Monday morning. Weekend off. Did a photo shoot early Sunday morning in downtown Nashville. Printer’s Alley and the back streets of the city have a very distinctive stale smell in the aftermath of Saturday night revellers.

11.43 am:Andy Hubbard is back visiting us today at Lemon’s. He’s brought his box of toys for a day of percussion. Sleigh bells ring are you listening? Right now he’s tambourining his way through “Monument Green.” Everything is really beginning to take shape. Great shape. Keep it cymbal. (couldn’t resist it).

Day 10 (Monday 2nd Nov) had me sitting in traffic on I 65 for two hours en route to the studio. Spent it listening to sports talk radio, furthering my education on NFL. Thankfully severe road rage didn’t take hold.

This was a week of laying down acoustic guitars, flugelhorn, vibes, organ, keyboards, sparkle magic and engaging in a running battle with squirrels who had invaded the studio attic. This record doesn’t need any tap-dancing rodents.

8.09am: Sunday morning coming down. Hour went back last night. The Week The Clocks Changed comes and goes again. Bright blue Nashville with shining dew. No noise from fireworks or trick or treaters last night. A silent Halloween. Squirrels on the roof were the only tricksters. A day of tracking piano in the fine surroundings of Ocean Way Studios.

6.15pm: Well, the piano for this record was tackled swiftly. Ocean Way is located on Music Row and there’s not much life in that part of town at half nine on a Sunday morning. Neilson was on piano duty for the most part but we did have a very special guest call by to sit in on “I am you are.” John Deaderick (piano/hammond master) and I struck up a deal in that I bring him one of the new remastered Kraftwerk albums back from Ireland (not released in US) and he’ll trade me with performing on a song on the album. I think I came off the better in that deal. John played on my last album and so it was good to have him make an appearance on this one.

Ocean Way is a great studio, one of the best. No shortage of high end gear or facilities. However I did feel that the control room (Studio A) lacked a little atmosphere and was somewhat bland in spirit. It had a bit of a classroom vibe and that makes sense as Belmont owns and uses it as a teaching facility too. I’m not complaining though; the piano sounds fantastic and it was great to be able to use the facilities there.

We finished up at 2.30pm. I was in the mood for some BBQ so paid a visit to Corkey’s for a plate of pulled pork. The chocolate cobbler was one step too far.

I leave Trousdale Drive every morning at 9.30am. My chariot is my fourteen year old Mazda, affectionately known as Millie. She may give the odd chug, growl and grumble but Millie drives with a rusted grace. She’s the finest $1300 purchase I’ve ever made. The University of Tennessee sticker that adorned the rear window when I purchased her has since been replaced by one celebrating Inishowen, Co.Donegal.

I hit I-65 , slip onto I-40 E, then onto I-24 W. Downtown Nashville in all’s it glory is on my left. I first saw this image on the cover of Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” album, so you’ll forgive me if I get a little excited when I pass this scene every morning on the way to record. I then hit the hood. East Nashville was an area unknown to me before I started the sessions at Mr.Lemon’s. This was made clear in the fact that on every one of the first five mornings travelling to the studio I unintentionally took a different route. Sometimes losing one’s coordinates is the best method of exploration.

After Shelby I’m on Gallatin Avenue for a mile or two. There’s a real feeling of urban decay on Gallatin. Words graffitied on a wall read “Welcome 2 Da Jungle.” This is not the street to be walking on solo at night, but I have to admit that every time I drive on it my sense of curiousity soars. There’s alot of hardship in this area and I get the sense of things being always on the edge, a place where events could turn very suddenly, and probably not for the better. This is not the brighter side of the American dream. This is hard inner city America and there’s no hiding its rough edges. Precariously alluring in certain aspects though.

I turn onto Cahal Avenue (pronounced the non-Irish “caa hawl” way). After a few more twists and turns in the heartland of east Nashville I’m at Lemon’s Studio. Physically, socially and culturally this is a landscape very removed from home. The affect on me is that every morning this drive raises my alertness, awakens me and always leaves me wide-eyed. It throws me out of any comfort zone and I’m realising that it’s an ideal state in which to begin a new day of recording.

I’m not sure if watching a Charles Manson documentary over breakfast is the right way to start the day. It somewhat dilutes the Ready Brek glow. It didn’t affect the guitar playing of Kris Donegan in the studio today though. The man was on fire. Another five songs nailed. Man City also thumped Scunthorpe tonight so all in all we’re in a good place as the night comes on.

It’s not supposed to rain in the land of milk and honey. First gray skies of the recording overhead. Got to Mr.Lemon’ s by 10am and the engine room was already fired up. Kris Donegan is in today and tomorrow putting down guitars. Like all the musicians who have played thus far on the album my first introduction to them is on the morning of the session. Neilson however has without a doubt pulled together the very finest of crews for the recording. What a geetar player Mr.Donegan is. Great feel for the songs and the tones and sounds he was conjuring up are really making the tracks come alive. A few of his licks were re-enthusing me about one or two tracks that I felt had gone to sleep. We had put a lid on five songs by 6pm and called it a day. Neilson was off to celebrate his birthday which he had kept very quiet from us. It wasn’t until a few clues and sources tipped us off that it was his day to be blowing out the candles. Happy birthday Captain Hubbard.

We had a visitor to the studio this afternoon from our old friend and musician extraordinaire John Deaderick. John played all things keys on “The week the clocks changed” and am excited to say will be on the ivories on one or two songs when we relocate to Ocean Way Studios for a session next week. John had contacted me when I was home in Ireland a few weeks ago to see if I could bring him acorss one of the remastered Kraftwerk albums. Lo and behold I located the very thing in Ballymena. Enjoy the computers John…

7.35am: Monday morning. A weekend of not straying too far from the house. Finished a very thought provoking “Walk On” by Steve Stockman and started into “Conversations with Tom Petty.” Finally got watching “The Wrestler” and was not let down. Rourke was brilliant and I find his character comes back into my thoughts even a few days after meeting him. That’s what we want, characters that linger and hang around long after their footprints have passed. Also attempted watching “Benjamin Button” which was extremely poor and my only option was to put both Benjamin and I out of our misery by pressing eject after 30 mins. And furthermore, CMT - why were you plugging Christmas last night and showing National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in October? Further furthermore, why was I watching CMT?

9.55 am : En route to the studio I pass the pawn shops, the meat and 3’s, the tyre changers, the boarded up store fronts on Gallatin Avenue. Onto Cahal Av. By accident I’ve taken a different route to the studio every morning. I’ll lay a bet that there’s not too many cars in this hood wearing Ireland and Inishowen stickers. Here in the maze of east Nashville I’m thousands of miles from the Antrim coast but this morning I don’t feel the distance.

10.15 am: It’s not often that the day starts with a conversation with someone who tells you all about the eye removal surgery he’s just had. That though is the chat that has kicked off today’s session in Mr.Lemon’s. Kenny Hutson is joining us today to take care of all things pedal steel. Kenny just had his left eye removed a few days ago and his description of the process was pretty graphic and fascinating. Sets the day up nicely. How can a steel player with an eye patch and a Waylon Jennings logo sticker on the instrument not conjure up some magic.

7.24am:  I’m hearing the rumble of early morning Nashville traffic and hum of Trousdale. Had a few interesting dreams last night, one of which included my old music teacher. She hasn’t been in my thoughts for a long time. I used to really dislike going for piano lessons as a child and often would knock on her door and hen run away. I would then tell my parents that the teacher wasn’t home. Of course now I wish I had stayed at her door until she had answered as the piano is the very instrument I wish I was fluent in. A lesson learned - never knock the door unless you plan to enter.

We start recording at 9am this morning. I didn’t think that time of day existed in studios. A day of drums, grooves and laying down the backbone.

10.26am: The early bird gets the worm. The early singer gets a dodgy vocal performance.

By 5pm we had seven drum track in the bag. Andy Hubbard I tip my hat to you sir. Twelve drum tracks in two days. We all agreed that the Dyess Brick is  providing some magic.The spine of the album has been created.

We now break until Monday (today being Thursday)as Neilson has to head out of town for a few days.I’ll welcome Monday morning with open arms.

 I introduced a very important addition to the studio this morning - a brick from the chimney from Johnny Cash’s childhood home in Dyess, Arkansas (see blog entry from 22nd  Sep ‘09). I’m not especially superstitious but instinct tells me that this brick will be an important element in the recording process! We could do a lot worse than having Johnny’s spirit hanging around the studio.

And so up steps Mr. Andy Hubbard to kick the recording off in style. Day one of two days of drumming commences. We started making noise and rattling the air of air of east Nashville shortly after 12pm. Andy hadn’t heard any of the tracks so we spent a bit of time going through each track and settling on the tempo. First up was ‘Monument Green.’ This song is the oldest out of the 12 that I’m recording and in fact was the first ever song I co-wrote. We’ve attempted to record it a few times in the past but it always seemed to tell us that it wasn’t ready to go on record.

Hearing Andy play his first few takes made me quickly realise that the reputation that preceded him was rightly justified. What a great player. Pretty incredible to see him nail these songs in the first or second take having not heard the song more than ten minutes previous. Andy also brought something else very tasty to the session - a dozen of his wife’s pumpkin muffins - both seasonal and sensational. Excited and delighted that Andy is laying the bones and groove down for the record.

By 5.30pm we had drums for five of the songs finished. We start up again in the morning at 9am and need to get the rest of the seven put down.

Rose at 7am. 30 mins of reading and writing and then out for a run. En route to Mr.Lemon’s studio i really should’ve trusted my directional instincts as the sat nav took me downtown Nashville, not the place I needed to go. A little after 10am I finally arrived at Neilson’s place. Neilson by the way is Neilson Hubbard, the guider of this ship for the next 6 weeks. I’m a big fan of the stuff that Neilson has created in Mr.Lemon’s studio in the past and am very excited that he’s onboard producing my new record.

First time being here in the Mr.Lemons and I instantly liked it. Nothing too extravagant but had it has great feel and atmosphere. Warmed to this environment immediately. Today felt like the first day at school. nothing too taxing. Neilson and I went through and finalised the twelve songs we plan to record. One of the major differences between this new album and The Week The Clocks Changed is that the songs for the latter were written over an 8 year period whereas this album has been written in one year. All these tunes have been co-written in Nashville.

We settled on tempos and made a few little tweaks to chord changes here and there and generally worked on the game plan. Andy Hubbard, who is playing drums on the album, arrived around mid-day and set up his gear. Neilson’s dog Ebi, who had joined us for the day in the studio is apparently not a fan of the drums and made her point quite vocally.

Called it quits at 4pm. we’re ready to roll first thing in the morning with Andy on drums.