Last Night in West Orange

So it comes to this: tonight's our last night in West Orange. I must say, I will miss the Residence Inn - it has been a good temporary home. Mostly I'll miss the really awesome glass tupperware that came with the room :)  In all seriousness, it was nice to spend some time in the area I grew up. I came across so many old memories (especially when visiting my old house) and even ran into some old acquaintances from grade school and my first high school. New Jersey, I miss you - and the next time someone asks me if it's really like the Jersey Shore, I will probably smack them!

Tomorrow morning we're driving to Cream Ridge, NJ to perform at the Cream Ridge Winery. It's a two-day gig that we do every year around this time, when they're having their wine tasting. We play for a long time (about 5 hours!) but since we're background music it's okay. Plus we get some breaks! We play for five hours tomorrow, and five hours again on Sunday. We're staying overnight in Cream Ridge, then after the performance on Sunday we're driving straight to Chicago. Well, not straight to Chicago - thirteen hours starting at 4 in the afternoon would get us to Chicago around 5 A.M.! Stopping in Cleveland Sunday night, then driving to Chicago Monday morning after a stop for a college visit to Notre Dame in Indiana. Aaah, never a dull moment. 

Well, I'd like to say I'm going to sleep now - I'm super tired. However, the family printer, which has been through almost 7 years of brochure printing, finally died the other day. Rest in peace, HP photosmart 7700. I'd say 35 color brochures for each performance probably tires out a printer really fast. Anyway, that put us about a week behind on the printing of brochures. Had to go get a new one, and it started printing about an hour ago. So I have a long night ahead of me :)

Nicole

Cedar Ridge

Got back from the Cedar Ridge Nursing Home - the gig went really well! It's always great playing there because the residents remember us from year to year. Plus there was soda and cookies! I think we're going to a movie or something now . . . I'll post when I get back.

Nicole

So much to do, so little time

Okay, so the reason there hasn't been a post in 2 days is because in the time between driving to Maryland and now, I haven't had three seconds to post. We've been really busy! But the Maryland trip was fun, and the college tours were informative. We are closer now to making important college decisions. And the best part? I got a free t-shirt! Anyway, we drove back from Maryland last night, then got up this morning and went back to Nathan's for recording studio, round 2. Most. Intense. Recording. EVER! But it was a lot of fun. We started by doing the vocal recording for the songs we did on Tuesday, then moved on to the Christmas songs that were scheduled for today (Christmas in July anyone?). After about 7 hours of recording, we finished 9 songs for our Route 66 album and about 9 songs for our Christmas album. No, I don't actually remember how many Christmas songs there were - it was a lot though! And I got to hear one of the songs afterwards, and it sounds great! I can't wait to hear the rest of them. Then after that, we got some dinner and everyone headed home. Of course, the best part of the recording session was once again the magnets on the fridge - but Nathan's chocolate cake is a close second!

So several hours and many more mosquito bites later, we have 2 new albums! I say, well worth the effort. And thanks go out to Nathan for helping us with our recordings (and for the cake)!

Tomorrow, we have a gig at a nursing home not too far from our hotel in West Orange. I forget the actual name of the place . . . I guess I should know that, shouldn't I? Oh well, my brain is a little bit fried. Looking forward to the performance though - nursing homes are always fun. More to come on this tomorrow!

Tired beyond belief,

Nicole

Recording studio Take 1

Just got back from the recording studio. It went really well! We managed to record 9 songs in the short span of three hours: Autumn Leaves, My Girl, Oye Como Va, Signed Sealed Delivered, Route 66, Oh Darling, Spooky, Sunny Side of the Street, and What a Wonderful World. It was a lot of fun, especially playing with the magnets Nathan had on the refrigerator! Leaving for Baltimore now, hopefully I can post when we get there.

Nicole

Recording Studio! Take 1

Good morning! Or good afternoon, for those of you on the east coast. Today we're going to record our "Route 66" album! I'm really excited because recording albums is so much fun! On Thursday, we're going to be recording again, but we'll be recording Christmas music. Ha, Christmas in July. Now we're leaving the hotel to go pick up the band equipment and head over to Nathan's house to record. Wish me luck!

Nicole

After Cecil's

Just got back from Cecil's. It went great! We played for about an hour, didn't get through every song on our list but the ones we got to went well. We played all three of our new songs from camp, and although they had minor glitches none of them crashed and burned! Yay! The club was packed and the crowd loved all the songs - but especially Oye Como Va.  Afterwards, we listened to the Monday Night Big Band and had some well-deserved meals. Unfortunately, David was not feeling well and had to go home. But Claire, James, Anna and I watched the big band for about an hour. Then Anna, Claire and I went home to drop off all the band equipment . . . always the best part of any gig. 

Tired but happy,

Nicole

Band Camp Day 3 - Cecil's!

Just got to our house for the last day of camp. In a couple of hours, we will be performing at Cecil's! Hopefully I can post later, right now I'm going to be late to camp. Shouldn't have waited until now to eat lunch :)

Enjoying my crepe,
Nicole

Still Day 2

Got back from David's house around 10:30. Unfortunately, we never got to play soccer. But I did totally own Anna and Claire at Guitar Hero! Aaah, the benefits of playing bass. Now I'm going to rest up for tomorrow - the gig at Cecil's is one of the highlights of our year! We went over the set list during band today, and though many good songs had to be cut for the sake of time, the list is very good and I can't wait to see how it goes!

Tired,

Nicole

First and Second Days of Band Camp

So today concludes our second day of band camp. So far, major success! We are working on 3 new songs to perform at Cecil's Jazz Club in West Orange, NJ: Sidewinder, Una Mas, and Oye Como Va. They are coming along nicely and should be ready to perform by tomorrow night! Now, after about 5 hours of practicing, we are chilling at David's house. Too bad it rained a lot today, because it made the soccer field across from his house all wet. :( Heading over there now - I hope it's not too bad!

Wishing it wasn't so humid,

Nicole

Road Trip, Part 1

Hello everyone! Today is the start of our pre-road trip work. We have about a week and a half of performances, studio recordings, and, of course, band camp. I am looking forward to it despite the fact that Anna, Claire and I have been driving since 7:00 p.m. yesterday! We got to Somerset, PA at 5:00 a.m., left at 9:00, and will arrive in NJ at around 2:30. But when we get there, we will have band practice! That makes it all worth it.