Studio and Dock Boggs

We arrived at the Charlottesville studio last night just after sunset. This place exceeds my expectations so far. It's beautiful, comfortable and has everything you need, but it's not overly lavish or excessive. It's perfect actually.

We spent last night getting set up and getting initial sounds. Today we started tracking in earnest. We started with a song called Cold Mountains, which we learned from the singing of a woman named Texas Gladden.

We're now working on a song called Calvary. We learned this one from Dock Boggs and shifted the melody by one beat in relation to the accompaniment to give it a really funky syncopation. Greg got the idea from his mother who's a dance instructor here in Charlottesville, VA. Her young dance students often mistakenly count things one beat off but the result is really hip.

Although the photo in this post could be a future portrait of Greg and Aoife, it's actually Dock Boggs and an unnamed woman.

Studio Bound

I'm in Brooklyn, NY getting my things together to drive to Charlottesville, VA. Today is arrival day at the recording studio retreat. I'll be there for the next 10 days with Crooked Still and producer Gary Paczosa. I'm really excited about the new material we've worked up and can't wait to get going bringing it to life. 10 days is a lot of time and it'll be nice to hopefully not feel the time crunch as much as a normal studio experience.

On another note, I'd like to send an internet shout out to my good friends in the fine Vermont based band, Nightingale. Their new CD, Jolie, is fantastic! I've listened to it three times in a row this morning and it's been the perfect thing to get me in the mood to make music. Nightingale is one of the few bands I can think of where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts and they are a source of constant inspiration. If you haven't heard them, you should. www.nightingalevt.org. You won't be disapointed.

See you in Charlottesville!

Corey

I'm back

I'm reinstating this blog effective immediately. I started blogging almost two years ago while in the recording studio with my band, Crooked Still. Next week we're heading back into the studio, which reminded me that I had retired from blogging last April. So like Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong and Brett Favre, I'm coming out of retirement in honor of the big studio push.

Next week, I'll be heading down to Charlottesville, VA with Crooked Still and producer/engineer Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Dixie Chicks) to an amazing the retreat recording studio just outside of town. Keep an eye out here for news from the studio as it develops. It should be a blast!

Since I'm getting back in the swing of things here, I'd also like to take this opportunity to tell AT&T to officially fuck off for providing shitty cell phone coverage in my neighborhood, coming up with a lame solution to the problem with their Microcell product and then not even allowing me the choice to participate in said lame solution by not offering the product here in the fine state of Vermont.

More to come, I promise.

Corey

p.s. you can also follow me on twitter. www.twitter.com/coreydimario