Here's the story behind the song:

Dani wrote this charming little dinner tune, and created a very nice accompaniment for it in BIAB. He also contacted Me and Dean to collaborate, but I'm not sure if either of us knew the other was involved. You may already see where this is going... wink

Dani had originally asked me to add a cello part (presumably because Josie's song with cello had just hit the showcase?) I agreed, but when I heard Dani's song I couldn't come up with an application for a cello by itself. To me, the song needed a full string section.. so I asked if I could change assignments. Dani, being the nice and easy to get along with guy that he is, was OK with the change.

So I sequenced the strings note by note in the piano roll. Still not knowing that Dean was involved, I also sent along a rhythm guitar part "just in case". (Its the strumming guitar that is panned somewhat to the right)

Meanwhile, in another part of the world.. New England, to be exact... Dean was actually thinking like an accomplished jazz master... and I literally mean master of all trades.... he was creating an arrangement with customized intro and ending and fascinating guitar, bass and keyboard delights! The entire fantastic intro is Dean!! Wow! Likewise the entire ending was created by Dean and appended to the end of the song as it was delivered to him! I just LOVE stuff like that, but if terrorists lined me up against a wall and said they'd cut my head off if I couldn't write a cool ending.. I'd be a dead man. Dean, on the other hand, would probably end up signing autographs for the terrorists.

Dean also played the organ solo in the middle... and I'm pretty sure he played a lot more than that.. maybe everything except what I played. (I can't say for sure because I worked from an MP3 and I never had all the tracks. But in one of the emails I recall Dani saying that Dean had played everything! )

By this time I was thinking that playing guitar in a song where Dean is also playing is kind of like a dwarf standing beside a giant. No matter how spiffy the dwarf dresses, he just ain't gonna compare well to the giant. Soooo, I begged the other guys to ditch my parts so the two of them could really make it shine (I really like the chord pattern, lyrics, melody and Dani's vocal delivery on this song! And I *ALWAYS * like Deans musical craftsmanship... but in THIS case, his embellishments were so perfect for the song and the intro and ending were so creative and interesting that the song was already excellent before I got there. And how about that organ solo? WOW!)

In the final analysis, adding my stuff just meant that something awesome from Dean got left out. That's a good definition for "Aw, Bummer, man!". It did, however, allow for enough different parts that there was plenty of opportunity to trim redundant parts to keep new stuff happening the whole time.

In conclusion I want to thank Dani for inviting me to participate, and congratulate him on writing and singing such a nice song! And thanks to Dean for his willingness to share his vast musical knowledge and skills with others!

Dani, I hope that you live this song over your holiday in Spain! wink


(PS.. the final mix does have more reverb than any of the copies I worked to...)