Night Travellers

It's cool out, late summer, four o'clock in the morning here
at Svensrud farm, eastern Norway. The dog and cats are fed,
the horses in, and we've settled back down into the music.

After putting in 35 hours over the last three days, we decided
to have a late start today, giving everybody time to sleep in,
attend to life's daily chores. It also meant that Harald could go
home, an hour-and-a-half drive to the other side of Oslo, and
sleep in his own bed. He has a degenerative back condition that
limits him from lifting his feet more than a few inches, and he
needs his own bed to recover. He's a maestro at the controls,
and we need him in good shape.

Leif arrived with his cocktail drumkit at around seven in the
evening, to add a light rhythm track to Be With Me. He nailed
it on the first take, as usual, then I got my vocal down in two
takes. With that, we'd completed the bed tracks for all 14 songs.

Magne arrived back from the airport with Mike Beck a little after
ten. Mike laid over at Keflavik in Iceland and, after hellos all
around, said, "Man, I have got to go back to Iceland!," proceeding
to express his admiration for the Icelandic females he'd seen at
the airport. It's been over a year since we met in Austin. It's good
to see him again. He's got both electric and acoustic guitars at his
disposal, so he's come armed.

It was my turn to cook - spaghetti with sauce Bolognese and salad -
and after the five of us had dined, had a beer and traded tales,
Mike got to work. First he nailed Border Town, adding electric
Telecaster to the acoustic bed, then dubbing an acoustic solo.
I heard Mike's sensitive acoustic work last summer in Austin,
and tonight I'm discovering that he is also a dangerous player on
the Telly. Presently, he's carving out a vintage electric solo on
Nashville, the rockabilly song I wrote after Johnny Cash died,
tying the Folsom riff on the end of it. Magne sitting back with
his Luther Perkins t-shirt on, beaming. This is all his idea.

Of the 14 songs, we'll dump two, get down to a dozen and reel
in around the 50-55 minute mark. Eight tunes will be full band
arrangements, four will be quieter, acoustic renditions. The
proposed title cut, Crooked, is going to stand naked, me and
my guitar. I think I nailed it.

We've been swimming in music for four days. I'm getting an
education in recording techniques. Fourteen of my songs are
being given a quality of recording that last summer's Austin
cds inspired, a quality that I've dreamed of for decades.

Between Mike's guitar takes, we're all laughing, trading stories,
all of us precisely where we want to be. I've put coffee on. It is
looking as though we'll be up until the birds begin to sing.

DL