It’s been a busy week. I had a very nice band rehearsal the other night…it went really well and was very productive. One of the guys I normally play with …well, his schedule was impossible to work around and we were ending up hardly getting together at all. He’s a fantastic player and in demand by quite a few other groups…so his availability seemed to be holding things up. Trying to get things ready for studio recording and having 1 person not able to be around left us no choice but to try and find a replacement. The thought of it gave me shivers for a few reasons:

1. I really like the guy’s playing and him as a person…not to mention I was not looking forward to saying to him that we were going to start looking for someone else.

2. The actual task of trying to find a replacement [you would think that finding good players in LA would be easy, but it's really tough].

The good news is…it all worked itself out.

When I talked to him he was very understanding. But, It wasn’t a fun conversation to have. There didn’t seem to be any animosity or bitterness there and it seemed to end of a positive note. I really did dread making that call though but in order to get this next CD done before the next century, it needed to be done…I’ll miss working with him.

Right after that, I remembered talking to a guy on my hockey team who said he was a musician and gave him a call to see if he’d be willing to fill in and help out with this next record. He said "sure" so i sent him some very rough demos and booked the rehearsal space. Probably not a smart move to just have someone show up without ever hearing the guy’s playing.

It could have been a disaster if he wasn’t a good player but I totally lucked out! The guy is REALLY fantastic at his instrument…not only that, he’s a great singer. He showed up knowing the songs better than the rest of the group and was singing and nailing the vocal harmonies. I was extremely impressed.

So what I thought might be a step backwards turned out to be a giant step forward…and now i think things will move even faster. I’m excited at the thought of regular rehearsals and getting in the studio again!

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