Atheist Christmas
In 2010 Barack Obama was elected President, Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, and the Dems had a healthy majority in the Senate. In the November 2011 the public spoke in the midterm elections and the Democrats took a shellacking. John Boehner replaced Pelosi as speaker of the House and the majority in the Senate was diminished, but still held on by a thread. I had made the fatal mistake of “hoping” for the two years leading up to the midterms, and I paid with an ache for that mistake.
In addition, I got laid off from work. I didn’t love the job I lost, but no one likes to get laid off, and this was the second time in 3 years that it had happened.
With lots of time to stew in the juices of political heartbreak and money worries, I took to the keyboard and ProTools and started writing, because that’s what I do. I penned three inspired songs in fairly rapid succession. The first was Atheist Christmas.
As soon as I finished the lyrics, I knew I was going to make a record. My neighbor at the time, Pete Wardowski, had given me some good advice about what to do when you get laid off; “Do something you love, that you wished you had more time for .” I ran with it.
What I had for a studio space was a little out building in the back yard I had dug a trench to run power to, insulated, sheetrocked, taped, and painted. We referred to it as the tree fort. It was insulated well enough but at the time had an “indoor’ kerosene heater. Kerosene heaters tend to burn the oxygen out of a room and probably will slowly kill you if you stay in the room too long. Perhaps it influenced my writing and arranging.
Don Jones and I recorded the music for Atheist Christmas, Breakdown In the Passing Lane, and 23 ½ Degrees. Don played the flute on all three. The fourth track is a cover of Don’t Let It Bring You Down and features John Crenshaw on vocals, I did the background vocals, Kevin Kelly played guitar, Charlie Throneburg played Bass, and I played drums. Don Dixon Mixed the CD
When the tracks were done, I reached out to legendary music journalist and political radio host Dave Marsh. He was generous enough to invite me to be a guest on his Sirius radio show in the McGraw-Hill Building in NYC. John Crenshaw and I went up and had a great time. Marshall, John, and I had gone there before to promote The Night the Detroit Lions Won The Super Bowl. Dave was very supportive of my music.
By the Time the tracks were mixed I was gainfully employed again. I remember the day I got the tracks from Dixon. I was staying at a Holiday Inn in Rockford IL. I had downloaded the files from Dixon and wanted to listen to them in my car. I walked out of the lobby door to the parking lot, and there I saw it; the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile was right before my eyes in all it’s fiberglass glory, I knew this was going to be a joyous day.
I fired up the title track and the mix was much different than the roughs I had made. Every song sounded much different than I predicted it would. Dixon took a much different approach. He took a much BETTER approach. He focused on instruments I had put in the background (percussion) and the bass and vocals were more up front. One of the reason I like to work with the people I do, is because they are creative, smart, and much better at their forte, than I am. It was a really good day. Leave it to the professionals, and remember; anytime you see the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile, it’s probably going to be a good day. (-:
In 2010 Barack Obama was elected President, Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, and the Dems had a healthy majority in the Senate. In the November 2011 the public spoke in the midterm elections and the Democrats took a shellacking. John Boehner replaced Pelosi as speaker of the House and the majority in the Senate was diminished, but still held on by a thread. I had made the fatal mistake of “hoping” for the two years leading up to the midterms, and I paid with an ache for that mistake.
In addition, I got laid off from work. I didn’t love the job I lost, but no one likes to get laid off, and this was the second time in 3 years that it had happened.
With lots of time to stew in the juices of political heartbreak and money worries, I took to the keyboard and ProTools and started writing, because that’s what I do. I penned three inspired songs in fairly rapid succession. The first was Atheist Christmas.
As soon as I finished the lyrics, I knew I was going to make a record. My neighbor at the time, Pete Wardowski, had given me some good advice about what to do when you get laid off; “Do something you love, that you wished you had more time for .” I ran with it.
What I had for a studio space was a little out building in the back yard I had dug a trench to run power to, insulated, sheetrocked, taped, and painted. We referred to it as the tree fort. It was insulated well enough but at the time had an “indoor’ kerosene heater. Kerosene heaters tend to burn the oxygen out of a room and probably will slowly kill you if you stay in the room too long. Perhaps it influenced my writing and arranging.
Don Jones and I recorded the music for Atheist Christmas, Breakdown In the Passing Lane, and 23 ½ Degrees. Don played the flute on all three. The fourth track is a cover of Don’t Let It Bring You Down and features John Crenshaw on vocals, I did the background vocals, Kevin Kelly played guitar, Charlie Throneburg played Bass, and I played drums. Don Dixon Mixed the CD
When the tracks were done, I reached out to legendary music journalist and political radio host Dave Marsh. He was generous enough to invite me to be a guest on his Sirius radio show in the McGraw-Hill Building in NYC. John Crenshaw and I went up and had a great time. Marshall, John, and I had gone there before to promote The Night the Detroit Lions Won The Super Bowl. Dave was very supportive of my music.
By the Time the tracks were mixed I was gainfully employed again. I remember the day I got the tracks from Dixon. I was staying at a Holiday Inn in Rockford IL. I had downloaded the files from Dixon and wanted to listen to them in my car. I walked out of the lobby door to the parking lot, and there I saw it; the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile was right before my eyes in all it’s fiberglass glory, I knew this was going to be a joyous day.
I fired up the title track and the mix was much different than the roughs I had made. Every song sounded much different than I predicted it would. Dixon took a much different approach. He took a much BETTER approach. He focused on instruments I had put in the background (percussion) and the bass and vocals were more up front. One of the reason I like to work with the people I do, is because they are creative, smart, and much better at their forte, than I am. It was a really good day. Leave it to the professionals, and remember; anytime you see the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile, it’s probably going to be a good day. (-:
In 2010 Barack Obama was elected President, Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, and the Dems had a healthy majority in the Senate. In the November 2011 the public spoke in the midterm elections and the Democrats took a shellacking. John Boehner replaced Pelosi as speaker of the House and the majority in the Senate was diminished, but still held on by a thread. I had made the fatal mistake of “hoping” for the two years leading up to the midterms, and I paid with an ache for that mistake.
In addition, I got laid off from work. I didn’t love the job I lost, but no one likes to get laid off, and this was the second time in 3 years that it had happened.
With lots of time to stew in the juices of political heartbreak and money worries, I took to the keyboard and ProTools and started writing, because that’s what I do. I penned three inspired songs in fairly rapid succession. The first was Atheist Christmas.
As soon as I finished the lyrics, I knew I was going to make a record. My neighbor at the time, Pete Wardowski, had given me some good advice about what to do when you get laid off; “Do something you love, that you wished you had more time for .” I ran with it.
What I had for a studio space was a little out building in the back yard I had dug a trench to run power to, insulated, sheetrocked, taped, and painted. We referred to it as the tree fort. It was insulated well enough but at the time had an “indoor’ kerosene heater. Kerosene heaters tend to burn the oxygen out of a room and probably will slowly kill you if you stay in the room too long. Perhaps it influenced my writing and arranging.
Don Jones and I recorded the music for Atheist Christmas, Breakdown In the Passing Lane, and 23 ½ Degrees. Don played the flute on all three. The fourth track is a cover of Don’t Let It Bring You Down and features John Crenshaw on vocals, I did the background vocals, Kevin Kelly played guitar, Charlie Throneburg played Bass, and I played drums. Don Dixon Mixed the CD
When the tracks were done, I reached out to legendary music journalist and political radio host Dave Marsh. He was generous enough to invite me to be a guest on his Sirius radio show in the McGraw-Hill Building in NYC. John Crenshaw and I went up and had a great time. Marshall, John, and I had gone there before to promote The Night the Detroit Lions Won The Super Bowl. Dave was very supportive of my music.
By the Time the tracks were mixed I was gainfully employed again. I remember the day I got the tracks from Dixon. I was staying at a Holiday Inn in Rockford IL. I had downloaded the files from Dixon and wanted to listen to them in my car. I walked out of the lobby door to the parking lot, and there I saw it; the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile was right before my eyes in all it’s fiberglass glory, I knew this was going to be a joyous day.
I fired up the title track and the mix was much different than the roughs I had made. Every song sounded much different than I predicted it would. Dixon took a much different approach. He took a much BETTER approach. He focused on instruments I had put in the background (percussion) and the bass and vocals were more up front. One of the reason I like to work with the people I do, is because they are creative, smart, and much better at their forte, than I am. It was a really good day. Leave it to the professionals, and remember; anytime you see the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile, it’s probably going to be a good day. (-: