On Father’s Day I found myself on an airline headed to Utah to meet up with longtime friend and fellow audio engineer, Jon.  We were embarking on the conclusion of a journey Jon had been on for nearly a month by that point.  The purpose?  Well Jon and I were going to enjoy a week of travel in some of God’s most beautiful pallets and spend a week as friends and past co-workers listening to a lot of tunes (many of which Jon has recorded in Cleveland) and catching up.  Jon’s primary focus was the conclusion of several interviews he had been conducting concerning moves by the current administration and other state officials to change the designation of and divest certain public lands to private or alternate use.  This is of great concern to him and many others who don’t want to see this heritage destroyed or altered.  You can get an overview of the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1005089432/this-land-is-our-land?ref=nav_search and additional details here: https://www.facebook.com/thislandisourlanddoc/?notif_t=page_admin¬if_id=1490635405248312.  The funds were raised and so the work was in process.  I provided some secondary video recording, held the reflective light panel as needed, and hosted a collie on my lap while his younger brother nipped and played around me as I finally started to soak in what the open country was offering my heart.

And so it was that we headed north out of Utah into Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota.  Along the way we saw very brief glimpses of Yellowstone National Park, The Grand Tetons and Mount Rushmore National Memorial Park.  Five of the six nights were tent camping and so we were quite close to our environment and definitely feeling it – like frost on our tents in Yellowstone.  But it was a very refreshing time and I’m still trying to soak in what we saw and experienced.  These parks and monuments (and many others like them) in this great country are a microcosm of the vast riches we are blessed with, but until you actually get out there and surround yourself with them you either don’t know (as in my case) or quickly forget.  I highly recommend stepping out of the routine and away from the urgency of life now and then to find and remember what else is out there; and having personally rolled another decade this month, life’s too short to miss it. Thanks Jon!

Mister Malachi opened the horizons of Hip Hop and R&B by laying down an acoustic guitar track over his beats this week at Tesco Productions. We’ve recorded many acoustic guitar lines, but never to this style of music. It made for an intriguing blend and matched his song “Old Time Sakes” very well. After extending the beat track a bit Mister Malachi recorded both vocal and guitar. With the addition of a second vocal pass we found a nice blend of the two in the chorus sections and mixed the acoustic and beats together as needed. There will be additional molding of the tune done by Mister Malachi’s associate, but the initial work is done. Hope it does well for you.