Great Uncle Helmer Seventh Album Progress Report

Today's GUH recording sessions went very well. We started with "Bass Guitar". I recorded acoustic guitar and a vocal, playing both at once. The first take was plenty good. Then we set up for live recording of both vocals with acoustic guitar and moved on to "The Longest Conversation". After the first take was disrupted by severe coughing the second take was not very good and stopped almost immediately. The third take, however, was good. We listened back to it and were cracking ourselves up.

We pressed on, trying and succeeding in remembering the words and structure to "Army Issue Eggplant Eyes", a high quality song it had always bugged me we hadn't recorded yet. With only a small vocal overdub at the bridge section, the live recording of guitar and two vocals is very enjoyable and will likely be "the take".

After this success, we considered the astonishingly old yet high quality and never recorded originals "Boots", "River Sticks", and "Michaelangelo" but ultimately went with the more recent Kaptain Karl composition "Car of Jonas", which we could easily remember all of without any time consuming research into the archives. I recorded acoustic guitar while Karl sang his lead vocal. The second complete take was good. We considered breaking for lunch, but decided against it, as things were going extremely well. We had done basic tracks for four songs in about two hours. We were quickly agreeing to each others' arrangement suggestions and tightening up certain things but leaving the overall vibe very spontaneous and loose.

I overdubbed my brief vocal to "Car of Jonas" then I put bass on "Car" and "Conversation". "Car"'s bass makes it sound somewhat like Evan Johnson's "Moments, Days, and Ages", on which I also played bass. I wasn't sure if bass would work on "Conversation", but I tried it and we both liked it, although it's just augmentation and reinforcement of the acoustic guitar, not flashy melodic stuff. I don't think bass is appropriate or necessary for "Army Issue", although some light percussion and possibly a shimmering, chorusy electric guitar may be added later. That song had some of the improvisational acoustic guitar/harmonica interplay I enjoyed creating on the old man will travel album.

Finally, we went back to "Bass Guitar" (for which Karl is going to create and record a bass part on his own) and finished the lead vocals and arranged some backing vocals. We sang backup on each others' verses. It was pretty sweet and we had a lot of fun and laughs.

Add to this the tracks I've started at my studio over the last few years - "Cricket", "Iceland (Reykjavik Revels)", and "The Sequel To Behind The Curtain (Now That I Know (What's Back There))" to name three, and we've got the beginnings of a pretty decent GUH CD of all original material. I am going to lobby for inclusion of "Introducing the Door" and "Stop, Drop, and Roll", but that may be a tough sell, as I think Karl thinks of those as Karl solo songs. Maybe, like "The Children", they could appear on GUH and KK CDs. Or maybe I can just play backup on the versions that go on his CDs. Yeah, that might be better.

At any rate, a super day and one of our most successful ever in a recording studio. I think the next disc will be a combination of the polish of Generic Mayhem and the spontanaeity and improvisational room that made old man will travel special.

notes:
A)Possible titles for the album include, but are not limited to:

Opossum
Corsica
Luck

B)Confused by the headline? I'll break it down for you:
1. Synthesis - originally released in 1993 on cassette only. Digital remixing and remastering awaiting retrieval by the band of original 1/2 inch reel to reel four track session tape of "Smilin' Joe" from Scot Ninnemann's mom's basement.
2. Anybody Seen My Wallet? - abandoned cassette four track recordings. Technical problems assure material not likely to be heard in this form. Most but not all of the tracks were rerecorded later and better on...
3. old man will travel - released on CD and cassette
4. Generic Mayhem - CD only
5. Generic Mayhem Live - signed, numbered limited edition promotional CD given away with the first 20 copies of #4.
6. Fall - currently held up by difficulty (and some laziness and cheapness) obtaining rights to release cover songs.
7. The new one documented above.