January 4, 2007: The CD art has arrived!

It's been a while since I've posted a Windrush blog entry, so it's catch-up time. It's not that we haven't been busy - we've been practicing as usual and continuing to create new material. It's just that there has not been a significant milestone to report . . . until now.

Drummer Bob's younger brother, William McCarthy, is a nationally renowned artist and was kind enough to create custom artwork for our CD cover. Bob brought copies of the artwork to the last practice session and we were collectively stunned by the Will's magnificent paintings. We were also surprised to find 2 paintings instead of one, so now we can cover the front and back of the CD. And now that we've seen the paintings, we're thinking that we may have to press some vinyl LP's (anyone remember vinyl?) so we can have a larger cover space to better display Will's artwork. This is a very special thing for us and is much appreciated. You can check out Will's art at: www.williammccarthyfineart.com.

I guess maybe now it's time to report on a few of the non-milestone Windrush happenings just to keep the flow going.

Recent practices have been devoted mostly to working out Bob's new-but-not-really-so-new funk song, "Hold The Phone", that has been rattling around in his head for so many years. We've recorded a couple of 'sketch' versions on the ADAT and are still searching for the right feel, i.e., the one that sounds like us. We're still not just just what 'sounds like us' really is, but figure we'll know it when we hit on it. That's the way it goes when you're creating originals as opposed to covers. And that's a good thing, no doubt. It just makes the process a little unpredictable, i.e., you never know when lightning will strike, as it already has a few times for us in the recent past. For "Hold The Phone" it looks like we may have a guest contributor in the near future, a certain person who will do vocals, as well as add a little sax. Definitely something to look forward to.

Given that we practiced on Christmas Eve day, it's timely that Mike unveiled to the rest of Windrush his newly written Christmas Song - another excellent tune from our prolific songsmith - this one done in a quiet acoustic style. We also experimented with recording acoustic guitars, capturing sketch versions of Mike's Christmas Song, a new yet-to-be-named song from Mike and a song in progress from Doug, "If You Could",, which will probably end up as a rock-oriented electric 12-string piece.

We are finding that we have accumulated a number of song sketches - songs that have the core constructed, but need finishing touches, final arrangements and production polish. We probably have around a dozen song sketches in varying stages of completion. We are confident that, once completed, these will be songs that we can be proud of. The challenge for now is to complete these songs, one at a time, and get them recorded in their final versions.

The freedom to create songs in any way we choose is extremely intoxicating, but we finding that the process of completing a song from A to Z is much more challenging than we at first envisioned. Finding the right arrangement, the right overall sound and the best performance are all challenging, but the most challenging of all is knowing when to stop and let the song be what it is. The technology is seductive, because it's now possible to add and change without end, making it a temptation to over-do a song. It's all part of a fascinating and inspiring journey.