I got to spend most of Monday afternoon with Sarah Sharp discussing the final details of getting her project started. Kevin Ryan, Sarah, Sam Arnold, and Buffalo Speedway (!) will be meeting with me to select our first set of three songs to begin on. Although Sarah and I had a pretty laid back afternoon, we got a lot accomplished....we are both VERY excited.

Courtney Visser came by as we finished our meeting and Sarah and Courtney hit it off. Courtney and I went on to finish vocal pre production on her three songs. We cut the first of the three today in SugarHill's Studio B. Courtney showed up with no less than 5 of Sarah's famed lemon-ginger shots to keep her throat clear. I am here to report that they did their job as advertised. Not only did Courtney sound great, she remained fresh during the day, responded very well to being pushed to perform, and, in general, she 'worked and played well with others'.

The day started with nervous chatter about the fact that the song that Kevin and I wrote for her has the 'F' word in it. Specifically, we wanted to know what the ramifications would be with her executive producer. The following is the text of my email to said executive. I include it here because I am sure that this is an issue that all of my readers might be up against someday. Note the diplomatic conveyance of information. (btw: no one has been fired yet).


D***:

Tonight I finished my last vocal pre production session with Courtney. She has continued to impress me with her focus and willingness to work. Kevin Ryan has completed the arrangement of our final song, which Kevin and I wrote together, (more on this in a moment).

We are back on track, schedule wise. Tomorrow we begin three days of recording vocals and any additional instrumentation at the studio. We will also be editing as we go along. I expect we will finish this part of the project well within budget. We seem to be quite on track for our final mix sessions next week as well.

Back to the song we wrote for Courtney. The name of the song is 'You Lose', and it is sort of a 'female empowerment' song based on an idea I got from a line in one of Courtney's lyrics. It is about ending a bad relationship and is one long extended metaphor based on playing board games. I want you to know that there is an instance of profanity in the song, specifically involving the 'F' word. I don't believe in using profanity for shock value as the potential for it to backfire personal integrity-wise is just too great. In this song, however, I feel that its use is merited and is an appropriate artistic statement for the song's 'character' to sing.

I do plan to mix a 'clean' version of the song that has the curse word partially 'bleeped' out so we will not risk losing the attention of those people who would be offended by the statement.

I am letting you know now because I don't want you to be surprised by this. I have no idea if I am crossing any of your personal boundaries here, but I do want you to know that I am very sensitive to how Courtney might be perceived in singing this song. It is my opinion that she will not be perceived negatively by singing the lyric, in context, as written. ( I am including the lyrics in full, after this letter).

There you have it, if you have any questions, or comments, please feel free to call or write.


We continue on with Courtney on Thursday and Friday. It has been a blast working with Kevin in the studio, and as I mentioned before, she has knocked us out several times.

thetiredbutfufilledlove,
Dan