So the first week of recording the new album has passed without incident - which is good! The ideas for the songs and the structure of the album have come to me quite quickly which is great but it does mean I’m feverishly writing notes, lyrics and instructions down at every opportunity. I’ve even got the album name and artwork pretty much nailed too which is extremely rare…I usually ponder such decisions as fonts and pictures for months (boring everyone around me in the process).

The album is going to be called ‘Starkweather’ and the songs (which have most of the lyrics and structure complete) are:

1.    Ramsey County
2.    Memory Lane
3.    Friends of Starkweather Creek
4.    Impressionist Painter
5.    Charlie 58
6.    Eastern Echo
7.    Jupiter Sierra
8.    The Red Tent Temple Movement
9.    From St. Germain to Salvation Mountain
10.    Midwest Symphony

The majority of these songs will be recorded on no more than 4 tracks (following the way Springsteen recorded Nebraska - I’ve become a bit of an anorak - sorry!). It’s going to be me and the acoustic guitar with some possible percussion and piano when appropriate. This in itself makes it a lot different to ‘Never before but maybe again’ which used samples, drums, bass, synths and multitudes of VST plug-ins.

While it will be just me doing the recording I will, as ever, be using my trusty mastering wizard Pete Maher to make the album sparkle and come to life. His opinions on my previous work have been very important to me and helped me decide which path to follow. He seems excited that I’m doing an ‘acoustic album’ so let’s hope it all comes good.

The first track recorded is ‘Charlie 58’ and I have put a version of the final mix up on the interweb for you all to hear. Please do give me feedback - it’s always nice to hear what you think.

You can hear the track below: