Well we finished the mixes last night and I am mighty pleased. The tracks sound wonderful and have that immediate live quality that is so pleasing. We didn't employ any studio tricks on this, rather we worked hard to just capture the ambiance of the room and of a great live venue (minus the expresso machine).

I am still working on the order of songs, as well as the rest of the packaging but I wanted to show you all the cover design. This is a preliminary sketch of the cover. The final design is in layout for the packaging but this shows you where I'm headed. I think it is pretty cool and Donna has approved the use of her photograph now. Thanks Donna!

This will be ready next week for the summer festival runs. I'm real happy about this although I feel like I am just holding onto the train as it careens through the valley. But I realize that I like doing things this way. I mean I say I'd like more time to really consider all angles, but it is when there is little time that the 'real' me rises to the surface and cool things happen. If I had taken my time on this, I might still not be done the recording and I definately wouldn't have a cover design. I'd be out there taking pictures and looking for settings that were evocative. But since there was no time for that I looked at existing images and this one caught my eye. That is, in the words of my friend Martha, a very good thing.