In about 15 minutes I am loading the guitars into the car and heading to Victorville. There’s a recording studio there and I’m due at 2 (hey! a rhyme!) to start “putting down tracks,” as they say in the business.
In other words, I’m going to record some songs.
Every Saturday night I sing at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Barstow. About 100 people show for the Mass (it was about 50 when I first started 2 years ago). This weekly offering is pretty much the only music I play these days.
Okay, I do slip out to Ventura to play in an open mic with my friend Leslie Claussen. She’s much better than I am, a fact which is brought home to me every time I listen to her. Still, we’ve been friends since 1987, so I tolerate her greatness and she tolerates my mediocrity.
There was a time, my friends, when I thought I was going to set the music world on fire. I am no stranger to the recording studio, having made about six different albums. The latest–and the best–was with my band, the Black Cat Saints. Indeed, you can still buy our CD somewhere. (I wasn’t even aware there was a website!)
Alas, that recording was done in 2015. Those guys are gone doing other more interesting things by now.
So I am going in alone. I’m recording some of my Catholic songs. If the place is any good, there are other projects–my rock and roll album, my country album–which I will do.
Am I going to be famous? Does McDonald’s sell bouillabaisse? (Hint: They do not.)
So why do it? As the guy who climbed Everest said, “Because it’s there.” Or rather, I’ve got songs I want to leave behind when the evil deadly couch finally claims my soul. I’m not sure what anyone will do with them but okay. You gotta try.
Anyway, it’s getting late. Gotta Go. Will see if I can post some of the songs on this site later.
Mark Bruce, Writer 