Recording "In the Groves"

Just spent two days in the recording studio putting our tree myths and songs on vinyl or the digital equivalent. IN THE GROVES our next CD is finally on its way! We had our 'one and only' all time - cannot record without - engineer Huck Bennert and our favorite studio Wellspring Sound in Acton. Tom came in at the end to bring a haunting accordion background to the Russian birch song. Eight hour and nine hour days with not even a half hour lunch break and no complaints. You can tell we all have backgrounds as free lance artists. We would starve to death if we worked union hours... Hey wait a minute, Maybe those are union hours!!

There will be an incredible amount of beautiful ethnic music on the CD thanks to the wonderful material Margot has brought in to complement the stories. Margot and I sing in Japanese, Welsh, Russian, Czech and ... OK English!!

There is an ongoing very beautiful story about the Russian Birch Song we are recording for the CD.

Several years ago a wonderful, elderly Russian woman came to our In the Grove performance (tree myths and music along the paths of the Arnold Arboretum- Boston's tree sanctuary (more on the performance) We end the performance at sunset among birches while telling the Czech story of the Dancing Spirit of the Birch Grove. The whole experience brought her back to her childhood days - there is a great love of the birch in Russian culture. She took off her shoes and walked barefoot among the trees remembering her childhood and singing a song. Her daughter was with her and later sent us a copy of that same song. We decided to bring it to life for this recording. The day we went in to record, her daughter sent me an email - the first she had sent in years! 'What a coincidence!' I wrote to her. 'We are heading in to record your mother's song today.'
Talk about synchronicity - another incredible coincidence occurred. Our recording studio adjoins another and, in a break from working on the Birch Song, two musicians from the other recording studio met us in the hallway. "You are singing in Russian!" they exclaimed. "How do you know?" they were asked. "We are Russian!!" they said and they began singing that same beautiful song. Makes me feel our CD is on the right track!

Margot and I wore our Angel socks for luck. Huck was barefoot all the time but had a cool Thai dragon tattoo around his ankle. We Prevailed!!