I’m just now listening back to my session from Wednesday with Alan.  This was by far our hardest session yet - so much so that we almost called it a night half way through.

As one of my original songs, and a tried and true crowd favorite, I had anticipated Take Me Home to be one of the most straight forward and uncomplicated tracks to record. But it couldn’t have been more the opposite.  The version I have from my recording in Nashville is an up tempo country rock tune that has great energy and a great groove to it.  I love that version, and my plan for this recording was to stick as close as possible to the original, only with a more current vocal and contemporary feel.

But it just didn’t work.  I wanted to create a big, head bopping, driving with the top down kind of sound.  When we played it back, it sounded like an unfeeling, antiseptic wall of sound.  Not even close.  I was stumped, not to mention upset and overtired, and we almost scratched the entire session.  

I sat and picked the chords on Alan’s electric, resigned to calling it a night and starting over next time.  But, I liked the sound I was making with the strum and slap, as did Alan.  So, we started over.  We scrapped everything, took the tempo down 10 beats, and laid down a scratch guitar and vocal. That’s what I’m listening to now and I think I really like it.  It’s much simpler, a bit raw, and has more of a storyteller’s feel.  We also wrote a new bridge that I think adds a different dimension.  Who knows, maybe this version and the original can both work.  

In a classic case of less is more, I left feeling good that we stuck it out and maybe even captured something special.