Lost Highways is now on sale at Front Porch Music in Valparaiso and at the IUSB Campus Bookstore in the Northside building. If you want to experience the long lost highways, stop by and pick up a copy today.
February 11, 2007
August 15, 2006
Now that I have had a few weeks to listen to the CD, I’m ready to move forward with the project. I am very happy with how everything turned out. I think the album sounds great and I feel good about the end results. It was really a fantastic experience and I had a lot of fun in the studio with Rick and the other musicians. Looking back on our time in the studio now that the album is completed, it seemed like it flew by. It is weird to not be in the studio on Wednesdays and not spending all of my free time working on the album. It’s a big relief to have the album complete, but I will miss having that creative outlet. I’m sure I’ll be playing guitar and writing songs as usual, but it won’t be the same as recording in the studio.
For now, I’m in the process of working on the written essay that will accompany the audio portion of the project. Once the essay is completed in the correct format, I will submit the entire project to my Graduate Committee. I’m looking forward to finally being done with the entire project and being able to graduate. Hopefully, everything will go well with the rest of the project and then I’ll be able to go back to just writing songs and having fun. It will be a good change of pace and a lot less stress.
August 1, 2006
Current Listening:
Lost Highways by Ian MacLaverty
July 31, 2006
E-mail from producer Rick Watson on Thu, Jul 27, 2006 11:42 PM
Hey Ian,
After much tweaking, twiddling, diddling, and a little fiddling, Lost Highways is a reality. I must say that on the whole I’m very proud of it, as you should be as well. Some of it has been a hard fought struggle but I think every song came together fine in the end. The project sounds good, the production holds up and your writing and singing hold up too. I’ll be very anxious to see how your professor(s) feel about it. It’s always a scary proposition to have your music reviewed or ‘graded’ because it is such a subjective art form, with so many different styles and tastes. However, I have done a whole lot of recording over the last 25 years and this project deserves high marks and I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t do well for you (assuming the rest of your master’s package is in order). Good luck!
Thanks for recording with me and good luck with your Master’s degree.
Rick
July 27, 2006
Wednesday’s recording session at Beartracks Studio was the final Lost Highways session. The entire session was spent listening and mixing the 12 songs on the album. I feel really good about the completed album and I’m relieved to finally have it done. Rick still had to make some last minute changes before he began mastering the album. Everything sounded good and I’m looking forward to listening to the full CD from start to finish.
After the session, I once again met with Jerry Short of Short Run Records to continue working on the album layout. We worked for over three hours on the entire CD package. We made several corrections and changed a few different aspects of the album design. We were finally able to put the songs in their correct order after Rick and I had sequenced the songs during the mixing session. The layout looks great and Jerry did a fantastic job with the additions and changes made to the CD. Again, I’m really excited to see the final completed product. I should have the CD in hand sometime this weekend.
July 26, 2006
On my way to the studio for our LAST SESSION! It’s going to be a busy day, but I’m ready to get it done. I’m excited to see everything finally come together. Here’s what I’m listening to on the drive, to and from the studio:
Current Listening:
Hit by a Train by Old 97′s
On and On by Jack Johnson
Diamonds on the Inside by Ben Harper
Bombs Over Bristol by Don McCloskey
Plans by Death Cab For Cutie
One Guitar, No Vocals by Leo Kotke
July 25, 2006
Morgan, Jocelyn, Amy, and I are going to see Ryan Adams & The Cardinals at The Vogue in Indianapolis on Thursday, August 3rd. I’ve never been to The Vogue, but I’ve heard it is a cool venue. The show is sold out and it should be a great time in the small club atmosphere. We’ve been looking forward to the show for awhile. We’re all big Ryan Adams fans and it will be our first time seeing him live. The set list will probably draw heavily from the 3 albums Adams and his new band released over the past year. Hopefully, some Whiskeytown stuff and a few of his solo hits will get played. Either way, I’m sure the show is going to rock. Singer-songwriter Neal Casal is the opener. I’m looking forward to some good music and a fun night out with family and friends.
July 24, 2006
I have posted the lyrics to 3 new songs that will appear on Lost Highways. Two of the songs are originals and one of the songs was written by Chance Lindsley. I wrote “Waiting for the Day” before we started recording and “Amy” was written during the recording process. Chance recently wrote “Waves” and it fit perfectly with the theme of Lost Highways. I perform the two original songs on the album and Chance and I perform “Waves” together. The 3 songs are all completely different, but they fit together well on the overall album. Check out the words to these songs on the Song Lyrics page.
July 22, 2006
After the recording session, I met with Jerry Short of Short Run Records to begin work on the design layout and replication of the album. Our second meeting went well and we had some fun working on the album cover and overall design. Jerry did a fantastic job of bringing my ideas to life. He also had some great ideas of his own that helped to make the entire layout more interesting and eye catching. We were able to complete a good amount of work in a small amount of time. The meeting was productive and I would say we are more than half done with the album packaging. It is really cool to see my concept of the album start to come together. I’m looking forward to meeting with Jerry again next week. If everything goes as planned, I will have a final completed version of the CD by the end of the week. I am very excited to hear and see the final product.
July 22, 2006
The sessions have become more and more challenging over the past few weeks. This week’s session was no exception. We began the session with a production meeting that went very well. Rick and I discussed and listened to a few of the tracks that he had previously mixed. We also listened to the updated music on “The Sea” and decided it was time to finally finish it up. Rick then reworked the bridge so that I was able to sing the song comfortably. I still had some problems with the breaks, but we ended up getting through with no major problems. Then the computer crashed! We lost everything that had been done in the studio up to that point. We were around the half-way point of the session when the computer went down. It was extremely frustrating, but Rick was able to keep the session moving on a positive note. We started over from scratch and I was able to finally finish my lead vocals. Rick reassured me that the song was going to be great and maybe the computer had crashed for a reason. He will be working this week on building music around my vocals. This is a different approach than we have used on all of the other songs. I’m confident that Rick will do a great job with the song and the album will be ready to master next week. Our next session is Wednesday and it should be our last meeting. I’m excited to finally finish the album and turn in my Graduate Project.
