THE DRIVE

Completely uneventful. Perfect. Got a donut and a delicious coffee at Tim Horton’s. Also paid for our most expensive tank of gas ever, topping the $140 mark. But no worries, because you guys covered all of that.

ARRIVAL in pittsburgh

Pulled into a Giant Eagle, where 4 grown men shopped groceries together. We bought lunch meat (from a package, because we hit the deli counter 5 minutes too late, oatmeal, fruit, chips, frozen pizzas and taco supplies (against Dave’s better judgment, I resisted purchasing the XXL “STEEL CITY DAD” t-shirt). In all the bill was around $300, but you guys covered that too.

We checked into our Airbnb - a 4 bedroom, 4 bath place with a big deck at the end of a suburban culdesac - and Dave made delicious tacos. I couldn’t get my bedroom’s TV to work, so I watched an episode of Dark Terminal on my laptop. Bruce watched a Sam Elliot western loud enough for the neighbors to hear. Dave settled into his princess bedroom downstairs. I don’t know what Tim did, but it probably involved several cigarettes. The house was perfect - it was communal, but also afforded us our own spaces and privacy, which is pretty critical when you’re stuffed into a studio, collaborating on art projects for 12+ hours a day. Again, you guys covered the lodging. Because Stammily.

DAY 1 - monday, may 11

We got to the studio at 10am. I wore my new Bash Brothers t-shirt and a Rickey Henderson folder held my lyrics sheets - I wanted to channel that late 80s, Oakland A’s championship mentality.

It took a few hours to set up and dial in sounds. But we were tracking song 1 by 1-ish. We cut a song called “Mine,” which I don’t think I’ve ever even shared with the WHITE KNUCKLE CLUB. It was quickly apparent that my vocals still hadn’t recovered from the cold that had put me down the 2 weeks prior. But the band sounded great. And I’ll just have to go back and finish vocals on another trip.

I invited Eric James and Max Somerville to join our session. Eric is kind of a utility guy for CWG’s band The Allegheny High and Max is their keyboard player. Albert Torrence is of course producing, but he plays all the acoustic parts and spinkles in other performances throughout these records.

We finished the day with a song called “Low Spot” (as song I have shared with the WKC) and pizza by the tray (which you guys, again, bought for us). Monday turned out to be the shortest work day of the trip, logging only 11.5 hours.

day 2 - tuesday, may 12

Time to get serious. I put on a Terry Bradshaw t-shirt. Let’s make a record and start a dynasty.

We recorded songs called “Stay Up On Your Horse” and “Let’s Get Drunk And Dance.” I danced in the merch booth, but I didn’t get drunk. Nor did I ride a horse. My voice continued to feel great, but it also continued to sound like it was being sang through clogged sinuses. Which is was.

A feller named Cody Alushin, who travels around with CWG and the boys, spent the day with us taking the pictures on this page and a couple videos that I’ll share once the album is out. We ate Thai food, but nobody got too ambitious with the spice level. Amico (Allegheny High steel and banjo player) picked it up along with a crate of 24oz Miller Lites. The Thai was great, the beer was probably gross. But Tim had a couple.

We worked for 13 hours, went back to the house, and I stood outside my shower for 20 minutes trying to get the water temperature in a spot that wasn’t scalding or freezing (that was the one glitch about this house). Then I watched another episode of Dark Terminal and slept good.

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY, MAY 13

Ya know what?…I don’t know what shirt I wore on Day 3. I just know that by the time you’re walking into a studio for the third straight day, after a couple 12 hour marathons, you can feel it.

But I do remember we cut songs called “Welfare” and “Take It Slow” (a Christmas song I shared with he WKC last year, but the kind of Christmas song I think you can listen to all year….it’s like one of those movies that has Christmas in it, but isn’t really a Christmas movie…like Grumpy Old Men or Die Hard. It might be my favorite song on the record so far).

Honestly, the rest of the day is kind of a blur. We slugged it out for another 12.5 hour day. Albert is a machine. He just keeps going, adding parts, setting mics up, adding more parts - percussion, guitar parts, keys…he pretends to be tireless, but surely he was tired of us by the end of these 3 days. He’s full of grace and patience though. His personality is absolutely ideal for a producer. He has resolve and vision and never gets high or low. Albert is steady. And relentlessly productive in these sessions.

I picked up chicken wraps for everyone and popped a Labatts Blue Light. I listened to Albert, Eric and Dave place 379 guitar parts down. We finally packed up all our shit and left, 6 songs in the hopper. We sat sat on the back deck around a patio table and decompressed for a couple hours, slept, got up early, drove home. And in the meantime…

WHOA. YOU guys are funding the crap out of this album 🤯

Honestly, I never expected this kind of response when I gave you guys the opportunity