“Simple” is often a relative term. When you look at the end product – in this case, the new six-song EP – you might think, “that’s a nice, simple little record”. It is, and like my last full-length CD, “Starlite Drive-In Saturday Night”, I ended up with exactly what I wanted. Getting there wasn’t exactly simple, but it was methodical. And it was a pretty cool little journey.
It starts two years back when my neighbor put up a huge Grinch decoration for Christmas. I posted a photo on my FaceBook page. My pal Rick commented, “that’s nothing compared to The Krampus“. I said, “what the heck is a Krampus?” He sent me graphic of this frightening looking character from eastern Europe. Basically, The Krampus is the evil flip-side of Kris Kringle. This guy really needed his own song. It took a year of off and on writing, but I came up with “The Krampus Comes Out Tonight” and had a blast playing it live last year.
About the same time, I finished a quirky little waltz about the aftermath of Thanksgiving and the onslaught of the shopping season in a tune called “Black Friday’s Eve”. (Admittedly, I probably wrote it just so I could fit the phrase “I should be sleeping off a tryptophan buzz”.)
Last summer I got an awesome soundboard recording from a solo set at a house concert (thanks Eric). I thought, “Hmm. A few live tracks, a couple of new holiday tunes. Maybe a cover?” I headed up to Keith Greeninger’s Wind River Studios back in September. Along with my pals Jeff Baker (percussion) and Steve Uccello (stand-up bass), we tracked three songs, live, in one night (nary even a click track in the mix). A couple of nights of mixing by David Jeremy Higden, and I had half my EP. Tim Prince mastered the whole package, and I’ve ended up with three studio tracks and three live tracks in this fun little EP.(The title was my lovely wife’s idea, as was the idea of packing them in handmade envelopes and shipping them with angel Christmas ornaments made from my old guitar picks and strings.)
See? Simple.
(Note: You can order “Lump of Coal” from my Music page.)