It's coming together yummily. We tracked several more songs on Wed. and Thurs., with some surprises in the arrangements that occurred to us on the fly (including at least two instruments you've probably never heard on a record before--not even a rock record). I discovered that not being a morning person, the hours before lunch are best for me to lay down my instrumentals and scratch vocals, and then in the afternoon I have the energy and intensity to sing my actual vocals with greater edge, intensity and accuracy. Don't be afraid to know how your body behaves during the course of the day, and let your engineer or producer know. I saved myself quite a bit of frustration and wasted session time by quickly sussing out when I sound my best and on what. I also had to revisit my usual nail care routine of long hard acrylics on my picking hand. I discovered I really am a thumb-and-index picker (I'm in good company--so, apparently, are Doc Watson and Doyle Dykes), and my other three idle nails were long and hard enough to uncontrollably clatter on my guitar top. Had to lay down a couple of layers of masking tape on the pickguard so they'd be inaudible. Thought that took care of everything, as the rest of my guitar parts were flatpicked or strummed, but to my consternation, the ring and pinky fingers and the trailing edge of my middle finger made a metallic "clashing" sound against the steel strings on the downstroke, so out came the roll of masking tape again--this time to wrap those fingertips. Not exactly attractive, and it felt less natural than even fingerpicks (which I hate enough to have gotten nail enhancements to begin with). I decided that when I got back home I'd have a conference with my nail tech to rethink the routine, especially since I realized the middle, ring and pinky fingers really don't do anything other than grip a flatpick and keep my hand from fraying at the edges. Friday morning, I decided to revisit a couple of my backing vocals--I wasn't happy with the intonation as I couldn't hear myself and I was singing nearly as loud as I do on lead. After some tense moments troubleshooting a control unit that refused to talk to the computer (turned out to be only dirty contacts in the Ethernet and FW ports), we got to work, and what a difference: turned down the lead and the guitar and turned myself up in the cans, got up close and sang softly but intensely. Suddenly it clicked so well that on one song we decided to have me lay in a second harmony atop the first. Gary did some rough mixes for us to take home and evaluate (making us promise not to share them with the world yet, as they're still sorta like cookie dough--yummy at first but raw). We're gonna have a heck of a followup CD when all is said and done--really pumped for our next sessions down there in Sept. Wish we knew back in '05 what we know now--and had the patience we do now to get it the way we want it. And it's great to have an engineer-producer who not just likes our stuff but is candid enough to let us know when we need to take another stab at a track. Gary and Roberta were so wonderful to us--and the area so tranquil and beautiful (trap shooting tournament in the area notwithstanding) that I hated to go home.