CD artwork

So for the past week, Dave has been busy designing the art for the CD. This is actually pretty tedious work, and I am glad I don't have to do it!

When you get a CD manufactured, they give you some pretty exacting measurements that you have to comply with, or they end up having to redo your artwork (for which they will charge you a fortune.) The jewel case has a card that is inserted into the back (the spot where you can read all the songs.) And then there is a card which you pop in the front window.

We've had a lot of back and forth on exactly what information should be on all of these pages. It is fairly challenging to cram a lot of info into such a small place, so we've had to be fairly sparing. Hopefully, we can supplement the packaging here at the blog.

Hopefully I can get Dave's OK to post the art here. I love the theme he's gone with, which is a lot of earthy wood tones.

Some idiot with a guitar

Picture courtesy Natalie C.

The avant garde sideways shot

I took this one, using Natalie's camera.



This is Natalie C. and Cathy singing their lungs out!

Mr. Bigglesworth?

(Photo courtesy Natalie C.)

This looks a lot like Dr. Evil's cat, doesn't it? But this is not an evil kitty - this is one of the recording studio kitties at Fat Dog Productions.

We had a few kitty related challenges in fact, as a couple of our singers are allergic to cats. Felines and vocalists had to stay separate most of the time. :)

There's certainly a God

And I suspect He has a great sense of humour!

Prepare Ye

"...you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways." (Luke 1:76)

One small thing musicians at church give up at Lent (everybody does actually) is singing Alleluia. It is not a Lenten discipline per se, but I actually feel it over the course of those forty days. I'm very fond of certain songs that have Alleluia in them - such as Michael W. Smith's Agnus Dei.

But more than being a season of sacrifice, for me, Lent is a season of anticipation. Even musically. The highlight of our year is the annual aggregation of all the musicians for Holy Thursday, when something very special and almost magical happens. And this year, there's also the anticipation of our CD release, which will be phenomenal.

But how would you recognize a season of plenty without also knowing a season of need? That's what Lent is for me - a period to relearn the patience of 40 days. Because the way to Emmaus must run through the Via Dolorosa first.

Sing Praise

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. (Psalm 149:1)

We haven't done one in a while, but I have really enjoyed hosting praise and worship evenings at Blessed Sacrament. There are a lot of hymns about God, there are a lot of hymns persona dei (sung in God's name), but I especially like the ones that simply talk to him in worshipful terms.

I think "Thank You Jesus" may be my favourite of these in our regular line up. It kind of gets right to the point, even in the song title. What's yours?

Learning New Things

The one who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)

There is a sign on the cork board at Fat Dog Productions, and it goes something like this: "A professional learns something every day. An amateur already knows it all." During the recording process, I've tried to be mindful of this.

So what have I learned making this record?

• Dave and Chad (Fat Dog owner) willingly eat McDonalds' (so do I.)
• Natalie A. prefers Timmy's.
• Natalie C. and Deanne bring their own lunch. They're super-organized.
• Dave can sing with an awesome Irish lilt.
• Ian can work hard at his job just about anywhere!
• Chad's keyboard setup can produce an awesome Hammond B3 sound.

I also learned an awful lot about miking guitars. Chad showed me a trick you can use to get the same guitar sound that you hear on Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill. We tried it on one of our softer songs, but I have a feeling we won't use it.

We're making a CD!

This is a very exciting project, and we've started a blog so we can share our excitement about it, and hopefully write a little about the process of making it.

Sundays at 8 is the newly minted name of the music group that accompanies the liturgy at 8 PM on Sunday at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Ottawa. I'm one of the guitar players, and the group's leader, Dave, is the other. You can read a more formal description of the group over at the Sundays at 8 website.

The CD project is exciting for us because we get to translate our unique sound into something permanent.

The group took part in Blessed Sacrament's parish Christmas CD back in 2005. That project was a lot of fun, but the overall sound of the record most closely resembled the music from the 9:30 Mass, which makes sense, since Chris, who produced that record and put down most of the backing tracks, is the piano player at 9:30 AM. Every year for Holy Thursday, Chris combines all of the parish music groups and makes a supergroup out of all of us. I guess that's what the Christmas CD sounds most like in fact - the once a year supergroup.

Anybody who has seen us knows that we don't normally sound like that though. Here are some of the differences:

• We're guitar focused. Although we have instruments in the group other than guitar (accordion, mandolin, and piano sometimes), our songs are usually led in and filled out by guitar playing. 
• We don't usually have a soloist as far as singers go. Our thing is to get people in the pews singing (which according to the post-conciliar documents re music after Vatican II is what we're supposed to do.) And we find it easier to get people in the pews singing if we're all singing. And, well, Dave really likes hearing harmonies all around us. Group singing makes us happy. 
• The approach is a little more intimate: our sound includes lots of earthy styles such as bluegrass, blues, and folk. 

So it was that on a cold Sunday in January, 2008 a parishioner named Magdalena approached us after Mass and said we should make a CD, and capture that sound. A week later, two other parishioners - Phil and Shirley - told us the same thing. 

We started working on it, and now a year later we're close to finished. The sound is a little more fleshed out on some songs than it is at Mass, but it is certainly true to us. There are rich harmonies and lots of warmly recorded acoustic guitars. 

We'll have more to write about that in the coming days. Stay tuned!