This week I had Four Snow Days!!!! From November into the beginning of December we had enough snow and ice to close over 150 schools in sunny Lincolnshire. Our school was one of them, which had many implications for the music life of our school. Sadly I had to postpone, possibly cancel, our Christmas Praise event . Anither project that was threatened was the William Lovell Project recording its second project - The Skeggi Stomp. Fortunately I managed to rescue all the main recording gear from the schools studio just before the chaos hit.
So as well as getting some real quality snowballing time with Jack, I also got to spend some time in the Pots n Pans recording studio once more (my kitchen). Its been a while since I recorded in this prestigious studio - the last was the recording of Design for Life (available on iTunes - hint hint). This time I had an iMac with Logic Pro 9 on it and some un-interupted time. So I set about finishing the project. After a few hours the finishing touches were made and The Skeggi Stomp will receive its public debut next week, weather permitting, on Wednesday 8 December 2010 at the Embassy Theatre Skegness.
Skeggi done and dusted the recording equipment was looking at me and longing to be explored some more. By now I'd gained a lot of knowledge a little bit of experience and an amazing desire to record one of my songs that has never had the attention. I spent approximately thirty seconds deciding which song, It took longer deciding that I needed to choose a song than actually deciding the song. A Cradle For The King is a song that I wrote back in 1999 whilst I was teaching at Spilsby High School (King Edward VI Humanities College). It was written in response to my musings on an interesting concept which I'm sure has crossed the thoughts of many people through the years. If the first Christmas happened this year where would Jesus be born. Would he be born in a squat or maybe he'd be born in private healthcare. That's a whole other debate. So I began recording.
The main guitar lick was the acoustic riff I figured out when I performed the songs a few Christmases ago and I decide to stick with it. The rest just fell into place. The only thing missing was a bridge. Originally I had two choruses to the song so I used the lyrics for the alternative chorus and edited them slightly. I figured the main purpose of the song was faith, belief and trust and the concept of a humble shepherd leaving behind his or her livelihood to see a baby boy who was the creator of the universe was a pretty mighty thought. So I stuck with that.
The song took about 8 hours record in total with a further 3 hours fine tuning and mastering. I'm really pleased with the end result and invite you to come and listen. Here's the link - A Cradle For The King Enjoy! Don't forget to let me know what you think.