Respect the Sign (Feat. Nick Nicholes)

In March of 2012 Steve 'Diamond Cowboy' Walle invited my wife Kate, Janis, and myself down to Wilsall to meet his friend Charlie '4 Dogs' Lee. They played some of their music for us, Janis sang a little, and we all had a good time. I think this was when Charlie first said to Janis 'You should do an album.' I invited them up to my place to record some time. Later that month we recorded Steve's album 'Bare Bottom Blonde'. During those sessions, Charlie, with great enthusiasm, encouraged Janis to write more music, and said he wanted to play guitar when it was recorded. In late November, Charlie parked his bus in our yard and froze in the cold Montana nights for two weeks while we got down the basic tracks. He composed and played the guitar parts for seven of the songs, on six of which I recorded his acoustic guitar with Janis' vocals 'live'. Identity, Little Lullaby, and Sing Myself to Sleep vocals were done a capella. On Identity, I first added some rhythm tracks, then Charlie added guitar. I did all accompaniment on the other two. Over the next few months I added more tracks and did mixes. In May I did the synth track for Dissonance and Janis added vocals. I then added the rest. We recorded in the living room of my home, at Campoloco compound, Lennep, Montana. Cardiod microphones were Nady sp-5 for vocals and Beyer m610 for acoustic guitar. I used a stereo/binaural microphone made using a carpet covered log 'head' and Sony wm-61 condenser capsule 'ears' for the room sound, electric guitar and bass, and cello. The microphone mixer was an old Sony mx-16, connected to an M-Audio Delta-44 sound card. The recording and mixing was done using Ardour 2.8, running under Slackware Linux 14.0. This was about as much fun as I have ever had in my life. I will always be grateful to Janis, Charlie, and everyone else who made this possible. One warning: Most of the lyrics are rather dark; one song has made me cry like a baby. If you only like 'happy' music, listen to something else. Also Charlie says 'fuck' at the beginning of Memory Lane. - Nick Nicholes.