OK so today I drove down to San Jose to record a few tracks for the ladies that play in the local band, "Hey Mom!" Three of the four gals in "Hey Mom" also play in my klezmer band. All four of them are moms...obviously, in Los Altos, and they're quite good musicians.

So I toted my clarinet down there and laid down some accompaniment noodles and solo choruses for "Swingin' on a Star" and "Darktown Strutters Ball"....both in utterly miserable keys to suit the vocal range of the singer! I'll be laying down both low whistle and whistle lines for another tune, next week. You can access "Hey Mom!"s previous CD on CDBaby if you like. It's family music...some spirituals, light jazz and childrens songs. Nothing too heavy, here, but it's fun and I like the ladies.

Turns out that studio and mixing time is only $85 an hour, so I might call up my best friend, Dave, who has a working professional string quartet and see if I can interest him in working up the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, and then going and doing a truly professional recording of it. We might be able to crank out a couple of hundred CD's for the quartet to sell and me to give away as Christmas presents for just a few hundred dollars.

ANY-way, I showed up kilted to the recording, of course. Now, this elicited no comment, because I've worked out of this studio before, and they've seen me kilted a few times. Besides, the Wicked Tinkers and Tempest both record here. In fact ALL of Tempests albums have been recorded here, so kilts are commonplace. Nonetheless, it's been hotter'n blazes here in the Bay Area the past week, and my new MacNaughton Poly-vis kilt is fantastic in the heat. I stepped into the recording box, settled in and 45 minutes later had six good takes. I was able to concentrate, even though the ladies had changed the key on "Singin' on a Star" because I wasn't sweating like a pig...because.....I was kilted.

They claim they want pictures taken in the studio before we're done, so maybe I'll have a pic of me with some wind instrument shoved in my face, in a professional recording studio, kilted pretty soon. Y'all want to see?