Friday night for 6 hours, Saturday for 12 hours, and Sunday for about 9 hours.  Yep, that was my weekend.  Basically if I wasn't at the studio I was driving to or from there, or sleeping.  Oh the horrors of being a rock god.  I gotta say though, the studio we were at rocked ALMOST as much as I do.  We decided to actually fork out some cash and rent a top place with excellent gear to do this next CD at, and from the early tracks it's definitely going to pay off.  To show you the gear we had, the actual board at this place was the same one that the movies "Jurassic Park" and "Mission Impossible" were actually mixed on.  Every other time I've recorded it's involved setup and recording the same day, so you end up rushing through the setup which is pretty crucial.  That's why Friday night all we did was spend the whole night getting sounds we dug.  Yeah, it's tedious but man does it pay off.  And thankfully we had all been busting our butts getting these new songs down which really made a difference.  See, Don...our guitar player...wanted to not only record these 9 new songs, but also re-record our first CD since I'm doing vocals now and we have a much better drummer.  Yeah, 18 songs in one weekend.  We got all the tracks down except a few things here and there that we'll add before mixdown, but overall everything is recorded except vocals on the old tunes.  Why?  Because on Saturday I came pretty close to blowing my voice out and on Sunday I couldn't finish.  I am no lead singer...I mean I may have the ego of one hahahaha...but I'm really not a lead singer.  Most rock lead singers are tenors and I happen to be a baritone when it comes to singing.  I just can't "sing" in the rock range.  Don't get me wrong, I can sing, but it's more like late Elvis than anything else (yeah right, if only I was that good).  What I mean is if I sing, it has to be a deep part for me to really carry a tune because God blessed me with an awesome baritone voice...I mean I was a DJ for a while.  Anyway, I was really having to work on these vocals for the new songs because with the old ones, I had a guie I could use on them...meaning I could mimic the style of our old singer as far as phrasing and all went...which basically resulted in me yelling in key...hahahaha.  This new stuff I had to come up with it all from scratch.  The amazing thing is it usually sounded ok in practice...but when you record it and listen back it's like "yikes" and you cringe...at least I did.  So I REALLY worked on trying to keep the right pitch for the songs while I was yelling/singing.  This resulted in me doing vocals louder than any other gig we ever had...I mean I was belting the stuff out at the top of my lungs.  Well about halfway through I noticed my throat getting a little sore and I was like "oh great...just what I need right now".  I was able to battle through it for the most part and knock out the new songs...and I have to say I can actually listen to them and be like "yeah...that actually sounds pretty good".  Although my favorite moment was when I was doing vocals for a new tune we have called "Scars".  I went through a line or two and wasn't really thrilled with it...then Don tells me over the control room mic "hey man...just think C.O.C. when you do this one".  I was like "yeah...ok...I'll just imitate Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity on this and we'll be home free".  Seriously, outside of James Hetfield on the early Metallica stuff, Pepper Keenan is probably the only other guy I wish I could do vocals like.  I LOVE his sound.  He can actually sing but it's got balls to it...that raspiness.  In fact, it reminds me a lot of James Hetfield but Pepper is actually a much better singer.  So when Don told me that I had to laugh.  Like I'm just going to bust out a Pepper Keenan imitation...hahahaha.  Actually though his suggestion helped because that's kinda the feel the song needed and I was able to pull it off to where I actually liked it.  If you want some just kickass heavy rock, any C.O.C. with Pepper Keenan on vocals is just some awesome stuff.  But back to our new tunes...I think I can honestly say there is NO ONE around Nashville that sounds like us.  These new songs are all over the place style-wise.  We've got some tunes that sound like Slayer, Judas Priest, Pantera, some Misfits-style rockabilly, C.O.C., Circus of Power, Black Sabbath, Soundgarden...basically a lot of different styles but all heavy rock.  It was an exhausting weekend...but definitely worth it.  Hopefully we'll have this new CD ready to go out by the end of April.  One thing that was very weird...when we recorded I would play bass and do a scratch vocal track at the same time so everyone would know where we were in the song and then later go back to put the real vocal track down.  Sometimes I would have to go back and replace the bass track I did because doing the vocals would throw me off a little...and I couldn't believe how easy it was to JUST play bass and not have to wrorry about vocals too.  Does this mean I want us to get another lead vocalist?  Oh heck no...I crave the spotlight...hahahaha.  It was just weird being able to concentrate on only one thing.  I mean there I was...playing the bass line and doing vocals while reading off a lyric sheet...not exactly easy.  Man...can everyone see what a rock god I am yet?  You should be able to by now and if you can't, just wait until the CD is done....YEAH!

Want some Senate news?  Well here it is.  I got my confirmation letter from the state that said I am now a legal candidate and my name will be on the ballot in November.  In fact, the Libertarian Party in Memphis wants me to come speak at one of their meetings.  Granted I don't see eye to eye on everything that party stands for, but the guy who wrote me said he wants people to see that there are alternatives to the two parties.  And the crap that's gone down this week truly shows a need for that.  This illegal immigration garbage going on infuriates me.  The Senate completely doesn't care what the majority of Americans want.  They act like royalty and we're supposed to be good little serfs and till the land.  Screw them.  I hate politicians.  If EVER there has been a bigger disconnect between Washington and what the average American wants I haven't seen it until this week.  In fact, what little respect I had for President Bush is gone.  His second term has been one flub after another...and this was the final straw.  He wants a "guest worker" program???  Screw that...ship them home.  Honestly, the arguement that there's too many illegals here to deport so we need to reform the laws makes as much sense as someone saying "well there's so many murders taking place and we can't stop them, so let's change the laws".  And then you've got tons of people protesting the illegal immigration law reform.  You know what I say?  I would bet that a lot of people protesting are illegal immigrants...so let's get "Planet of the Apes" on them.  Yeah...INS on horseback with nets rounding them up.  I'm so sick of this crap.  I'm so sick of being made to feel bad because I actually think in right and wrong and not in a way where everything is ok and should be tolerated.  If someone came here illegally and broke the law then ship them back to wherever they came from...period...end of story.  The law is already in place, so why the need for this giant reform of it???

Ok...more stuff later.  I have a small vacation from work and then back to the studio this weekend to finish vocals.  Oh don't worry sportsfans...I'll keep you all updated.  And by the way...I love Cartman on South Park...he hates hippies as much as I do.