Wrapping it all up

Well, I wrapped up my fifth live recording in a year and a half yesterday. Grey November Day has now joined The Wine and the Song, Mighty Grace, and Carpenter's Gothic in post-production, and together they will be released as a four album set, Sky Above and Earth Below- the follow-up to last year's Evergreen. In the process I will have met my goal: to put as many of my songs as possible onto CDs in live settings so that both my catalogue and my credibility are established. Hooray..

As for last night: to be honest, I really thought that my first set was a little sketchy, and I felt like I was down 3-0 after the first period of a critical game. But that being said, I always feel poor about my performances on a recording night. I get nervous in ways I never do for an ordinary gig. In reflection, I may have to drop a couple of songs, but that always happens. On the other hand, an extremely warm audience responded with great enthusiasm to some of the tunes, so what the hell do I know, anyway?

I came out of the first set feeling peeved at myself, but determined not to lose the whole game. Thankfully, I had a great bunch of musicians to help me put it over the top: Sarah Ternoway on bass, Gregg Lawless on lead guitar, Scott Vernon on drums and Aengus Finnan even joined us on backup vocals for one tune. With their talent and energy and my dogged insistence on pulling the damned thing off in the end, we managed to really fire it up for the second set.

We closed with a barn-burner version of one of my goofiest tunes, "The Old Man's Workshop," complete with mixed-up lyrics, audience interaction, train-wreck ending and all the great emotion that makes live performances so much fun.

I was reminded a couple of times that I should do more goofy stuff. I was reminded about 30 times that people really listen to lyrics. And I was reminded continually, all night long, that music matters immensely to people, and that it's best heard in small rooms with a crowd that cares and musicians who can make it feel real. I reminded myself that it had all been worth it, and that this manic year and a half of effort and ego and fire and frustration had payed off in the end, on the last night, in a good place, with great people.

Just remind me not to do any more of these. Studio, here I come...

A Night at the Opera

I'll begin by sharing the number one thing I've learned about doing live recordings, especially doing four of them in just over a year: they make you completely insane. I mean it.

By the time I was done doing Evergreen live, last summer, I was a bundle of nerves. After Carpenter's Gothic, in December, I was a bit squirrely. After Mighty Grace, in June, I thought I could never do another. And by the time I got on stage with the guys to record The Wine and the Song, I was halfway in the nuthouse.

Which means that I still don't know how it went, really. I know we had a pretty full house, especially considering it was the Monday evening after tremendous festival. I know we all sold a lot of CDs. I know the crowd was appreciative. And I know Scott was in the pocket on drums, and that Trevor shouldered his big load easily on bass, and that Darren was sharp and cool on guitar. I even know that Scott thought I sounded my very best. But all that is only intellectual knowing. My gut knows nothing.

On the other hand, I've learned that my gut doesn't know what's going on after a recording. I was already living on Tim Horton's and happy hopes at that point, having forgone sleep days before. We did a couple of takes of a few tunes, which I've never done in a concert recording before. Of course that made me feel rotten on stage (most of the mistakes were mine); on the other hand, that might make the final product better. As for the ones we just laid down once... I can't remember how they felt, or sounded, and I just don't have a feeling about them at all. See, my gut doesn't know.

What I do know is it felt great to play with a band. Even if we sounded like a country-rock bar-band, which I half-suspect, it was a great way to make music onstage. I can imagine the joy of doing it like that all the time- you'd have the added bonus that everyone would know each other, and there wouldn't be a record on the line! Plus - and I apologize to my die-hard folk friends - it just feels good to ROCK OUT.

In any case, until I hear the CDS, I won't know what's what. I left Lunenburg feeling hollow, tired, a little bit thin. I actually felt like I had aged a year - to the point where, when asked, I now have to think about it to give my real age.

I took a lonesome drive around the Parrsboro shore of Nova Scotia, looking for solace and space. I found the remains of Spencer's Island, a once-thriving sawmill town that the Bay of Fundy had long ago washed away. I walked into the one restaurant in town, and I was asked to play my guitar for a salmon supper. A few semi-interested tourists called out requests for Gordon Lightfoot and kindly put 14 bucks in a jar for me.

I played until my voice was raw, and then I drove off into the night.

Brief Update!

The last couple of entries have been super-long, in part to make up for me having neglected the diary quite a bit lately. So this one will be short.

I spent Monday evening in producer Mike Nunan's basement studio, finalizing Carpenter's Gothic, which will be released in early fall, and giving Mighty Grace a first listen. I'm really pleased. Carpenter's Gothic is honest, tough and a little bit mean, quite a departure from Evergreen but not out of step, in my opinion. Mike calls it ballsy. Mighty Grace, on the other hand, is the widest musical range I've covered, yet it also seems to stay within theme really well. And because this is the first project where Mike has been involved from day one, the sound is truly extraordinary. I feel that I'm finally getting this live CD thing right, and working with Mike the producer and Scott the drummer has made it possible.

In other news, I put a good 12 hours work into my deck and shed over the weekend. I'm going to add digital photos at some point soon; people must be thinking I'm constructing the Taj Mahal. But the truth is, the more you get into the little details, the longer stuff takes. So the revamping I've done this spring to get the shed built and the benches re-configured and the front of the deck finished and the fence re-boarded and my picnic table turned into wainscotting and then re-built has all taken almost as much time as building the deck did in the first place.

I'd say something philosophical about that, but can't think of a phrase right now. The best addition I made this weekend was a 14-inch by 2-inch by 8 foot barnboard plank, which is now sitting across two of my grandfather's old nail kegs and supporting a bunch of potted plants at the edge of the deck. My theme of gradual and beautiful organic decay has crept out of my artwork and into my yard.

Made the home-town paper!

I made the hometown paper! It may not be the Globe and Mail but the Parry Sound North Star is prestigious enough for me. Intrepid reporter Blythe Fraser came out to my sound check at the recent "Mighty Grace" homecoming recording, and interviewed me sitting cross-legged on a hundred-year-old luggage trolley. Check it out!

I must admit I'm more pleased with this comparatively small measure of celebrity than with just about anything else I've done in quite a while. There is something about "doing right" by your hometown that has a real, old-fashioned appeal to me. I hope I can keep it up.

Guest Entry

Here's a guest entry to my diary: Alissa Vernon, longtime fan and incidentally the wife of percussion partner Scott Vernon, was so inspired by the Mighty Grace recording session that she wrote it up. Even though I'm techically her boss at work, I secretly suspect her of being sincere in her praise. But you can judge for yourself:

"Hey Newland fans, I'm just coming off a great weekend that involved a trip to Parry Sound to see David's latest live recording in a renovated turn-of-the-19th- century CP rail station. (You haven't lived until you've heard two guys jam with a roaring freight train passing by 15 feet away.) I gotta say it's a shame that at 28 I'm just getting introduced to Georgian Bay, it's gorgeous! But having spent most of my life as a Maritimer, the Canadian shield might as well have been a million miles away - I had Peggy's Cove and the Cabot Trail, after all.

Though a trip to Parry Sound from Toronto in cottage traffic may seem daunting, rest assured that it's totally worth it. We stayed at a fabulous B&B (Mariner's Rest with Julie and Edmond Lea), walked around the lakeside fitness trail, and took a jaunt to nearby Oastler Park — plus the concert! Rumor has it that David's planning on launching this third live CD (Mighty Grace) in Parry Sound once production is complete (sometime in early 2004). Even if it's the dead of January it would be a worthy adventure - the cross-country skiing is great (I'm told). Watch the website for details. And in the meantime, take a road trip to one of the other summer dates. What's the summer for if not travelling to see folk musicians?"

Feeling like eleven bucks

Mighty Grace is sounding mighty good... yesterday, Mike Nunan (the producer) played me back three tracks from the recording we did in the train station- including the one where Scott and I just jammed with a freight train rolling by. Listen! I'm really pleased with the way the acoustics of the place got captured, and looking forward to getting this project into CD form.

Meanwhile, I'm fighting off exhaustion, which is probably no surprise. After work yesterday I spent about 3 hours working on the bike shed I'm building in the back yard. Actually, carpentry counts as relaxation, but it still makes me tired, which hardly seems fair. After that I had Riverdale Roots at the Oasis, which is now officially becoming a jam session. A piano player named Dwight was the unwitting first participant in what I hope will be a weekly roots session. After that I had hockey. For the record, 11.30 on a Tuesday night is too late to be playing hockey, but that's no excuse. The Nomads lost, in a valiant struggle. Had we won I'd feel like a million bucks. Instead, I feel like eleven bucks. So it goes.

High enough to see...

Okay, this diary isn't daily yet. But two entries is a good start. The real trick is going to be keeping it condensed to readable blurb size. Once I get going it's pretty hard to stop.

I spent this past weekend in my hometown, Parry Sound, recording my third CD, "Mighty Grace." The old CPR station, now the Station Gallery, where the recording took place, was tremendous, acoustically and spiritually. At one point Scott and I actually jammed with a freight train rolling by about 30 feet from where we stood.

I'm sure I'll share more as it bubbles up, but other highlights of the weekend included climbing my boyhood climbing tree. Amazingly, I could still see the spots where I had placed my feet as a kid- and I could still get 50 feet up, high enough to see Hole in the Wall on Huckleberry Island. There's a song about that, but you'll have to wait for the CD. Or at least until I can post lyrics. Remind me, okay?