Here are the production notes from Chalkhills' Children '97. Happy reading!
I didn't receive anything from 4 of the contributors.... these songs are missing from the notes.
Ed Miller
Equipment used: Kawai KC-20 ("The Korean Cheeseball") MIDI synth, Mac running Metro sequencer and Deck II for digital recording. My guitar is a lovely little red Japanese Strat, which I have a long-running _affaire du coeur_ with. Like a woman, she has her faults--I'll never buy another Floyd Rose trem bridge again--yech!--but we overlook them because the blowj^H^H^H^H^Hintimacy and mutual soul-support are so satisfying.
For this song I synched my MIDI rig to my four-track TASCAM cassette to do the vocals, mixed everything down to the Mac, and added rhythm and lead guitars digitally. Effects were minimal because with all the twiddly bits going on in there already I didn't want to add more gunk. Reverb by Alesis, compression/limiting by dbx, amateurish overapplication of both by me! ME! I tell you! And I'll do it again!
The "Prelude" was me overdubbed several times and then run through a pitch shifter to thicken it and emphasize the drunk, off-key old-West-saloon atmosphere. My wife absolutely *hated* me while I was tracking these vox; I repeatedly woke up the kids--two floors away--with my warbling and tambourine-pounding. I ran the whole mix through a SansAmp G2 stompbox (set on "British/Overdrive/Off-Center" if you're keeping score) for that huge-frequencies-missing Victrola effect. The scratchy record was a sample from the lead-in groove of Miles Davis' "Milestones," a gen-yoo-wine 1957 relic I stole from my real-gone jazz-cat father. (And a corking _great_ record, incidentally.)
No drugs were harmed in the making of this record.
Recorded on a Tascam Model 38 8-track 1/2" reel-to-reel machine with a Boss 16-channel mixer, a Furman compressor and some kinda ART effects unit.
microphone - an old 1940s AKG dynamic mic that a friend found in the basement where he works, don't remember the model
guitars, etc. - Fender Telecaster, Yamaha Pacifica 12-string, Fender Pro Junior amp, ancient MXR Dyna-comp pedal
bass - Yamaha something-or-other I borrowed from another friend
drums - Boss DR-660
I thought it might be a little sly to get my version of it "out" before XTC themselves could release their definitive version.
Conceived as a blending of "I Am The Walrus" and "Hello Goodbye".
Recorded and mixed at home on analogue cassette 4-track.
Keyboard sounds courtesy of Casio RapMan.
Drums were tapped out manually on an Alesis SR-16.
Distortion on voice: intentional, in keeping with the "Walrus"
style. Other vocals put through a Nanoverb. Double-tracking
on voice: manual. I actually laid Andy's original demo onto
the tape first as a guide, and I recorded my tracks playing
along to that.
The story of one man's struggle with a broken 4-track recorder and set of grungy headphones, done with very little regard for stereo sound or "fidelity," or even tempo for that matter. Audio verite at its best, or um...whatever. Was going to be a Motor'ead track, decided halfway through instead it was really a rodeo song, climbed aboard my Telecaster and let it go, did vocals in my bathroom on cheap Radio Shack microphone. After listening to it a couple of times, chuckled to myself a considerable bit, said what the hell and sent it in.
I'd to thank my man Jason Garcia (a fellow Texan) and well as at least one another Chalkhiller for propping me up regard- ing my CC 97 cover of Traffic Light Rock, which I did...not seriously. Here's a fuller version of my "notes."
August 7-9
I had been putting together the drum tracks on a thing called "HammerHead" (shareware for incipient techo-DJs..strangely enough, all share/freeware of this type seems to be based in Scandavia) over a couple of days, cutting and pasting measure by measure. Eventually, I got a passable drum track with the most vanilla samples I could find. The plan for my cover is: uncover Motorhead as a secret XTC influence.
August 10
6:45pm Make coffee. 7pm Fiddled with drum track, trying to transfer it to tape via patch cable. No luck. I play the track through my PC speakers and stick the microphone (Radio Shack _Universal Dynamic Some- thing_) at them while the tape rolls. (A vintage 1990 4-track.) 8pm Do bass track my sticking said microphone at my 2X15 Peavey cabinet (relic from 1970s), playing Yamaha bass. 8:10pm I realize I can't hear out of the left ear of my headphones, so I twist some pots all the way over to the left side so I can hear myself through the monitor. (Note: this detail will become very important later on.) Coffee. 8:30pm Try to set up my electric guitar (a Telecaster). I haven't played it in a few months, so I go hunting for my distorto-box and found the battery had leaked so as to make it unusable for the night's session. I patch it line-in raw, but I don't like the sound, so I wave the mic at it instead for that ambient vibe. My 30-watt amp's still not satisfying me, so I use the little Dean Markley 12 watt practice amp I've had since I was a kid. An unvarnished Tele + undistorted amp = country music, so I then decide it's gonna be a cowbilly-style cover. 9-12pm Try like hell getting guitar tracks done. Coffee. Something's not right. Coffee. 12:05pm Bed.
August 11
8-8:58pm Erase previous day's work, save drum track. 8:59pm Coffee. 9pm-9:58pm Rebuild instrumental tracks one by one. 9:59pm Coffee. Spiked with cinnamon. 10pm -10:58pm Vocals. Read actual lyrics for probably the first time.Practice doing Texas-style drawl, which I steeled myself against having, being born here and all. 10:59pm Coffee. Spiked with gin. 11pm - 12pm Dinking around with guitar fills on the second track. Punch in, punch out. 12pm "Mixdown." Remember those pots I twisted in such a devil-may- care fashion yesterday? Well, what they did was specify WHICH CHANNEL EACH TRACK RECORDED ON. YES, MY WHOLE TRACK WAS ON THE LEFT SIDE, AND THE RIGHT NOTHING BUT WHISTLING SILENCE. Stunned, I sit back in my chair... 12pm - 12:10pm Gin. 12:10pm - 12:30pm Mull options...lessee, stab myself with 1/4" adapter, call Richard Pedretti-Allen at this very instant gargling the _Liebestod_ from _Tristan und Isolde_... 12:30pm - 1:00pm Quake deathmatch, while listening to Iggy and the Stooges' remixed _Raw Power_. 1:00pm The solution: Play 4-track tape through some little speakers, pointed at the by-now overused microphone, run through a boom box. 1:02pm Mixdown complete.
"Luck" indeed.
My (then) roommate was away for the weekend, so I spent a Saturday afternoon attempting to play "Dear Madam Barnum" on his Ensoniq synthesizer based on what I assumed the chords would be. I was getting so frustrated because I didn't like the way it sounded so I started playing it in a minor key. "Ooh, this sounds cool." I worked the chords in A minor, because it seemed my limited vocal range would fit best there. I called it "Dear Mad(Am) Barnum" in recognition of the fact I screwed up such a great song in that way. I then got the synth part down in two takes, and I recorded the vocals into my Aiwa stereo with karaoke capability. Then I recorded the background "oohs" the same way. So the actual synth is 2 generations removed from the background. Oh well. I think the tape was sped up slightly during recording, my voice seems artificially higher for some reason - but it's probably the fault of my equipment. I hope you like it...it felt like it was worth the effort.
This should be really easy - as a contributor with very little to no musical background (although I do play the handbells) I had to make do with what was available. Thus, my contribution was recorded on a friend's stereo with karaoke capability. The echo effect was added by Peter (with permission, of course) during the production of the CD itself
- my original version was just straight singing. That's all. :)
Musicians:
Steve Clarke - vocals, guitars, drum and bass programming
Phil Bird - trumpet
Kathy Clarke - tenor saxophone
Ian Raines - backing vocals
Equipment:
Roland VS880 8 track hard disk recorder
Roland SC88 pro sound canvas (bass and drum sounds)
Godin A6 and Fender Stratocaster Guitars
It was very difficult to pick a song for the tape who's arrangement I felt I could do something new with but Toys always suggested a kind of hip-hop rhythm - so thats what I started with. After that I recorded the acoustic guitar transposing the key down a tone to A so that I could sing it without drastic surgery - this also allowed me to use jangling drone chords (ringing open B and E strings on most of the song) which gave it a nice feel. with the bass part I tried to think Colin M (busy but not intrusive, melodic but with groove) quantize helped a lot here. With the drums sounding a bit dancey I thought some james brown style brass parts might be in order to I enlisted the help of some horn players from the soul band I occasionally gig with. phil (trumpet) came over and recorded about 8 improvised solos. I stitched together the best bits (easy on the VS880) and called him at work the next day, played his 'creation' with added 'effects' down the phone to him and he was so appalled by what i'd done he came over the the next night and recorded a perfect solo in one take. then we did the JB stab parts on the second verse with my wife kathy joining in on sax. Ian (singer from the soul band) came in next to do some smooth singing on the chorus doubling up my backing vox. After adding various electric guitar parts (too quiet in the mix unfortunately) I did the lead vocal. In the middle of the night, thomas dolby sneaked into my studio and re-recorded my vocal track without me knowing.
This was a first try at working with my friend Gary Williamson, and, I gotta tell 'ya, we had a blast!
Before my arrival in Dallas, Gary did a nice midi thingy that included a basic drum track. We left only the kick and cymbal parts and went analog from there on in.
We did six additional percussion parts including some bongos, ceramic drums, tambourine, cabasa (or, affectionately, the wooden fish), finger cymbals and a couple of other things we found lying around the living room. We pinged those six tracks to two stereo tracks. I tracked the rythym guitar part on a low-end Yamaha acoustic with ultra light gauge strings 'cause I'm such a wuss from playing my Strat all the time. We then did an unbearable scratch vocal. Then we cut the lead guitar part and the harmonica part and mixed them down to one track. Gary added his bass line directly into the board while I faded in and out of consciousness on the recliner. Vocals were left for the next day.
We consumed ridiculous quantities of Lafroaig single malt scotch and other intoxicants throughout the process, resulting in a barely tolerable vocal performance and other less glaring errors. There was actually a part underneath the chorus where I sang "Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa", but it got dropped from the final mix. I was late to catch a plane back to Denver with the final WAV file, so we were stuck with the rough vocals. After rushing off the master just under the deadline, I begged the producers to kindly let me resubmit with better vox. Peter said he never listened to the first version, but I think he did. He encouraged me to send another.
I went back to Dallas 10 days later and we reworked the vocals. I ended up doing two lead vocals and a harmony line that were much easier on the ears than the original catastrophe. Although there was no Laphroaig around, we substituted shots of Cuervo Gold chased with Milwaukee's Best Light. I believe this is the correct formula.
Details:
Tascam 8-track with EV and Beyer Dynamic mics. Alesis drum machine, Guild bass, Yamaha guitar, Hohner harmonica, ceramic and lap drums, tambourine, finger cymbals and too-loud wooden fish. Mastered on PowerMac. Voice by Marlboro.
Life Is Good In the Greenhouse marks the reunion of the Thrillseekers. In the mid 80's, John and I recorded a lot of our own songs as demos together. Then we lost touch with each other for 10 years. I originally sought him out to let him know that I was going to enter one of our old songs in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Music 1999. We didn't win, but we got together to rerecord it and I had him contribute to Greenhouse as well.
The idea was to record the song to sound like a Love and Rockets cover. I programmed the drum machine to play the exact part that's on the XTC version as not to stray to far from their formula, thus making it unrecognizable. The guitar and bass parts were pretty easy considering I knew the sound I was going for. I mixed these 4 tracks down to one and added 3 more; 2 vocals, 1 samples.
The samples were taken from the Biosphere answering machine, XTC's version of Greenhouse, (and then speeded up about 25%, that's why the body of the song sounds slower, it's really the same tempo, BPM, as the original,) and Jimi Hendrix. We used this sample for the bridge where John's psychedelic vocal about the Biosphere appears and where Barry Andrews' keyboard solo is in the original version.
The vocals were a drug and alcohol induced imitation of Daniel Ash, Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson. Not a good imitation, but a goal worth trying for. I was already in the process of working on this project when the NIN thread appeared in Chalkhills, and so was not the inspiration. We stopped recording vocals when we got something, "intense." The final mixdown was rather difficult considering levels were all over the place, but what you hear is about the best I can do with my home recording equipment.
So,
why wrapped in grey ?
I guess it's the nearest I get to
philosophy or spirituality. Anyone who knows me will probably know that I am
an opinionated little shit : but tolerant of others (so long as they agree with
me....)
We have two little girls (3 and 2 years old) and they are my life. Something good happened to me when they came along and it keeps getting better. I don't want to sell them a world wrapped in grey. It's a great world, it can be good for everyone. There's a Howard Jones song that echoes similar sentiments (Dont' Always Look at the Rain).
So...there I am with a totally cool homestudio in our converted attic. It's rare that I get to use it - Dan Prendiville and I are both crawling toward writing material together. Slowly does it. So an opportunity to record someone else's song is an opportunity to play producer, engineer and artist without having to write the damn thing.
The first abandoned version was in a different key to the original. I had some shimmery power chords (from my Strat) during the chorus sections.However I realised that it needed a key change. Taking it down a whole tone in MIDI (the piano , rough drums and strings) was easy enough but it was interesting to see what happened to the guitar part when I applied the necessary computer voodoo. It resulted in a very strange effect on the newly re-pitched guitar tracks. I got my friend Pat in to play bass on it - this guy has played with Jerry Lee Lewis & is a great bass player. Some people liked the weird guitar part others didn't. I did - it had a certain dark quality. But nonetheless I tore it up and started again.....
By the way : my studio is a ProTools system. This is a 32-voice (16 output)
macintosh based hard disk recording system. I use Opcode Studio Vision Pro
software which allows me to record MIDI tracks and audio tracks in the same
sequence. The MIDI equipment I use is as follows :
Roland S760 samplers
(x2), Digidesign SampleCell II card (inside the mac), Roland JV880 synth.
The piano is a sample but it was recorded using my old MIDI controller keyboard
(I have since bought a proper weighted piano-style controller, much
better).
I haven't listened to this for a few weeks so my memory might be playing tricks on me. The instruments are Rickenbacker 12 string guitar, Ilbanez bass (played by me - just to see if I could do it, the first song I've actually ever played bass on...). Strings are from a sample library and are quite nice - reasonably realistic.
The oboe part is from the same sample library. There's another woodwind instrument in there, it might be a cor anglais. The handheld percussion (shaker, tambourine, triangle, claves etc) are all played by me while the brushed drums and cymbals are from a sample library.
The hard part was getting a good vocal. I went into the studio late night every night for a couple of weeks and kept doing it over and over and over. Some versions were very "dramatic" but a bit too Englebert for my liking (!). I tried whispered versions. I even tried a version in the native Irish language - it didn't quite work but if I can be persuaded I'll do a remix ! The most fun I have had with my clothes on was doing the backing vocals - especially the end of the song. When I was submixing all those layered vocals our 3 year old (Alison) was up at 1:00am with a fever so I brought her up to the attic studio. She sat on the sofa with her blanket and listened to my work through her own set of headphones. She liked it and has since referred to Nonsvch as "the attic music daddy" . . . .
Mixing ? oh that was interesting. I played some rough mixes to colleagues who have been much more sucessful (& experienced) in the music business. Some tips I got really helped the track (the reverb & delay settings on the snare as well as the delay settings on the vocal). My mixing desk is a Mackie 32 input 4 bus. The outboard equipment is a TC Electronic M2000, Digitech StudioQuad and some computer based effects (waves plug-ins such as L1, Q10 and TruVerb)
That's it basically. I still love the song.
-Peter
My recording "equipment," such as it was:
Computer: 75MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM.
Software: 5.0 for Windows 95.
Soundcard:AWE32 PNP.
Microphone: Audio-technica PR20.
And that's it. Vocals were recorded at 22KHz, due to an underpowered computer, and some trouble / incompetence getting Cakewalk to work properly. As of February 1998, the computer has been upgraded to P150, 64MB RAM, so future vocals will (hopefully) be recorded at 44KHz. More than one person has remarked that my "Blue Overall" vocals are too low. This was partly due to poor Soundblaster audio. But I liked the effect of the vocals being overwhelmed by the music in places... I chose to record "Blue Overall" because I don't like its over-the-top arrangement and performance. I wanted to find what a calmer version might sound like. After working with the song, I still don't like it as it was recorded, but I have learned to appreciate the songwriting. The original inspiration for my arrangement was "I Wish You Could Smile," as performed by Stoa, the first track on the 1994 compilation (This is one of the few recordings that's more obscure than an XTC B side...) Some instrumentation and other ideas were directly lifted from this song, at least at the beginning. The ending originally had some additional piano noodling at the end. I took this part out late in the game because I couldn't get the rhythm to sound right. I would have added some piano back to the last section if I had had more time. It sounds kind of empty as it is. The end of "Blue Overall" also borrowed from another song, and another "Blue" song at that. Is it so obscure that no one noticed, or so obvious that it wasn't worth mentioning? Since I didn't (and, as of February 1998, still don't) have a DAT recorder or CD burner, I called a local studio and booked time to put the song on DAT. The recording engineer didn't show up for my first appointment. While setting up for the second session, we found that their monitor wouldn't work with my computer, and I had to make a hot trip back to my apartment for my monitor... When I got my CD copy of the album, I played my track first, even after hearing it dozens of times -- just to hear myself on a CD for the first time. I am fairly pleased with the final result. The things I would change were mostly the result of a lack of time, experience, and/or equipment. If everything works out, I will record "I'll Set Myself On Fire" in a few months, and I will offer it as a contribution to a future tribute project. I've been carrying plans for the song in my head for several months now. It won't sound much like my "Blue Overall," and it won't sound anything like the White Music original...
To begin with, I decided to change the song from 3/4 to 4/4, which ended up not being as difficult as I had at first imagined. Once I figured out the chords and that bass line (which WAS difficult), I just had to change the emphasis given to the individual notes.
The song was recorded on my Tascam Porta 05, using my good ol' generic electric guitar, six-stringed 12-string Eterna acoustic (i.e., I left off six of the strings), imitation Beatle bass, Yamaha RX17 drum machine, and wooden shaker egg. I did all lead and backup vocals, adding slight effects with a Digitech RDS 1900. Any reverb in the song was added with an Alesis Microverb, and my Alesis MicroLimiter was used for added punch on the bass and vocals. Boy! I feel like I'm being interviewed for Guitar Player magazine! Woohoo!
All would have gone smoothly, and the recording would have sounded cleaner than it turned out, except that, soon after the start of recording, my Porta 05 decided it was no longer going to rewind. To finish the recording, I had to keep popping the tape out, rewind it in my stereo's tape deck, and then pop it back in and continue. This got especially tiresome when overdubbing guitar parts. But that wasn't all! I also discovered that the deck's Dolby dbx noise reduction was doing wacky things to parts of the song, especially my vocals, as they were being laid down, not just on playback. As a result, I ended up having to leave the noise reduction turned off for some of the recording and during mixdown. But I figured if Guided by Voices can get so much praise recording lo-fi, maybe I could get away with it.
Anyway, that's the story...I wish it had been easier, but for all that, I'm not too disappointed with the results. Hope y'all enjoy it somewhat too!
In The Beginning
Here we were, a group of guys whose fanaticism with XTC had reached manic proportions. We had just decided to come up with something for CC '97 when out of the blue we get a call from one of the highest profile agents in L.A. On that fateful day we were informed that Bear the cat, world-class musician and the rage of Hollywood had not only heard of us but that he would be performing with us on this endeavor. We stared at each other in disbelief for some time -- failing to understand how a talent like this could even be aware of us -- let alone decide to perform.
Needless to say this was the highest honor.
Choosing The Song
We met with Bear at his oceanfront estate armed with
every XTC album in our arsenal. We needed to find just the right XTC song to
cover. [In his inimitable ultra-cool-musician style, Bear essentially ignored
the selection process for CC '97. For most of the time he sat there licking
his left paw as we threw out title after title of some of our favorites, hoping
(praying really) for some sign that he agreed with our collective thought
process. After exhausting four albums worth of favorites, he stopped licking
himself long enough to glance in Jeff's general direction. (We had just
finished proposing Snowman). Aaah, we said to ourselves, he wants to do
Snowman -- a story of hearbreak, of unrequited love, of yearning. Bear is so
cool, we agreed, nodding at each other in mutual awe.
In The Studio
Having decided on our course of action, we booked four
days at ChippyHacky studios to give Bear time to feel things out musically. We
wanted everything to be just right and worked very hard to give the place that
homelike feel we thought he might appreciate. We consulted with two of the
finest interior decorators in Beverly Hills. We had the ceiling remolding with
gold leaf pawprint inserts. We had all the doors replaced with feline-friendly
entry ways to allow for ease of access. We constructed signs reading "No Dogs
Allowed" and placed them prominently throughout. Additionally, all of Bear's
toys were spread around to give it that lived-in look -- his favorite toy mouse
near the kick drum, his string hung from the boom mic, litter boxes in every
corner, and no less than seven scratchers strategically placed (the sonic
qualities of the carpet helping to deaden the slightly live acoustics). [We
were really proud of ourselves on that last one].
When Bear finally arrived (two hours late), with five kitties of the other persuasion in tow, and more than a bit of catnip on his breath, we realized that we needn't have bothered. From the moment he arrived, he made us acutely aware that the environment was all wrong. Ignoring the scratchers, he went right for the grill of my 4x15 vintage Ampeg bass cabinet. He scratched the living hell out of it -- then smuggly walked across the floor, all but ignoring the string dangling from the boom mic. I was devastated.
Jeff was shaking with fear at the thought that Bear would be displeased with his choice of guitars for the session. Before even reaching that point, Bear, in a cunning move designed to solidify his leadership role, decided to check the tuning on Jeff's Ibanez. Jeff looked in horror at the roadie. The roadie, now pale with the realization that the guitars hadn't yet been tuned to the exacting standards of this feline phenom, buried his head in his hands. In less than a strum, Bear knew that the B string was a half semitone flat. Apparently Bear had had enough. He looked around the studio in disgust, stared at the red-faced Jeff, then slowly strutted away from all of us -- and into the booth. Although we, the band members, were shielded from hearing his tirade, we could see the engineer wincing at the tongue-lashing being administered. With a hiss and a devastating glance from Bear, the engineer leaped out of his seat and Bear positioned himself at the helm. In less than 4 minutes, Bear rerouted just about every rig setup the engineer had painstakingly crafted over the week long soundcheck. Finally content with the setup, Bear got on his cell phone (during studio time mind you). He first badgered his publicist for greater personal exposure, he then reduced three potential agents to tears, and finally, through shrewd negotiation, he obtained an unprecedented percentage of the domestic *and* foreign markets for himself -- in addition to a generous cash advance.
Meanwhile, his entourage was getting restless. Bear decided to call it a day and we were left scrambling to get things right.
When the day finally came for Bear to record, he arrived (late again) with his chimes in a gold-encased container. Snubbing the AKG C3000 (we suspect it was an odor problem, but he declined to elaborate), he had the engineer scrambling to set up a Neumann U-38. He had the studio cleared and recorded his part in one take. One take! What a talent. Ever the consummate pro, Bear waited for the thumbs up from the engineer (now drenched in sweat), then climbed effortlessly into Dave's bass drum for a much deserved catnap.
End Product
In retrospect, his seeming ambivalence at the outset belied
a keen focus. He was testing us. We don't know if he's heard the product.
All phone calls to his agent have gone unanswered. So Bear, if you're reading
this, it was a great honor, man. Thanks.
1962 Fender MusicMaster (hacked up with a Craftsman Skillsaw, rounded and routed with a Craftsman Router, DiMarzio High Gain bridge pickup added, wired only through the volume pot). Rat distortion and Ibanez digital delay stompboxes into Roland Cube Chorus Amp (some tracks with chorus and/or reverb). "Percussion" (sheck, sheck, sheck...) was made by dumping the guitar strings slack and whacking on them. Most other noises made by semi-restrained feedback and tapping around on the strings or thumping the body. This was recorded in my dining room while our house was being remodeled and my wife & son were away.
Line out of amp into Tascam DA-30 DAT machine.
Tracks recorded serially to DAT and later digitized onto PC. Tracks digitized, edited, manipulated and compiled using some quirky demo (i.e., CAN'T SAVE "FINISHED" WORK) audio software and dumped back to DAT complete with aliasing errors and whatever noise happened.
I should be ashamed of myself.
Paul Culnane says:
Secondly, I haven't yet heard CC97, but I do agree with Ira Lieman when he gives kudos to Simon & Linda Knight's "Summer Grass". I had the pleasure of hearing a rough mix of this track that Si played for me and it's superb. He told me that his initial idea of melding "Cauldron" with "Grass" transmogrified by accident into the form you hear, because he was having equipment problems as well as physical problems associated with a debilitating illness he is currently suffering from. If you haven't heard from Simon, that's why - he's pretty ill but, I gather, over the worst of it and on the mend. I'm sure those of you on this list who know him will join me in wishing him a speedy recovery. Suffice it to say that if "Summer Grass" is an example of what he's capable of when incapacitated, wait till you hear his new songs which he will be tackling once he's back in full swing!
Go back to Chalkhills' Children '97.
Ed Miller