Time flies.
So Sunday has arrived and Huck now departs from the nest that has been Tremolo Lounge for the last nine days.

Here is my summary.

We are all very very tired. I know that I am desparately trying to get the studio cleaned up and ready for the next session so I can go home and sleep for 12 hours. Colin has actually been sleeping for about 12 hours every day this week, but that is due to the illness that he and Paul seem to have been passing back and forth all week. Today, Scott is complaining of feeling nauseous. That could just be his breakfast, but I think it's safe to say that all of us could use a little rest.

We are all very happy. Listening to all the rough mixes on my way to a gig an hour and a half south of home, I was so thrilled with the quality of what we did on many levels. First off, the songs are really good. I was just about to start listing song titles and announcing how great the lyrics are, but I realized that I would have to say that about every song (except "Kobyashi Maru" which is just a chant of those two words over and over. I might suggest that Scott sings "ken lee/tulibu dibu douchoo." We purposely kept the overall production from ever getting too over-produced. Of course, the line between produced and over-produced is constantlychanging, but I think we did a great job of keeping things simple, yet still sounding powerful.

When I listen back to the roughs, I don't hear anything extraneous, and I don't hear anything lacking, as far as arrangements are concerned. There's nothing wrong with building up the tracks with layers of cool ear-candy overdubs if it's what the music requires, but the mantra this week was not "what else can we add", but "does this need anything more than is already there?" With rare exception, the answer was no. Today, we added tambourine (played expertly by a still-under-the-weather Colin) and a first for a Huck record: harmonica. We added two really effective harp tracks played by our good friend Craig Rawding.

We are also sad. Any time you are holed-up with a crew like this, you grow very acustomed to every day being like this. Now that I'm left alone in the studio, alone with Mr. Henry, that is, it's sadly quiet and It feels much more like parting with your best schoolmates for summer vacation than it feels like the end of a job.

We are also sad because it has been a hard week in some ways. Speaking for myself, luckily my week-long lockout project coincided with my girlfriend being away on a week vacation. I felt a little less guilty about not getting home at a reasonable hour every night, but I still missed her and I look forward to her return tomorrow.

We also lost a great presence in our local music scene this week, Ralph Moberly, who was the man behind the legendary Worcester rock club that bears his name to this day. I was unable to attend any of the services/celebration of his life that went on all day yesterday, but Scott and Paul were there to wish Ralph well in his travels beyond this mortal coil, as they say. To quote the song "Dear Elliott", "I want to wish you all the best. Please get some rest."

We ate better than usual. Huck sessions are typically begun by asking "so what are we eating?" This time around, we give major props to Paul's dad who kept our fridge stocked with some fantastic homemade pasta fagioli, rigatoni and meatballs, chili and american chop suey. Thanks to all those comfort foods, we didn't have room to finish the five or six bags of various chips that have been sitting on the shelf. I think I did polish off the bag of Bugles, but I swear that there were only a handful left. We also ate a good amount of fruit this week, which helps to balance the toxic amounts of Starbucks that we were drinking.

I'm confident in saying that this CD is going to be a new favorite for a lot of people. For now, we're keeping it to ourselves, so don't burn a bunch od copies of the rough mixes to give to your friends, Scott.

Good night, you Princes of Tremolo Lounge, you Kings of West Boylston.

Roger, producer