FREE MP3 "New Eyes" and new album preview

My forthcoming new album goes off to the manufacturers later this week! These final stages are my favorite moments of releasing an album:
+ deciding on artwork
+ writing out the CD insert credits
+ sequencing the songs

Here's a photo of the sequencing process I used for this new CD. There are 18 songs, and the trick is to order them so that they flow together well, don't get monotonous, keep the energy level up, and don't scare off the listener. Ever since the Sound Theology project, I've used a system of color coded index cards to help me keep track of each song's tone, tempo, attitude, genre, etc. And I write the key of the song up in the corner. If too many songs in the same key get sequenced together you end up making a Gin Blossoms record (har dee har har).

As I blog tonight, the audio for the album is getting mastered, and on Monday I have a meeting with my artist/designer to finalize the artwork. After I proof everything, it's off to the duplicator on Wednesday, in the hopes of having new CDs to sell at my July shows!

I'm so excited about this new collection of songs that I just have to give away part of the secret. I've posted an acoustic demo of one of the new tunes, "New Eyes". Get it at my Audio Page.

This tasty little song was written back in October when I did my first collaboration with one of my main musical influences, Jeff Krebs. Here's a picture we took when we completed the song, written on Jeff's dining room table in Marquette, MI! (Nerd Alert: check out those awesome vintage Gibson LG acoustic guitars!) The recording is a first-take acoustic demo I made once I got back to MN. The full-band version on the album features Jeff on acoustic guitar, electric 12-string, mandolin, and harmony vocals, and it's one of my most proud moments on record. But for a musical appetizer, this demo will have to suffice. Watch this blog for more new album news as it develops...