Greg Roteik and Geri X foreground with Lumberjack Cash, Wally Ingram, Travis Kasperbauer, Delaney Davidson (with trombone), and Steve Hamilton background

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So as I detailed in my previous blog entry, Wednesday rolled around after a brief sleep in the back of my station wagon in the Holiday lot, a visit to the local YMCA, another brief nap, and a late morning omelette at the Finnerty's. I pulled back into the Holiday just before 11am for my writing session with Greg Roteik and Paul from Green Bay. There was a good sized crowd milling about just outside the lobby on the sidewalk and grassy area enjoying the morning brunch/lunch spread. I saw Craig Greenberg and we started talking, he'd just gotten in the night before and told me he'd had "A seven hour layover in Milwaukee" on his way in from New York. For some reason I heard a melody in that line so I sat down at the six-sided picnic table and opened up my notebook to start writing. Greg and Paul were a few minutes late, and I think I can now safely warn any future writing partners that if you're five minutes late for a co-write session with me it will be very possible I'll already have the first verse. :-)

"Milwaukee" didn't seem to fit right, the emphasis was on the wrong syllable, know what I mean? So I changed the first line so it ended with the airport code "MKE" instead. When we got to the 3rd line and needed a rhyme I yelled out to Craig across the lot "Craig! What's the airport code for Green Bay?" and he replied "GRB" to which I replied, "Perfect, thanks." :-)

Over the next hour or so Greg, Paul, and I worked on the lyrics for the verses and chorus and we just kept grinning and laughing through the whole thing. When we finished the 2nd verse and I sang it aloud, Landon and StoriTela who were sitting a few lawn chairs away broke out laughing too. I ran up to get my BR-600 to record a version for posterity so I wouldn't forget the vocal melody and managed to plow through a bridge as well on my own while recording. I can't remember who's room I was in, but it was someone's room upstairs. By the time I got back downstairs Paul was gone and Greg had run off to record a session with someone else. I wrote up all the paperwork and submitted it to Kevin to see if where we could record it. He asked if I could play it for him so I sang it solo on the back stoop just outside the upstairs studio solo, and he slotted us in to Dan-o's mini studio over at Beach Harbor right after dinner since the song felt really mellow and probably wouldn't need live drums.

I don't remember much happening that afternoon before dinner... but the after dinner listening session ended up being pretty wild. Somehow "Five Bucks" the song I'd co-written with Delaney and Wally was played and sounded great and it felt really good to listen to it and to be able to stand up with Delaney and Wally and thank everyone for their applause. Then, out of the blue, Pat played my 5/4 slash 6/8 word jazz song that I'd recorded with Wally... "Raise It/Bring It Up." I had no idea it had been mixed down or was even considered to be played. As soon as I heard the first notes I literally sprinted to the back of the bar and buried my head under my arms. Let me explain... I'm fine listening to a song in a big group that I've *helped* write, you know, where the song is part of a larger team effort and I feel like we're all applauding what the group had written and recorded together... but this song felt like I'd gone way out on a solo limb and just let it fly without a net, know what I mean? Granted, I knew Wally had been spectacular, but it was just me on guitar and vocal and I'd basically improvised some of the words. To have an experimental envelope pushing one-take song like that played in front of 40-50 really good songwriters just about made my stomach jump out of my mouth. I thought I was going to be physically ill. :-)

But one of the truly great things about Steel Bridge is that we have such an incredible group of open-go-for0-it-supportive-loving songwriters and listeners gathered together and the response I got was overwhelming. Three people ran up to me and said it was their favorite song of the night. Later on in the week Delaney mentioned the song during an in-between-song story on the main stage and Christine Cozza quoted one of the lines in a few Facebook posts even though I'm fairly certain she only heard the song that one time. I keep thinking people realized I'd tried as hard as I could to simply jump at something without fear, that maybe I'd inspired them to do the same. Man, I love Steel Bridge. Pat joked after the song finished that I won the award for longest Steel Bridge song ever recorded. Digger laughed and said "I can beat it." :-)

After dinner Greg and Paul and I made our way over to Dan-O's studio to record "Call You When I Land" and it turned out really well. I recorded the guitar part to a click track and then overdubbed the lead vocal, Greg added a really cool 2nd guitar part and a bass part and then Meaghan Owen and Laura Shultz added some backup vox. The session went very smoothly, though adding the girl group harmony vox was a little stressful for me since I had no real arrangement in my head and had to make one up on the spot. The next day I went back to record a second vocal harmony over the lead. Here's a rough mix:

http://charliecheney.com/sbsf5/CharlieCheney_CallYouWhenILand.mp3

We finished our session around 1am and I'll have to think for awhile to remember what I did after that. I can't imagine I went to sleep, I was flying.

Here's a picture from Sunday of Christine Cozza, Meaghan Owen, Dan Stoffels, and Laura Schultz:

And here are the lyrics to "Call You When I Land":

Call You When I Land
©2009 Charlie Cheney, Paul, Greg Roteik

I'm on a seven hour layover in MKE
And I don't think my luggage made it on
So I'm sure when I finally get to GRB
I'll have to borrow your guitar to write this song
And I'll need some deodorant and Sensodyne
If we could stop at that store on 41

-Chorus-
But I can't find reception for my wireless plan
And I can't reach the driver with the van
I've gotten the impression here in baggage claim
That I've lost half the members of my band (Ahhhhhh!)
Call you when I land

Kim sent me photos from her motel room
Oh, I can't wait to see her in the flesh
She said "Babe I really hope you get here soon
Cuz I need you to be my special guest
See, they've got these dispensers in the showers here
And I can't wait to show you how they work."

-chorus-

-bridge-
I know I'm going to have a blast
When I finally get to Sturgeon Bay
Right now my luggage has been lost
So I'm writing this song while I wait

-chorus 2x-

My friend Eric McDonald wrote this on Facebook after hearing this song:
"You've got an uncanny ability to describe simple, even mundane moments in life and turn them into a song which is both compelling and mysterious. It's like snapshots, really, the words to your songs, a series of small photographs."

As I think back on my writing from three years at Steel Bridge that's exactly what thet are... Palmer Johnson Yacht from year 1, Twirl from year 2, and now Call You When I Land in year 4... they're my own audible snapshots of Sturgeon Bay and SBSF in song.

Coming up next: Gig after incredible gig, the spine-tingling roar of applause after one particular performance of "Call You When I Land", much dancing, and 7 more songs written and recorded in the next 4 days...