March 20, 1998
Day One
Today was the first day in the studio. My engineer, Greg Kaiser had called me Wednesday night to make sure that all was well and to see if I needed anything. I got to the studio around 11:45am, guitar and mandolin in hand. Greg and his assistant Aaron were setting up the mics and the cables as well as checking for the sound in each. My husband Jeff got there, and then all of us sat down to go over the "plan of attack". Being that it had been so long since I had been in the studio, we just figured we would just go for it and see how many songs we could lay down in one session. I grabbed my guitar and headed into the recording room. It's a darling white walled adobe room with berber carpet, a thick sound-proof door separating the control room and the recording room, and the best part...a huge Beatles poster! At some point the Beatles recorded Besame Mucho, and it was fun to have the Fab Four looking down on me as I recorded it too.
After getting settled into the room by getting a good chair, and bringing all my paraphenalia in, Greg set up the mics on me. He used two mics on the guitar, one at the fret board and another at the sound hole. Then he used one mic on the voice. I had forgotten to ask for a music stand, and the other studio room that had them was locked down with another recording in process, so we gerririgged a chair with binders, a kleenex box and tape for the meanwhile.
My Dad came in about two hours into the recording, and as usual gave a lot of great advice. Almost all the songs took about 2-4 takes. We all laughed when I was singing Historia de Un Amor, I messed up on the guitar twice. My Dad offered a pen so I could write it down, I said, "No, that's ok. I have it written here in front of my face in big red letters...A minor...". Of course Greg recorded that and played it back after I messed it up...AGAIN!
When I got to Hombres No Deben de Llorar, it was odd...the vocal mic, which had been stable for a couple of hours, slid slowly down. Then the heavy door that separates the two rooms opened. The ghost of Genoveva? Who knows...
The last song I did was Solamente Una Vez. I told the guys that this song always reminds me of the Disney movie The Three Caballeros, because there is a woman who sings it in english. "Ju beelong to mah hart...naow and furever..." My Dad threatened to make me a Carmen Miranda headdress with bananas and pineapples with the added bonus of cool seashell polkadot earrings to match! So, that's my Chiquita Banana song!
At the end of the four hour session, I lay down the guitar and lead vocal tracks for five songs. I still have seven more to finish, then I begin the ornamental tracks that include extra vocal harmonies, mandolins, and other guitar tracks. So, lets see what gets accomplished tomorrow!