Is about to get a lot better. I have a lot of plans for this blog and there will be a lot more activity. I hope you guys have had a wonderful holiday season. Here’s to an amazing 2011! Rock on.

Hey guys -just trying to get an idea of how you are all digging this blog. I know I haven’t been very active with it, but I’m hoping to have more opportunities to make posts. Let me know if you have any ideas regarding what you’d like to see on here. You can post a comment or email me at Dan@DanTedesco.com.

Rock on,

Dan

So it’s official. My next album will be titled, “Tracks On Fire”. At some point I’ll put together some of the general ideals that provide the foundation for this upcoming release. It will, in many ways, pick up and continue the story that began during “Starin’ at a Green Light”. The sound is much tighter, more raw and more live…but it’s funny because in some sense being “smaller” has actually made it bigger. It’s an intense ride through the ten tracks. I sincerely cannot wait to have it put together and available for you all. Please be prepared for initial tracks to be available as a preview sometime in January with an official release to follow in March. Rock ‘n Roll.

– Dan

(Sunrise in NW Indiana, Oct 2009)

Touring season for 2010 will wind down beginning this week, and carrying through next week. We’ll be pulling out of Chicago this Wednesday to wind up through Madison, WI – Minneapolis, MN – Duluth, MN – La Crosse, Wi landing back home for a couple of days and then rolling out for a couple of shows in Kearney, NE and Des Moines, IA. This will also mark the end of any major touring behind my current album, “Starin’ at a Green Light”. That album was released in March of 2009, and in the last year and a half we’ve covered over half the country touring behind it.

Over the course of the tour we’ve made new fans and friends, seen new parts of the country, been inspired for more songs, had one good solid blown alternator in the middle-of-nowhere Wamsutter, WY, consumed copious amounts of terrible (but cheap) food….and played a hell of a lot of shows. And as this album’s tour crosses the finish line, the whole process starts to put out the next one…title and official release date TBA.

For those interested, you can follow me on these last tours of 2010 via my Facebook artist page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Dan-Tedesco/176304244465) or Twitter (http://www.Twitter.com/Dan_Tedesco). See ya on the road….Rock on.

– Dan

Ok….so for the better part of September I had extremely limited internet access, and for that I apologize that I was not able to post many blogs. However, that issue has been rectified and I’m back at it. I figure the best spot to pick back up is with last week’s recording of my new album!

Above is a picture showing my setup during the main tracking with the band. You can see my keyboard and several guitars in the background. I brought the Les Paul back out and it sounded perfect. With this new arrangement of my band it really helps keep things full and warm, given the lack of a bass. Surprisingly enough, I only played electric on one song for this album.

A lot of people often ask me what the order/process of recording is like. I can give you a general breakdown of how these tunes were put together:

1) Live take of each song with myself on vocals or guitar/keyboard, Brad on guitar/lap steel and Rio on drums. Multiple takes are done to try and capture the best performance of each song. Slight changes to arrangements are made in between takes. My producer on this album was crucial for bouncing ideas and having suggestions to help enhance the original arrangments, and the tracks are all that much stronger as a result.

2) Once the general tracking is taken care of, it’s time for the overdubs. With this album, I went through a re-recorded all of the piano parts with a real piano vs the initial tracking done with my keyboard. The difference in sound is pretty stunning. It’s a bit tedious to go back through everything but absolutely worth it. In addition to the piano overdubs, a few organ parts, guitar parts and vocal harmonies were added in.

3) After putting together the full arrangements of each track I go back through and lay down final vocal tracks where needed. Here’s a photo of what my setup looked like while tracking the final vocals.

That big, round black mic behind the pop screen was on loan from the guys in My Morning Jacket, and it sounded unbelievable. Hands down the best vocal sound I’ve ever had during a recording.

4) By this point we had basically every track arranged and recorded as seen fit. There was one last thing to do. I put together an on-the-spot arrangement of a song I’ve never played on piano before. Some of you might know it. It’s called “Whiskey Roads”. We miked up the piano, threw up a vocal mic and I cut the tune live in one take. It was one of my favorite moments of the entire 4 days of recording and I think will be a very powerful track on the album.

And that as they say…is a wrap.

The merch booth is packed and ready to go. CD’s, business cards and a solitary sticker – gotta get more of those soon! Time to get outta dodge…See ya in a booth for dinner at the infamous Skyline Chili in Cinci.

Yep, that’s right, tomorrow I’m hitting the road for a couple of days. I’ll be on a solo tour through Cincinnati, OH (Thursday, July 29th) and Nashville, TN (July 30th). In Cincinnati I’m playing at a venue called the Southgate House which is regarded as the best music venue in the city – not including the big time spots like theaters and arenas 🙂 It’s a really, really cool place. It’s the old historic home of the guy that invented the Tommy Gun, and their very proud of this fact. I believe you can purchase your own Southgate House t-shirt toting this fact for about $15-20. Anyway, they have three venues in the house. One main room that holds about 1,000, a smaller room that holds a couple hundred and then a lounge. The lounge is where I’ll be tomorrow night. It’s basically a little space set up by the main bar. You get lots foot traffic and exposure as people come in/leave from the other shows. We had a great time in the Lounge back in April, and I’m looking forward to my solo show there tomorrow night.

As for Nashville, I’m playing with a friend – Larry, from Hurricane Doyle (check them out – they’re solid) who we met playing in the area back in April at a venue called the Five Spot. It’s in East Nashville and so far I have heard only great things about this spot (no pun intended, of course). Fingers crossed.

I’ll heading out around 1pm tomorrow in Ol’ Blue – the infamous “touring bus” that you’ve heard me mention. She’s a 2001 Ford E-150 V-8 conversion van. I’m all class. So if the balding front tires can do me one more solid I should be good to go. The van is just about packed up and ready to roll.

My plan is to bring my laptop and blog at least once if not a couple of times a day on this tour, so be ready. You can come join me on the road. If I can get some decent photos with my iPhone I’ll post them as well. Some point in the not so distant future I’ll have a video camera – and that’s when the fun will REALLY start. So for now I say good night. I’ll talk to you guys from the road manana. Rock on.

Well we’ve completed our first three shows with the newly arranged band and it has been AWESOME thus far. Our first show was back on 7/10 at the House Pub in St. Charles. There were definitely some challenges involving sound and getting the right mix….and I could have really benefited from the sweet invention known as duct tape. With my new keyboard and stage setup things get a little out of hand with cables. Kind of like a giant pile of rubber spaghetti. However, I knew everything was going to be alright by the second or third song of the show. I was keeping an eye on people’s reactions in the crowd – namely those who have followed the band for a while and are fairly accustomed to the kind of sound/show we put on up to that point. There were certainly many expressions of curiosity being cast upon us….up until that moment in the second or third song. At that point I saw the curiosity and skepticism leave people’s eyes, to be replaced by pure enjoyment. I could sense that people had forgotten about the new arrangement, leaving their concerns and doubts behind and were truly getting in to the music and show at hand. Once I witnessed that transition I knew we’d hit on the head. It was, as I like to say, All Rock ‘n Roll in the End from that point on.

Our second show was in Terre Haute, IN last week – Thursday, July 15th at the Verve. We’ve always had a great time at this venue in the past but this was different. Random people approaching the stage and crowding in to watch. Full cheers and applause at the end of every song. I was sweating balls by the middle of the first set – and I hadn’t even stood up yet! We were on fire on all night, having gotten the initial nerves and kinks out of a number of the tunes from the first show. I have to give it up to the Terre Haute crowd. They made it a very special night. All the way down to the respect they showed when I chose to do a couple solo acoustic tunes later in the night. I felt like we really connected in a different way than we did during prior shows. We can’t wait to be back down in Terre Haute.

Our third show was the following Friday, July 16th in Decatur at the Lincoln Lounge. It was a bit of an off night crowd-wise but again we really turned some of the skepticism of old fans into real excitement for what lay ahead.

I can’t wait for all of you to hear these new arrangements and be a part of this new show. Everyone in the band is being pushed and challenged to their limits and bringing some extra to each show. All systems are, most definitely, a go. Rock on.

After a solid 5-6 weeks of aggressive rehearsals I’ve got myself and the band ready to rock in our new format. We’ll take the stage for this inaugural show of sorts in my hometown of St. Charles, IL tomorrow night and I’ll spend a considerable portion of that time behind the first instrument I ever learned – the piano. The new arrangements have kept me up thinking most nights and I think I’ve solved their riddle, for better or worse 🙂 In certain ways I feel like I’m taking the wheel and letting some of my closest influences crash out in the back of the van – always available should I need them. It’s exciting and I sincerely hope that excitement – the stuff that puts chills down your spine and raises the hair on your arms – will be harnessed into a hell of a night for everyone at the show.

It’s time to raise an old bottle full of new beer and make a toast…