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The drums are mic’d and ready to go. Got a set of Audix mics: A D1 for the snare, three D2s for toms, a D4 for the floor tom and a D6 for the kick. Bought a 30 foot 6x2, box to fan snake to run it across the room. The mics sounded pretty good with some minor positioning. Jeff came over and we tweaked and cut tracks, trouble-shot some impedance issues and tweaked some more. Got a reasonably good EQ and compression dialed in and written to a Sonar template file. Then went up onto the Cakewalk forum and got the question answered as to how to copy those track treatments (without the wave data) into other songs to record drums to… say… Tears In The Rain, which we will likely do shortly.

I think Jeff approves of the baseline sounds we’re getting. It’s only going to get better from here.

One of the next challenges is that the PreSonus FP10 has eight inputs, which is pretty much now filled up by drums. This means that until I have a second FP10, I have to record drums without the ability to record other stuff, then un-patch drums and patch in guitars, vocals, etc. - redo levels and so on, back and forth. The real solution, of course, is to buy a second FP10. The only way I can think of to make that ‘okay’ is to part with some other gear - a guitar or something - to pay for a new FP10. It would be quite worth it, in order for us to be able to track rhythm tracks together live. Hell, a hot take would only need vocals re-tracked later. Now I have to figure out what to let go of. The Ovation Deacon? [gasp] The (albeit Epiphone) Les Paul Special? [choke]

We had a good rehearsal tonight, with rewrites working well for The Good Guys and Heed The Call. Good Guys has a whole new vibe and it’s on the right track. Starts off much more subtly and grows slowly into slammin’. This is a much better, more dynamic approach. I confess, I’m thinking a bit of how our good Mr. Grohl might produce this one. “Good writers borrow… Great producers steal.” Heh. I should be so great some day.

Years ago, right after I first wrote this song, I took it into a Teasing Zen rehearsal and got shut down by Bob. “We’re NOT doing a protest song,” he exclaimed. “Not gonna happen”. It was a critical moment in how 'bought in' I was to the band.

This evening, Jay happened to offer the successful status of the recording sessions that Myra Lease was having recently, and “Oh yeah, Bob and Carla are doing a ‘protest song’.” Really? Isn’t that ironic? Guess it's all about how and what one is protesting.

I truly wish them the best in their political endeavors and appreciate the values that drive them. Most of us really want the same things and it’s horribly unfortunate how quickly we polarize to the point of both forgetting how similar we are and ceasing to listen to one another. I aspire (and oft fail) to something better than that.

Meanwhile, I ask that you consider that while The Good Guys can be framed as a ‘protest song‘, it’s really a song about the abovementioned polarity. It’s about the Tao. The Path Between. And love.

I have some training in martial arts and one day stepped into a nearby AiKiDo studio to find out what they were about. A senior student greeted me and offered an explanation of what the program was. Since I wanted to razzle-dazzle him with my martial expertise, I started asking ‘knowledgeable’ questions and made the mistake of referring to one’s ‘Opponent’. Check it: In AiKiDo there is no ‘opponent’. There is only your partner. If they are angry, attacking you, trying to commit harm or death, they are still your partner. AiKiDo’s founder, Morihei Ueshiba, was said to absolutely offer love and compassion to his attacking partner. As his ‘partner’ came in attempting to bludgeon with sists, slice him in half (etc.), he simply skillfully escorted his partner to safer position on the ground on the other side, for his partner’s own protection. There was no enemy, only an act of compassion.

This is the model that I would like to believe that The Good Guys stems from. And it can easily come off as a ‘protest song’. I look forward to hearing the new ‘protest song’ by Myra Lease.

And I look forward to presenting the first published recording of The Good Guys to you in the very near future.