We're Migrating to Our New Website!

If you're looking for the Desert Island Band, three TropRocking singer/songwriters from the Valley of the Sun, well you found us! Just head on over to our website for all the info you need. See you there, and FINS UP!

"Keeping Our Day Jobs" Update!

Now that Meeting of the Minds is in the books, we turn our attentions back to the album. Dave the intrepid producer reports that......drumroll please.....IT'S DONE! We'll have a final listening meeting this week to make sure there are no final tweaks needed, and then it's off to the CD reproducer!

We all just can't believe this is finally about done, and had no idea how much work would be involved. We sure hope you all like it!

Hey! We're Back!

We still don't know why Blogger took our Blog down a couple of months ago, and we can't really be sure when they put it back, either, since they never said word one to us about anything. But it's back! And just before we were going to start over!

Couple of notes since we last were here....if you've been looking for Crime Dog on Facebook and haven't been able to find him, don't worry. He's not dead, sick, or even missing, and he didn't "unfriend" you. He's just taking a break from Facebook for a while. You never know, he might be back in time for Meeting of the Minds....or he might not.

The album is nearly done! We'll have more on that real soon and perhaps a big announcement about it. Suffice it to say that it sounds great, we have it out for one more instrumental track, then it'll go through the final mix and be released and available for download. No word yet on when actual disks will be available, but stay tuned.

More later! It's great to be back!

Still Working Hard In the Studio!

The view from our office on studio days.

 
Well folks, we're still working it at the Four Door Studio of Real Big Records! This is the part of the process where our own guitar, percussion and vocals are finally complete, we've got some drum  and bass tracks added and it all sounds better than even we expected! We're discussng now what additional instruments to bring in and on what songs, so there's still plenty of work to be done.



Ever wonder what your voice looks like graphically? Well, CD's looks something like this.



Or maybe what a song looks like graphically, track by track? It's something like THIS!



Obviously, we're not going to make the hoped-for Labor Day release. This whole process is a lot more difficult than we originally thought! We're completely confident, however, that we'll have our album at Meeting of the Minds in November. As our good friend (and co-writer on one song!) Loren Davidson advised us to do, we're adding two months to our expectations...and maybe another day or two. Or three......

Dave Marshall, our intrepid and infinitely patient producer and engineer, hard at work.

So....what songs should you expect to hear on the Desert Island Band's debut album, "Keeping Our Day Jobs"?:

1) Keeping Our Day Jobs (Chitwood)

2) Sandy Wishes (Joyner)

3) $14 and Change (McGuffin)

4) Tropical Daydream Attacks (Chitwood)

5) If I Was a Lizard (Joyner)

6) No Name Pub (Chitwood)

7) Hollow Man (Mike Miller)

8) I Like It When the Wind Blows (Joyner)

9) You and Your Flip Flop Shoes (Chitwood)

10) I'm Mid-South (Joyner)

11) 'Til I Felt Good (McGuffin/Davidson)

Parrots In the Pines!!

Well, the very first Desert Island Band sponsored "Parrots In the Pines" is history and what a great time! No glitches, perfect weather, cool mountain air, wonderful hosts Brad and Colleen, and a team of terrific musicians headlined by Mark Mulligan were the keys to a fantastic weekend.



Musicians L-R Sam Rainwater, Woody Joyner, Mark McGuffin, Wayne McGuffin, Steve Chitwood, Mark Mulligan, and Keith Grigg. Missing from the photo but also performing: Ray Cody and Susan Schauf

 From Friday night's open mike, which was described more than once as "the best open mike, ever!" to Sunday departure hugs and handshakes, this was a time to remember. Here's a few things no one will forget soon:

Thursday night ice-diving into Bob's cooler
Shula's dust and rock storms, earning hm a club nickname: "Haboob."
Ladder golf and Cornhole
The Parrothead debut of some very cool dogs, like Paula's "Katie," a fan favorite! (nice escape artist, too!)
Friday night and Saturday morning off-the-hook delicious potlucks
Vivian's beautifully decorated stage area
The world debut of "The Worshboard Band."
Grown men in capes leaping from tailgates
Poker tournament won by (big surprise) Kathy with Tracy rght behind her
Dominoes in the shade, reminiscent of a Parrothead rest home.
Stolen Recipe BBQ
Mark Mulligan and Friends Jam Session
Susan Schauf and her new song (co-written with Keith Sykes), "Music Therapy"
The debut of the Flamingo Queen's dance routine for the DIB's "Tropical Daydream Attacks."
A nice roll of money raised for Castaway Kids
Late night passing the guitar around the fire with CD, Woody, and Mark Mulligan....that was special.

Do we have to wait a whole year to do this again?

Recording A Studio Album - Day 2

Steve and I finished off our guitar work and laid out vocal tracks on about six songs - which puts us at the halfway point in this stage of production! Vivian, Wayne and Jan sat in and had a chance to see how Dave and his studio operate.

We have a few glitches in som of the guitar tracks that might require some do-overs, but for the most part it is looking and sounding real good! Prodcuer Dave is supremely confident we willhave a finished CD by Labor Day!