Mom's 71st Birthday: Nashville Style

Mom came down to visit for her birthday this year.   Since last time she visited we were swamped with musical theater and end-of-the-schoolyear busyness, AND because now my sister Kristen is down here to help scheme and plan fun activities, this time we delivered the big time Nashville birthday she deserved. 

First, the Nashville Zoo...

Then, a boot-scootin', live band-accompanied dinner at the Wildhorse Saloon...starting with some moonshine and fried pickles.  No, really.  

Then, the next day, we weren't quite finished with the birthday celebration, so we went to Arrington Vineyards for a sushi picnic and wine tasting.

A good time was had by all.  :)

In the Studio with Michael W Smith

This week the girls had the opportunity to record a couple tracks for an upcoming Michael W Smith album.  It will be a Christmas album, released--I think--October first, featuring a bunch of different vocalists from Lady Antebellum to, well, I forget (there was a long list).  My favorite?  The background vocals of a small selection of choristers from the Nashville Children's Choir.  :)

The studio lighting was less than ideal for taking pictures, and frankly, my camera stinks (okay, it's likely operator error...but whatever).  So I took whatever blurry images I could...

Paragon Studios is in Franklin, TN and is really nice (well duh...it's FRANKLIN).  It is the first studio that we've come to that was initially built to be a recording studio.  Other studios that the girls have recorded in have been anywhere from home studios (which I think are actually illegal here, but are ridiculously prevalent.  Do a home search on Zillow or Realtor.com for the Nashville area...you'll find that a surprising percentage have home studios in them.  The various artists that record in these home studios denote how NOT seriously this law is taken), to renovated Music Row buildings.

After recording, Michael and the producer talked about the vision for the upcoming album, the throwback Andy Williams sound that at least a couple of the songs will have, and they listened to one of the recordings that NCC made that day. They also were also given an exclusive preview of another of the tracks already finished.  Apparently, all work on the album has to be finished by the end of July. 

Michael was super nice, signed autographs for all the kids, and gave me a few minutes of conversation time between recordings.  Yes, my girls were likely embarrassed to see me standing in the control room chatting up Michael W Smith, but do I care?  Umm...not so much.  They had to be told who he was before singing with him and Jennifer Nettles on The CMA Country Christmas Special this past year.  But as for me and Michael?  We go back decades.  :) 

How could this be embarrassing???  (My poor kids...)

Yeah...no one takes themselves too seriously here.  Kudos to Kyle Hankins, the most talented and amusing guy I know.  He directed the kids perfectly.  Belle actually noted that the best part of the whole thing was getting to be directed by Mr. Kyle.  He is usually the accompanist for the NCC, but has served as the point person on a few studio gigs.  At the end of our time, Michael said to the kids, "Oh, I will definitely see you again!"  I really hope he calls on them again in the future.  Studio work is fairly intense and repetitive, but at the same time it is so fun to see how technology and musicianship merge to make such beautiful music!