The long and painful process....

Maybe that got your attention :)
I'm sitting in the control room of Dockside Studios with my engineer David Ferrell and we are finishing up the mixes for my new album "Gone to Texas". I've been here for 6 days now mostly in this one same room. It's one of my favorite places to be on planet earth. David is one of the best and one of my favorites to spend this time with.
He has wonderful stories of albums and projects over the years that are extremely entertaining to me. Japanese punk bands showing up in Bogalusa, La at the Winn Dixie with pink and blue hair and having the cops called on them just because....
When I leave here tomorrow I will have recorded and mixed 15 songs in 7 days. It sounds like a lot and maybe even impossible and some of you might even think this has something to do with how great I am, but it doesn't so please don't! I'm not great, I'm just working hard and smart, attributes I learned from David Z and Tony Braunagel and David Ferrell.
This album idea was conceived in January of 2012. I got the idea from reading Texas history. It took about 2 months for the song to come me. Then I began using the song and title as an open canvas of a story I wanted to tell, but had no idea how I would tell it.
I wrote almost 30 songs last year with this album and story in mind.
Some really rocking, some slow and sweet and some more blues or country.
I made the song list for this album a thousand times. I came up with at least a dozen album cover ideas. I started to think about a band. To find the right players. Some came and some went, some stayed. I had a sound in my head for this album that started to reveal itself to me as the year was passing by.
I drove my wife and manager crazy sending demos everyday for months.
It's all about the story.
An album without a story is just a bunch of songs that don't really belong together. What's the story?
The story can't just be that you're good.
That's not going to work.
Their are too many others better than you, no matter how great you think you are! It can't be the same old shit cause the originators have done it best, so who wants to hear you play almost as good as Muddy Waters when they can listen to fucking Muddy Waters! :)
The story has to be honest and true.
You have to open up and share some real intimate material with your audience. People know the difference between good, better and best and you had better be shooting for best, that way you might land somewhere around better. This year of constant writing and rewriting and living in your head takes a toll on you and those around you. Because to be the best artist you can be is to be very, very selfish.
But when the time comes to book the studio and get the schedule lined up, things get really exciting. As a producer you get all the songs together and make a final song list. The songs that really work best to tell your story.
You make notes for the arrangements,
chord charts for the band, print out all the lyrics. Then you all show up to the studio and hope it all works out!
If you're a good producer, you have brought together all the right people so it makes the recording process very easy. You show up prepared and yet open to ideas along the way.
Everyone laughs and tells great stories. Wonderful meals are shared, family and loved ones come to share in the joy of the album. You work hard and then you get a break and tell more stories and laugh harder.
You spend 12 hours a day together making music and wishing it would never end.
When the actual recording begins you get lost in the songs and in the parts and in the playing. You're trying find ways to make the acoustic guitar work with the piano and stay out the way of the snare drum and so on....
You've got to make the track feel good.
Once all the tracks are cut and you start adding harmonies and percussion you start to hear for the first time....
Your songs again.
They just came to life right in front of your eyes. 6 days later all the musicians have gone home and its just you and the engineer alone in this room. The studio is empty and dark.
That's where I am right now.
We have mixed 8 songs so far and will probably do one more before we call it a night. The songs are finished and have become their own entities now .
It's amazing to hear them after a year of thinking about them night and day.
The process is still far from over.
Mastering is necessary to get the best volumes and eq on the final mixes.
The artwork has to be finalized, liner notes written etc. Then we wait about 3 months or so before it is ever released.
So, in retrospect we didn't make a record in 7 days. We made a recording of a particular piece of time in history where musicians played these songs together in 7 days. We made a record in about a year in a half.
That is if you're making an honest, thoughtful album that has a story to be told. I realize what a privilege it is to get to make an album and I feel a real responsibility to try and make the best album I have ever made. I also try not to take myself too seriously. At the end of the day I'm a father and a husband and this is my job. I try to work as hard as any other father that works to provide for his family. Playing music professionally should be really hard, because we get to do something we love. I'm never interested so much in the fame and the fortune, I just want to make a great record. That's all that will be left behind when I die.
I'm thankful my family understands why I have to be away and I'm grateful for the wonderful musicians and artists that lend their skills and time to make my dreams come true.
Their is nothing more important in the life of a musician than making records.
I live for the long and painful process.

Gone to Texas

Hope all is well in your blue world.
Happy new year to all of you.
I was so fortunate to be home for the holidays and having all the kids at the house is such a treat. We played lots of games and ate wayyyy too much!
Then my oldest children, Zach, Riley and Sam hit the road with me on tour with RSB opening for Gregg Allman.
Sam got sick along the way, and the other two were troopers. What a fun tour it was. Zach helped by being my roadie and Riley ran around getting everyone's autograph. John Hiatt asked Riley if he could have his picture taken with her! The tour was short but wonderful and ended on such a high note for me personally. I sat in with Gregg Allman and band and played One Way Out. It was a dream come true.
As soon as the tour ended we packed our bags again and hit the Rock Legends Cruise. It was certainly legendary. 4300 fans on one huge ship!
Great shows, met some wonderful people and got to spend some quality time with my wife Laura. She had such a good time, she's a rocker chick at heart.
We are wrapping up a week of dates with RSB and then I head straight to Dockside Studios to record my next album "Gone to Texas"
This is a very exciting album for me.
It is the first time I will be bringing in my own band The Wheel: Rob Lee, Jimmy Carpenter, Lewis Stephens, Scot Sutherland and Susan Cowsill. It is also the first album that I will be producing myself on a label. I'm so thankful to Ruf Records for allowing me to be the artist I have always hoped to be. This again is a very personal record. Stories from my life and songs I really love about my time in the Lonestar State.
Look for this release in early May.
Devon's new album Turquoise is on its way out soon as well as Bart Walkers album as well. Both fantastic records by great artists.
Check online for all touring dates for all the bands and join the Street Crew by all means!
Peace, Love, Zito