Howdy Friends!

First off, thank you to all our fans, friends and family for supporting us so enthusiastically this past Saturday night at the Lantern for our show.   I have not yet seen all the photos and videos to know exactly what the show looked like from the audience perspective, but for me it was absolutely surreal – breathtaking and moving, and fun – it was for sure the pinnacle of my musical career so far…it’s what music is all about for me.   I can’t thank my band and entire crew enough for all the heart and soul they poured into this.

I thought I would share some of what went into this show!

Writing the Songs

I was asked by several people where the songs came from – do I write alone or with the band? I usually get an idea or concept of something I want to write about, then I noodle/strum it on the guitar and hum along until the melody settles in, and then write the lyrics.  This usually happens when I’m alone in my living room, late at night or early in the morning.    I bring it to the band as a vocal/guitar thing typically.  Sometimes I’ll have a harmonica line as well.  Then the band works through the song with me, and we figure out how to make the right feel – drum beat, bass line, harmony/background vocals, and what tempo the song should be at.   The more times we play it through, the more it forms.  The 11 songs on the new CD were written over the past 2 – 4 years.  There were many other songs I wrote/we played, but we chose the best ones (ones the band liked the most as well) for the CD.   We worked hard to get arrangements for the CD down to about 3 minutes so we could promote the CD to radio, which began today.  Interestingly, I had the idea for “The Boss is a Woman” about 2.5 years ago, but I didn’t write the song for another year after that.  It took me awhile to feel that I could get away with a song like that – I thought my previous band members will march out the door when I presented it, so until I had the RIGHT guys who I felt really supported me, I didn’t let that song out of the bag to them.   I was so happy when they liked it.  I was even happier when they sung along with me and got into it.  I was thrilled I was even able to name the album after that tune and really have some fun with the concept.

Recording the CD

We recorded the CD at Danny Patton’s studio, Airwaves, in Calgary.  This is where I did my past two CDs as well.    I like going to Danny because he is a superb sound engineer, but also because he’s got a really quirky tell-it-like-it-is sense of humour.  If ever I had to walk into the studio on a bad day, I can bitch to him about it, and he’ll bitch even harder (and very colourfully!) about the same thing, and then it somehow I’m rolling in the aisles and feeling much better.  He developed a great rapport with the guys and we all had a hoot with his wry humour.

Danny produced my first album, Rolling Wind, in 2008. Back then I had no idea about song arrangements and instrumentation and he put all the pieces together.  This time I (and the band) mainly knew what we wanted, so Danny and I worked on deciding the rest together.  So we co-produced.

I really wanted a radio-quality recording to make the BEST representation of these songs, and to surpass the sound of Red Hot Candy Heart.  And I was nervous as to whether this could be achieved just with my players, because I didn’t really know their studio capabilities and skills when the process began.  What would everybody sound like?  Would they be nervous?  Prepared?  So, we rehearsed week after week until we knew our parts cold, and then went into the studio.

We actually started recording in early 2014 – we all came in for a day and laid down tracks that were for drums/bass – the real tracks, and for the rest, were just “placeholder” tracks.  But by being in the studio together we were all able to watch each other and click into the right sound and feel as a band.  This was the first time I really approached the recording process as a BAND instead of as a solo artist hiring all the various parts.  What a difference – we knew the arrangements coming in, the tempos, the changes in feel/where drum fills were needed. This was not a “decided on the spot” thing as it had been with my previous albums.  So even though I’d used some great musicians in the past, the result of using my OWN band was that it was BETTER because they KNEW what they were doing.

There were several amazing “wins” in the recording process:

1. Our (unknown) Drummer turns out to be a Knockout Studio Player!  Our drummer, Scott Muirhead, did NOT use a click track (metronome) in his ears, which is rare in modern recordings nowadays.  He WAS the click track.  Danny had never worked with Scott before (“Who’s this Scott Muirhead?  I’ve heard of his uncle Al! Is he good?” but was amazed at how solid Scott’s drumming was, and the tone/touch on his kit.  I was super impressed with how the drumming sounded coming out the other end.  “Is that MY drummer? Whoa!”  Why this is better than all the studio drummers I’ve hired before!
2. Fiddle in the Nick of Time – We wanted fiddle, but our Canadian fiddle player, Dave Glowasky, had moved to Denmark in the past year.    Dave tried recording in Denmark and sending over the tracks, but they just did not sound right. As it turned out, Dave (fiddle) made it back into Canada just in time (early December) to record some fiddle, and we squeaked it onto the album.
3. Hall of Fame Guitar Player – We had no lead guitarist.  We’d been gigging a long time without one, but we really needed somebody to fill that in on the album.  In September, I went to CCMA’s (hoping to run into Terri Clark and ask if she’d heard my tunes- without luck) and saw a fellow there I’d met there before.  Wendell Ferguson was a highly regarded guitar player, and we’d sat and jammed a few times in the hotel lobby at previous CCMAs – and hit it off well because he’s got a crazy, crazy sense of humour, and of course I love that!  When I saw him there this time, he was being inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.  He’d just gone up and accepted his award (planting a big mouth-to-mouth kiss on a shocked Brett Kissel….see, I told you his humour was CRAZY)…so after that was over and were were all in the same mix-n-mingler, I asked if he’d consider adding lead guitars to my album.   He was very friendly, and said he was set up do to any kind of guitar recording I’d need right from his home studio in Toronto.  I just needed to send him the base tracks.  He was an absolute professional, and gave me several stylistic options for each track, letting me choose what I liked best….always with careful descriptions of what he was doing/why he took various approaches. He didn’t charge me an arm and a leg (maybe because I laughed at his jokes – ha!) although he sure could have with the quality I got!!  The guitar work he did is stunning.
4. Trumpet on Galaxy Girl – Although all the other tunes were pretty much straight up country/folk/roots, this song is more of an old jazz feel.  We wanted something fresh and different, so Scott suggested that if we wanted a trumpet, we should ask his uncle, the legendary Al Muirhead.   Al came in to record his track almost at the end of the album process.   And so wonderful to have a member of the band’s extended family on the album.  The night Al came in, everyone was there to listen to him lay down the tracks (we’d all just been in to do fix-ups that night – add upright bass, etc) and we had a ball.  It was beautiful and sublime; a real class act.  Al is so friendly and fun, he fit right in with all the joking and teasing.  He got it immediately when Richard (our bass player) said, “I really like what you were trying to do in there.”
5. Vocal Coach to the Stars – This album had a couple of songs that were really “aggressive” from a vocal standpoint, almost requiring a rock and roll vocal approach, which is more demanding of me than ever before.   I was chatting to a good friend of mine, Penny Sanborn, (who coached me on accordion when I was playing with Tom Phillips’ band) recommended I call Tamara Beatty, who’s a good friend of hers from university.  Tamara is now a world-class vocal coach, and works coaching contestants of  the #1 hit NBC show, “The Voice” in Los Angeles (the past 5 seasons).  Tamara has a boyfriend who lives here in Calgary, and was up for Christmas.   So I asked her to help me find my “power voice” and boy, did she ever!   She also provided great exercises.     The backgrounds went from messy to tight in one rehearsal.  Tamara also came right into the studio with me and coached me as I was recording them, and worked with Danny to pick/edit the best versions.   This greatly boosted my sound and got the vocals where they needed to be. In preparation for the show, the background vocal arrangements also needed some refining, so Tamara came in to one of the band rehearsals and coached the guys on their balance, articulation and pitch among other things.

Designing the CD and Swag

My company, Tenato Strategy has been growing and evolving since we rebranded in 2011.  A big part of the change was the addition of a world-class creative director, Jack Adamson.   So when I wanted a cool album/creative concept to carry through the whole CD, I asked Jack.  Bonus – it turned out he also liked my music/songwriting.   He developed so many great creative concepts for “The Boss is a Woman” I picked not just one, but TWO.  The image for the CD Cover was art-directed by Jack in a a photo shoot at Tenato’s offices.  He told me to find a bright pink or red suit, told us what he wanted the guys to wear, brought in the photographer, fans, smoke machine, etc…and wow, what a result!!   The guys and I had a blast mugging it up for the camera, although by the 100th shot, they were pretty tired…Steve says his bored-looking face is the real deal by the end of the shoot ….”Get me outta here!!”

We also were super lucky to get the photographer, Shaun Robinson; we were his first shoot after a bad back injury; and we thought we weren’t going to get him at all.  His back injury persisted so long he was actually closing his studio (because he’d lost the ability to generate revenue) and he was also in the process of arranging a long trip to the Philippines with his girlfriend, so we JUST got him at the right time.    The guitar image on the CD itself is my baby Taylor — Jack asked me if I had a guitar that looked like “this” (referring to his attached picture) and I said, “That’s a baby Taylor” and yes indeed I have one – they are great for travelling, and have no pick-guard.  So then they photoshopped the “female” symbol into the hole to create the effect, using a piece of wood veneer Gary had laying around the house (we have a lot of things laying around the house!).    The photoshop work is stunningly real looking!  I was amazed.

Jack also designed the funny “Boss” t-shirts, and they were produced by Cornerstone Creative Concepts, a company that’s an old client of mine.

Preparing the Show

Figuring out how to make the show great was a big challenge.  Again, while at CCMA’s, I saw a great speaker I’d seen several times, Tom Jackson, of Tom Jackson Productions in Nashville.  He takes a band on stage, and asks them to play a couple tunes.  The band does well, and looks pretty good.  Then the audience watches as he takes the song and re-arranges it to bring out the exciting parts, create visual meaning on stage, and get them moving around enough to get the audience engaged.  By then end of the show, the band looks (and perceptibly sounds) AMAZING.    I’d seen him do this several times, and have been blown away repeatedly.  So then I buy his DVD’s and books, and tried to get my band to watch them, and try to do some of this stuff, without success….so this time, I went and chatted to Tom after he spoke and asked him if he might work with our band.  He said he couldn’t but his colleague Amy might be able to make it work, and they had a program for charities so it wasn’t costly.   The tough part was getting the band to agree to giving up a whole 16 hours on a weekend to work with the Nashville coach without being paid!   Some of them thought it would be goofy, and were nervous about being “choreographed”.   The other tough part was that we needed a big stage area on which to do the rehearsing.

The Venue

Holy smokes, what an endeavour to get a venue. When we finally confirmed dates Amy could come, I looked everywhere for rehearsal space, because she required a large stage to work from.   The Jack Singer ‘s Rehearsal Hall had a good deal, but then yanked my booking at the last minute.  Then I managed to come across the Lantern Community Church in Inglewood.  They weren’t booked already that weekend (which was only days away) and gave me a deal on having it for the rehearsal weekend, as long as I would use it for my CD Release show as well.  I was nervous about the size of the venue and its quirks (no alcohol in the sanctuary, but room for 100 people to have a party in the basement) – and in addition, they couldn’t get me a Saturday night date until January 17!  At that stage, I was hoping for end of November or very early December, because the fiddle player was coming for Christmas and I wanted to have him at the show.  I was also nervous about having to fill a venue with about 240 seats…and immediately hired an event planner (Lynda Greuel of Hillcrest events) to help me figure out all the details so I could focus on marketing the tickets.   Luckily I drew on my friends at Tenato (Tamania Naqi and Carolle Sutter of TrueMedia) to help do PR and media buying and got some campaigns up fast.  An old friend, Han Siu, re-designed the website in record time, and a campaign was launched in about 10 days.

And so the training proceeded.  Now, we still did NOT have a lead guitar player, but I made the assumption that I would find one somehow before the show… so for the training I had my 18 year old son George, fill in as the lead guitarist.   He did really well (although he has no desire to be in his mom’s band) and this allowed us to envision what the whole thing would/could look like.   George also contributed some great ideas to the show. Amy took every song from its 3 minute-ish version for the CD into more involved, longer arrangements for the stage.  There was movement, microphone technique, talking, transitions…..we had to relearn all the songs over 16 hours, and boy did we make a ton of screw ups, me especially!   I felt really awkward at first, removing my guitar, standing to sing, and “owning” the stage the way she was instructing.  It was just as uncomfortable for me as for the band, but I knew we were really getting somewhere.   But I was also afraid we’d forget absolutely everything as soon as that weekend was over.

Fortunately, Gary (my hubby and our sound man) was there with the video camera, recording the whole thing.  Then we translated it into “show notes” to instruct the players what they should be doing in various songs.   Gary spent probably 60 – 80 hours building all of the changes into his self-built “GigMaster” database, which we use to build setlists, track the shows, equipment and all the band’s income/costs.

But how would we rehearse this going forward, from our little rehearsal area in my basement, where there’s no room to “work” a stage?? I didn’t want to have to pay for ongoing rehearsal space.   Well, the last night of the training, Steve Bridgett, our keyboard player, had to wait for his daughter, Ali, so we went to the Hose n’ Hound nearby in Inglewood.  He’s a junior high school band teacher, and “bing” – had an idea – “My school’s band room’s available for us to rehearse in – and it’s plenty big to rehearse, and we can have it whenever we want!  It’s also got a drum kit so Scott doesn’t need to drag his drums along.”  I don’t know why we didn’t think of this when I was looking for a place to hold Amy’s training, but if I had known we might not have gotten the Lantern for our CD Release show, which turned out be the most spectacular venue possible for our exact needs!!

Getting a Lead Guitarist in the Band

As it turned out, Wendell was a little delayed in getting us his guitar tracks, but we also really needed the additional rehearsal time to pull that show together, which was way more challenging than we realized it would be.  Rehearsing at Steve’s school (still without a lead guitarist) went really well (Gary’s notes were amazing), as I searched feverishly for a lead guitar player.  I found a bass player (Kim Butts) who was super nice, and he thought he might be able to give the guitar parts a try as well…but he was strapped for time to practice during the few weeks he sat in, and the guitar parts Wendell provided were NOT easy.  It was mid December before we found Morgan Turk to take the lead guitarist role on. His name was just sitting in my iPhone, and he’d been recommended to me a long time ago by Lawrence Ball…turned out Richard (our bass player) knew who he was and was really excited when he came to his first rehearsal with us.   WHAM what a sound — the whole band was lifted up by his amazing guitar and high energy.   Miraculously, he was available for the January 17 date, and we worked a schedule to ensure he could be at all the upcoming rehearsals.  He picked up on Wendell’s tracks very fast, but also added his own excitement with his big presence (he is 6’5″) big shaggy mop of hair and big sound!  He clicked right away with the guys (especially Richard – like they were long lost brothers) – and then asked to stay on as our full-time guitarist.  What a gigantic win!

An Opening Act

It wasn’t until about 2 rehearsals before the show in January that we really started to feel smooth and sound solid. We had 10 tunes and 3 for a possible encore polished and ready.  There was no time to add more songs — and was the show enough for what we were charging??  We didn’t want to make people sit too long on those church pews, but we thought…hmm…how about an opening act?   Steve suggested his daughter, Ali Bridgett, aged 15.   She’d never sung at a microphone before, and he brought her along to a couple of rehearsals.   She was a beautiful singer, and Steve already knew which songs she knew the best.   And at the second rehearsal she came in with us, our vocal coach, Tamara Beatty, was there to help us with balancing our background vocals.  She spent a few minutes with Ali to help her sing a little more confidently, connect with the audience, and “go for the big notes” in a few spots…and Ali went from great to spectacular in mere minutes.  Instant opening act!!

A Drumming Emergency

Then KABOOOM – Scott Muirhead got a call — his dad had a heart attack and he’d have to fly to Kamloops to be with his family.   His father survived the heart attack, but then a week later, a SECOND KABOOM and it was a stroke.  I remember Scott getting the news in the rehearsal and he turned white and left just shaking.  I thought, holy smokes, this might be it….it was 10 days before the show.

A few weeks prior, as I was selling tickets (yes, calling everyone I knew and whom I thought MIGHT come!) I had seen a name pop up on the guest list – a talented drummer named Johnny Gozde, who I’d played with quite a few times before. He was in a few other bands, and not always available, but – wow-  he’d actually bought himself a ticket on a Saturday night.  I thought, “Wow, a drummer who’s available to us that night!!” Johnny was super kind, and didn’t mind at all that he might not to get to play the actual show (yes I agreed to make sure he was paid either way), depending on what happened with Scott’s father.  Johnny worked his schedule around to be at next rehearsal (the LAST full rehearsal before the show) and sat in for Scott.  Gary provided Johnny with all the show notes and recordings.

Not only did Johnny know the drum parts cold, he’d also learned all the backup vocals in about 3 days flat!  In fact, there was a background vocal part for one of the songs (Contrition) that the guys had NOT learned because it was quite complex; and they were already hustling to learn the new live arrangements and perfect all the other vocal parts.   Turned out Johnny is a super fast learner and had his part nailed including the backup vocals!  Since it was a two-part backup, he showed Richard, and they both blended their parts just two days before the shows.

Meanwhile, I was calling/emailing everyone I knew to sell tickets, arranging to launch the CD to Radio and going on the air to promote the album.   No wonder I didn’t have time to shop for an outfit.

The Day of The Show

Finally, show day!  I’d spent the morning with my daughter Liz trying to get some kind of outfit….and ended up late for set up, and without makeup on (luckily my wonderful friend Stacey and daughter Liz were there to help set up all the merchandise/afterparty).    Scott (our drummer) got back from Kamloops just in time — the night before, and his father had made a miraculous recovery, thanks to the medical staff catching his stroke quickly.    Scott said he was extremely relieved to know that if he hadn’t made it back, Johnny was there to cover for him.

The church had another group using the venue until 2:30 and we couldn’t get in until 3pm.   We thought we could set up everything and be ready to go by 4:30 so the guys could go home and eat.  Not!   There were way more things at play than we anticipated.   Gary had had to rent 20 XLR cables and 10 LED lights with power cables (and he had NOT ONE left over, exactly enough) for light and A couple lights we rented (and in the show, we discovered a mic we rented) did not function properly and we really struggled to get the sound pulled together, and were over an hour behind.     Morgan had a very large, powerful guitar amp as well, and we couldn’t get the thing low enough while still sounding good – he actually ended up putting in the wooden closets on the stage, so it could be set at mid-volume and have the band balanced out!

There had also been a little confusion around the start time for the show.  The doors were to open at 7:00pm and we had people lining up around 6:30, when we still hadn’t quite finished our sound check! Yikes!  I had to do an event listing where they wanted a single start time listed, and since the show started at 8:00 with doors at 7:00 I decided to split the difference and enter 7:30 so people wouldn’t miss the beginning of the show if they were late.   So, some of the people had to wait a half hour longer than anticipated (I came out and explained this around 7:30 on the stage).  But it wasn’t a huge problem.

After losing and then finding my cell phone right in the interval between 7:30 and 8:00 and then scrambling to get on my makeup,  the show finally began.

When Ali started the show, Steve made the most beautiful introduction to Ali.  And then she sang with just her Dad accompanying her- her voice was pure and calm, and melted everyone.   The band came out to support her on the next two songs, and settled themselves in to their spots on the big stage — which was a huge help to getting the final sound changes made.

The first song, I walked on out with the band already started.  The sound and stage looked beautiful.   Then I was in the zone for the rest of the show.

After Exception to the Rule, the opening song – wow, what a roar!!  Then Sunshine City….then Killing Me…the band just kept sounding better and better.  The guys background vocals were a powerhouse.

It felt magical to sing Galaxy Girl for Liz (my daughter) and know she was working the lighting, and sitting right in the balcony behind the big white spotlight shining on me.

During “The Boss is a Woman” a wireless mic we’d rented zapped out.  I was thinking it was just an ear-monitor problem and continued singing.  The audience was dark and I couldn’t tell their faces, until I got down into the crowd for part of the song and said, ‘Can you guys hear me??” and they all said “NOOOOO!!!” — yikes — so I ran back up to the stage and Richard handed me the wired mic, which luckily had enough tether on it that I could still move to finish the song as we’d planned.  The song ended up well and still got a terrific response.

The band reconfigured for Who Saved Who and I really felt touched knowing the person I wrote it about was in the audience hearing it for the first time.  (I told her afterwards that it was for her and she was thrilled and I got a huge hug!).   Moonlight’s Calling followed..  Gary surprised everyone with a beautiful time-lapse video he shot of the moon rising over the city (he snuck out on a very cold January night to shoot it – even though he was really sick)….awesome!  Richard sang Moonlight in harmony with me and it was so gorgeous I had to mention to the audience that he was actually single….(He had his first inquiry less than 24 hours less after the show).

When we got to Contrition, Johnny (the understudy drummer) got up to help Richard sing the new backup vocals, and played a shaker while he did so. They pulled it off wonderfully!    I remember glancing over to see them rocking it out together, and grinned at Johnny singing and shaking it with so much energy.    I was really playing hard, and cut my finger open!  At the end of the song I felt my hand was wet — blood all over my hand!!  I think it was quite a moment for the audience — but luckily it looked worse than it was!!  George (my son) couldn’t find a band aid, but ran up with some tissue stuck to green masking tape, and I wrapped it on.

The highlight of the show was the last song, Money – and what a powerhouse of energy the band had!!!   During the rhythmic drum solo, Morgan (the lead guitarist) and I jammed in on an extra tom drum, and when it was over, we both tossed our sticks.  Morgan tossed his so high I thought it might scare the audience!    It looks hilarious in the rough video I saw!  And when we were done the audience absolutely shrieked and jumped to their feet —  wow!!!

We left the stage for a few minutes until the crowd rumbled and roared us back on…I came out alone, and sat down on the front steps of the stage, just me guitar and harmonica, to play Rolling Wind,  explaining it was the first song off my debut CD, and expressed turmoiled feelings about starting my own band back in 2008.  The band came out and gently joined in.  Then we played a rocking “housework blues” tune slammed out with my gritty harmonica and Morgan’s beasty blues guitar, and finished with a roaring bass tune called “Rusty Rider”…..which Richard KILLED.  What an ending!!

The Afterparty

The band was already in full swing downstairs when I cam down after signing CDs.   All the guys sang, and then we had fun getting musicians and friends up from the audience.  Highlights of this hearing were my young niece, Karissa Prichard, getting up to play/sing with the band (she was sonderfu!), as well as her friend Claire (who took some coaxing, and then killed it!) and Ali Bridgett (who sang like a pro again!).   Everyone ate, drank, danced, and chatted until the wee hours………….

it was a dream come true….and I will never forget it.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to my husband, my band, my kids, and EVERYONE who came to make this whole event possible.