Eric, do you have the sessions backed up somewhere?

Yes, Lauren, they’re backed up.

Really?

Yes, really.

You’re certain?

I’m certain.

“Lauren” is blues, old time, folk, country and Americana songster Lauren Sheehan and “Eric” is producer and recording engineer Eric Tate.  The colloquy occurred a few days ago as we, with me nominally co-producing, sought to complete the final sessions for The Light Still Burns, the companion CD to my book, Kalamazoo Gals: A Story of Extraordinary Women and the ‘Banner’ Gibson Guitars of WWII.

Lauren’s concerns about the security of the recordings were well founded.  As we conversed in the quiet solitude of New Haven Connecticut’s Firehouse 12 Studio, the winds were whipping and the waters were rising all around us.  Hurricane Sandy was heading directly toward the Connecticut shoreline and we’d already received notice that schools, businesses, and public transportation from Virginia to Maine had ceased operation.  Indeed, during the following electricity-free days, Lauren would find herself stranded in my home.  No trains or planes would be journeying to upstate New York, Vermont, or Massachusetts where gigs awaited her and the millions stranded in New York City would snatch up all rental cars within a 150 mile radius.  Poor Lauren would have nothing better to do than sit in my music room playing all of the great “Banner” Gibsons that generous folks had shipped in for the sessions.  And with the university that so kindly bestowed up me my day job being shut down for a full week, I’d be relegated to watching, listening, and marveling at Lauren’s artistry.

Oh, and a few words about those who donated guitars to the recording project.  The largess of folks lending guitars to this and last summer’s “Banner” sessions enabled us to record fifteen WWII-era guitars sporting that golden silkscreened banner proclaiming that “Only a Gibson is Good Enough.”  The array of instruments includes every wood combination that Gibson utilized during the war.  The state-of-the-art recording facilities, Eric Tate’s engineering, and Lauren’s touch have combined to produce what I believe will be remembered as a banner (pun intended!) event in the history of the acoustic guitar.  I offer a special thanks to those who offered up their prized instruments.

So, the recording is a wrap.  We recorded period-correct songs that the Kalamazoo Gals would have liked and to which they may have listened.  In the spirit of the meteorological conditions, I did suggest that we record versions of Charlie Patton’s homage to the 1927 Mississippi flood, “High Water Everywhere” and /or Bob Dylan’s tribute to that Delta bluesman, “High Water (for Charlie Patton).”  I even suggested Bruce Springsteen’s “Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”  But, a “Hard Rain was Gonna Fall” (sorry!) and we had to scamper to safety with the donated guitars.

We’ve still mixing, mastering and packaging to accomplish.  We’ll release the CD (and the book) in early 2013.  Stay, uh, tuned.

[All photos by Rich Duby.]