back to the old sounding board

hi folks, the usually relatively quiet month of january has been a flurry of activity over here - int'l orange has been touring (played the cradle twice, and a trip down to florida and back), and the old ceremony has been recording what will most likely become our first full-length release. so far, we've done eight songs:

shadows on my trail
blood and oil
american romeo
ole
pennsylvania
you belong to me
carry the one
the late shift

and the sound so far is pretty amazing - the horn parts (courtesy vamsi and will on sax and trumpet) really added a lot of punch, and the accordion (jil) and violins (daniel hart and gabriele) make the dark stuff that much darker. i'm really proud of what everyone has done so far, and i think when the album is finished, you'll see what i mean. in the meantime, i put up an updated version of "shadows" at the OC site (www.theoldceremony.com), with the strings added, and a rough mix of "ole" with a near-perfect violin solo from daniel hart (check him out at www.gomachinemusic.com).

we've got some great shows coming up too; we're playing the cat's cradle for the first time on sat feb 12th at 9pm SHARP. when i say sharp, i say it because we absolutely will be finished before 10pm, so latecomers will miss the show. we're opening for my buddy thad cockrell (www.thadcockrell.com), who is a fantastic singer and songwriter currently living in nashville. he reminds me at times of a mix between willie nelson and roy orbison, which is a pretty damn good combination.