracks. Phil Doleman plays lap steel on “The Pink Moon” and lap steel and banjo on “The Pink Moon” Its an absolute joy to once again have Phil in the recording studio. He is a superb talented thinking musician who always brings something great to the table. “Grey Skies” is a real barnstormer of the track and I hear echoes of Jim Morrison in this recording.
Next week Laurent flies in from France to add violin to both these tracks. Laurent is another excellent seasoned musician who constantly surprises me with his range of playing. I’ll always remember his comment from the last session (in strong French accent) “Nick, I do ten takes for you and you pick what you want” Both myself and Carl Rosamond are then spoiled for choice as to which tracks to use!
Agi will be coming in to add vocals and harmony vocals to both these tracks. She has a terrific vocal range and in terms of harmonies its like working with a female version of David Crosby, quite extraordinary. We usually work up the vocal arrangements on piano and then figure what to bring to the studio. The other track we are looking to record is “Open up” which I have been meaning to record for some time, but have never quite figured the best arrangement. It was originally going to be with
The Small Change Diaries, but its better suited to this project. This will be another stripped back track, possibly with just piano and vocals.
Dave Bowie and Rich Ferdinando have been supplying rhythm for many of the full band tracks and John Burr will be coming into the studio later this month to add harmonica. This is quite different to anything I have recorded to date and many tracks have no ukulele on them. The plan is to do a series of live gigs later this year and launch the album properly in early 2019.
