Resurfacing...

A belated Merry Christmas & Happy '09, my friends...

And huge apologies for my lag in posting here.

The good news is that it's been largely due to trying to spend every spare moment working on my next solo CD (yeah...sorry...it's still the "Pondering Follow-Up"...will try to have a proper name for it soon!). I'm elated to say that much progress has been made! More about that in a sec.

For the rest of what's been keeping me busy work-wise, please check out Norm's "haps" page. The '09 season of Lincoln Brewster dates (at least those that have been confirmed to date) will be getting added in the next week or so. Looking forward to seeing you at a concert later this year!

Let's see...anything else to bring up before I talk about the project? I caught a NASTY chest cold right after the recent NAMM show, and have been flat on my back trying to recuperate. The drag is that I'd been targeting that window of time to be making some concentrated progress on the CD production...but it's tough to track when tempos all feel either lethargic or frantic (depending upon where I was in the cough syrup cycle).

By the way, I'm a Mac fan...but have to say that contrary to what I'd been told by all of my Mac friends all those years they were trying to convert me from a PC-based life...Macs are most assuredly not immune to their own problems. My Mac Pro spent most of the fall and winter in the shop, and was the source of untold frustration until within the past 2 weeks (after lots of work, including new motherboard and optical drive), it finally appears to have been 99% dialed in. There's still a minor issue with one of the plug-ins, but I've come up with a workaround that allows me to function. SO...the GREAT news is that I've been actually tracking (instead of computer troubleshooting) over the past few weeks. I can't tell you how good that feels after all of the technology grief. Huge thanks to my friends Erik (in San Jose) and Mike (in San Diego) who've both been hugely helpful in getting me up and running (and occasionally talking me down from the ledge!). :^)

Eleven tunes have been written (with a couple more decent song fragments still waiting in the wings) and are mapped out in Pro Tools sessions. At present, 5 of them have solid guide tracks down (played on either my MTD 535 or 735). I'm hoping to get most of the rest down and the tunes charted in time for keyboard overdubs slated for a week from Thursday. My work is cut out for me. I'm flying up to Alberta, Canada this coming Thursday to teach and do some playing at the Break Forth Canada conference, and am hoping to spend my flights and any downtime charting like crazy.

I've secured cameo participation from several AMAZING artists (will share names with you once we actually track) and am giddy with excitement. I think you're going to like them, too.

Sorry if the above sounds a bit scrambled! Just trying to get you updated as much as possible and get working. My family and I have had an amazing time reconnecting over the past few months as I've largely been off the road. My wife and I celebrated our 17th anniversary yesterday by convalescing with the kids and watching movies (2 of the 4 of us are sick). We'll celebrate properly once everyone's well again. I definitely married up...I'm a blessed man.

Hope all of you are well and having a fantastic 2009. Thanks for your interest & support!

Blessings- Norm