Miss Leslie

Day 2 of Recording

DAY 2

Producer/Sound Engineer: Tommy Detamore

Musicians:
Piano – Floyd Domino
Drums – Lisa Pankratz
Guitar – Wayne “Animal” Turner
Bass – Brad Fordham

Our Drummer Du Jour is Lisa Pankratz, another ACE drummer. I have less trepidation today and more excitement. And I’m wearing my Willie Nelson t-shirt so it’s gotta give us some more good luck, right?

We start out with recording an incredible song that my sister, Hilary Sloan wrote. It’s called “Angels That Promise the Stars”.  My admiration for my sister’s creativity started when she was about 4 and has never really stopped. She is an amazing, beautiful soul and can write one HELL of a song. And this one is one that I knew I HAD to record the first time I heard it. And Floyd Domino MADE this song. I got CHILLS. I told Floyd that this was his song, and the rest of us were just backup to it. LOVE THAT.

You have to understand what I’m about (and if you’ve followed me online at all, you already know this). . . I’m all about the song. Period. When I demo-ed all of these songs for Tommy Detamore in a pre-production meeting, Tommy asked me about if I worried about isolating any of my existing fanbase (that would be those of you that are hardcore 1960s country and don’t want to hear anything else. . . . . and hey that’s cool, but country music is a LOT more than that to ME). And I told Tommy, “I want these songs to become what they ARE. I don’t want to try to make them into anything or try to do anything other than what they should be.” Tommy’s response was, “So we are making music for music’s sake. What a concept.”

So here we are, recording all of the rest of the songs on the album (except for “This Old Guitar” which we’re recording on Day 3 – just guitar and steel), and I have no idea how to classify this album but it’s me. It’s another collection of snapshots from my life – feelings I’ve had, mistakes I’ve made, and lots of good times.

Thank you. Thank you for letting me do this. Thank you for making this possible. I hope you love these songs as much as I do. I hope that you hear something that makes you feel – makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you remember some sad or happy time in your life. That’s why I write. That’s why I sing.

Very early on in the life of my “honky tonk years”, a fan came up to me after a show and said, “You sing like you want to be heard.” That’s it. That’s all. If you can hear me, then this is worth it to me.

I’ll post a pic of the Day 2 Crew later.

Day 1 of Recording

DAY 1

Producer/Sound Engineer: Tommy Detamore

Musicians:
Piano – Floyd Domino
Drums – Tom Lewis
Guitar – Wayne “Animal” Turner
Bass – Brad Fordham

The first day of recording for me is a little intimidating - especially when you are recording songs that you wrote. And even more when you are playing with amazing musicians that you respect. And these guys are ACES. So it’s like going on a first date. You spend a little time getting to know each other. So we started on a common ground – a bridge (as Tommy said) between what I’ve done before and where we are going with this new album.

The first song we cut was a song called “Fifty Years Ago Today”. I wrote this song for Ricky Davis’ parents’ 50^th Wedding Anniversary. I was inspired when I heard the story of their romance. Ricky’s Dad was in the military and was stationed in Texas. He came up to Vegas with a buddy and went on a double date with Ricky’s Mom and another gal. They had a great time. Ricky’s Mom went back home to Salt Lake City, UT and his Dad went back to Texas. They talked on the phone for a period of time and one night Ricky’s Dad asked his Mom to meet him in The Little White Chapel in Vegas on her birthday. And 50 years later, they are still together.

We cut “I’ll Take What I Can Get”, “I Don’t Go There”, “It’s Rainin Inside”, “Outside the Outsiders”, “Nice Girl” (a song written by my friend Davin James), and “I Don’t Want to Know”.

Recording can be a tedious process of listening and over-analyzing and wondering. But what I love is the creative element – the bouncing off of ideas by musicians and hearing what sounds other people bring to the table. You write a song and you sometimes hear the whole thing in your head. Most of these songs, I just heard a part of it. I had no idea what they could be. That’s why I left this project primarily in the hands of Tommy Detamore. But in the studio, it is always a combination of many minds and souls.

To say that I was on a high after the first day is an understatement. I get excited about a song when I write it. But there’s a renewed excitement when it’s recorded. It’s your brand new baby – still in the hospital, still waiting to go home. But you have fallen in love – you can’t stop staring and those feelings of amazement just keep running through you.

Here’s a pic of the “Black Friday” crew:

L-R: Wayne Turner, Moi, Tom Lewis, Brad Fordham, Floyd Domino