Geniuses

Nice hair, Al!
I told my guys last night while making Rock History (hey! maybe we should call the next record that!? hmmmm….), “it sure is fun working with geniuses!” I have been super lucky to have worked with a bunch of’m. Roscoe, Dan and Keith are amazing to play with because everything they do musically comes so easy to them, absolutely pure and natural, the very definition of genius.They ALL oooze music. Roscoe is an amazing producer and guitar player, Dan is as solid a rhythm player as there is and can bust out a pretty melodic solo every now and then himself and Keith has the knack of always keeping you guessing where he’s going next. You’re always on the edge of your seat like a great movie but when he gets there and the movie ends, he’s always perfect…usually.
Last night was the first time Greg and Dave had heard some of the songs Jack, Jon and I had been working on and they brought out their genius hats too. Speaking of oozing music, Dave of course can play ANYTHING…and WELL! And Greg (Valedictorian of Pamlico High School ’98) showed me last night that he’s a lot more than just a purty face and a complete nut case. When he and Dave jumped into “Indy 500” with both feet all hell broke loose! They didn’t just kick it up a notch, they took it to the limit! (one more time, Eagles fans) The thing had already started pumpin’ last week when Jack laid down bass lines (that I hadn’t heard until last night, opting instead to take my Dad, wife and genius child, Nathan [more on him later] to the Mudcats game). But when (engineer extroidinaire) Jon told these guys to go…
“ONE, TWO THREE, FOUR!” I heard their first few measures and immediately started shaking and looking for something to hold on to. It was THAT amazing. You know that Steve Martin bit, “I can’t stop my leg!” ? That was me. The song went from pumping... to bumpin’... to THUMPIN’! I guess it was about 3 in the morning before my leg ever stopped. Oh, and I was in bed by 12, I just couldn’t get the thing outta my head.
I really loved Dave’s expression last night when he first heard the bridge. It was as close to “jaw dropping” as I’ve ever seen him. The song is pretty cool in that it seems as though it’s just gonna be another one of my clever (Steve Earle hates clever!) record company throw outs until you get to the bridge and the layers of vocals send you off into flower power world.
La la la la la la la la blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!
(rockin’ ass Preston-esque clavinet…next 16) I also love these lines:
If you got paid for talkin’ you’d be Employee of the Year
I think you missed your callin’, you should’a been an auctioneer
So back to the other genius, Nathan. He’s been having to go to work with me since school let out back in June. Yesterday on the way into Raleigh he started coming up with political bumper stickers. It takes a 12 year old to think of this shit:
Barack Obama…win or lose…Either way, it’s an obamanation.
(abomination/Obama-nation was what he was reaching for)
And this:
Gimme M’Cain! (with a pictue of a walking cane..self explanitory)

I LOVE him!