In which my time in the studio was soooooo fun.

Thursday morning I got up at seven and bathed and dressed and packed, and BvB’s husband dropped her off and we loaded into the jeep and drove to Cedar Falls – about three hours away. We were singing about half an hour after getting to the studio. They gave us coffee and everything!

I got to sing into a reproduction of the mic Aretha Franklin uses; I did one track with the mic Streisand uses but it didn’t make me sound as cool. Let me tell you what: a six- or nine-thousand-dollar mic is a wonderful thing.

After my fifth or sixth take, the producer said, “You’re gonna give me a good take every time, aren’t you? Unless you mess up the words or something?” When I said, “Uh, yeah. Basically,” he said, “I haven’t had a singer like you in here in a long time.” It made me feel awesome. I mean, the man’s a gold record recipient and he told me I have a great voice. He made me feel like a genius, which he probably does to all the talent if he wants good results, but still. Who doesn’t like to feel like she’s talented and fun to work with?

We got the backup vocals (and my one verse of lead vocal) arranged and recorded for all nine songs on the album. I sang on every track; BvB sang backup with me on five and Snow sang with me on four.

Thursday we were in the studio until about one in the morning. Friday we were there until four. The first night BvB and I shared a motel room; the next night – all three hours of it – I crashed in a tent with the guys at a nearby state park.

Saturday we got up, packed up the campsite, and I drove the guys to the airport. They each gave me $5 for gas, thank God, because I pulled into a gas station in Mount Pleasant on fumes and that cash saved my arse and got me the rest of the way home.

When I arrived, Bghead wasn’t around and the other roommates were out of town for a family weekend thing. I went upstairs and crashed hard for a few hours. Since the roommates were out, I pointed their box fan my way so I could actually have some air conditioning for once. (There’s one window unit for the whole upstairs, and my room’s at an angle so I usually don’t get much A/C. My room’s so hot my dog won’t even sleep in there!) What with the fatigue and the sense of accomplishment and the rockin’ A/C, it was the awesomest nap ever!

Saturday night I was still pretty tired, and my voice was hashed. The house was a mess, especially the kitchen, so I moved some crap around and made falafel and hummus and tabbouli because I had had nothing but coffee all day. After I ate, Bghead had a friend over and invited me to hang out with them on the porch and shoot the shit, but I opted to crash out instead.

In other news, the producer asked for my contact information because he said he might be able to use me on other projects. It would absolutely kick ass to be a session singer!