Tomorrow morning we start work on our new album “The Ghost of John Henry” at JaronSound Studios. We’ve got ten songs to tackle in order to tell the story of the album, and we might try to bang out a couple of one-offs or would-be B-sides if there’s the opportunity.
My plan is to try to do a video blog for every weekend we record, and get a bunch of pictures and whatnot up. I assume I’ll be tweeting in short bursts, as well.
To recap, then: I wrote a concept album about John Henry — the 1870s railroad hammer-man who raced a steam drill, and won, but died from the effort — and broadened the canvas with songs that touch on the struggle between man and technology, the unknown future, exploitation of workers, and I wove a love story through it all, trying to tell the story of the human cost of something that has become a familiar, but fading legend. The story of John Henry is one that has stuck with me since I was a little, little kid, and I’m very proud of the songs and the opportunity to add my voice to the conversation that this legend has authored.
And tomorrow we start recording it. Bass and drums.
Off to it…