It's Tuesday, May 16, 2000. The new millennium is underway and life is unbelievable. The Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all occupying the same zodiac sign - all lined up in a row. This astral event last occurred in November of 1962, the day of the Cuban missle crisis, and before that it was 531 A.D. - about the time when Christianity and Buddhism began to spread like wildfire in the dried grass of mankind.
I am leaving Austin, Texas, with my top down and Van Morrison filling the air in the convertible, headed toward Ranch oad 12 and the Texas hill country - my destination the Zone Recording Studio. Until today, I was just another singer/songwriter/guitar slinger with a dream. But today I am experiencing intense Deja vu as I recall the dream I had ten years ago, just after the death of the great Stevie Ray Vaughan...
I dreamed I was driving to a recording studio to do an album with a world famous rhythm section called Double Trouble. Stevie Ray had already left the planet, but in my dream he was there in the studio with us as a spirit. It was an incredible dream - I felt the power of his soul all around me. I've felt it ever since.
I could hardly sleep last night, kind of like the night before the first day of school, or the night that Santa is supposed to arrive when you're a kid, you just can't wait until morning. I finally gave up trying to sleep about 6 am and got up for coffee. I greeted this long awaited day with certainty - I was no longer going to waste my energy wondering about whether luck or fate or God were working for me or against me - at this point I knew better. And I was ready.
So now I am traveling down the road. About a mile before the turn off to Ranch Road 12, the scenery took on a surreal appearance, like everything was extremely alive with its very own energy. I remembered what an astrologer had to say about the current cosmic environment when it all began in early May. He had written,
"Hardly ever does the sky produce such a potent portent. We are talking here about a conjunction with the power to unleash energies, options and possibilities, which people have long dreamed of, yet never been able to reach. It's time for a change. Time to stop dreaming about what may one day be possible and time to start making it a reality."
As I remembered these words, I felt like the sky was sending me fuel...propelling me forward toward my future. I always feel like the sky favors me anyway, being that my name is Sky, but today was different than usual. Everything was in its proper place and happening at the right time. The planets and stars, the people that are sharing my life journey - everything happens in its own time, and for reasons that sometimes take us years to understand. Time - we can't ever hope to rush it along anymore than we are capable of stopping it from coming.
I turned onto the dusty road that would bring me to my destiny, sure of myself, and certain that my vision was about to be made manifest.
The Band
My girlfriend and I pulled up in front of the studio, a place she and I were very familiar with. Three years ago I got a call from an old friend of mine, Mike Morgan, who had previously owned a studio in Austin called "The Barn." Mike had sold that business and he would begin work on his dream of creating, from the ground up, the finest studio in the Austin area. Our paths crossed about this time, three years ago, and I found myself recruited to help Mike build this dream studio. From the 18-inch thick walls with double windows, to pre-wiring every room with protected curcuits (including even the lights), to upholstered walls in every room, Mike and I brought forth the space he had dreamed of. I did not want mere money for the time I spent helping Mike - I wanted to record my dream album in this very studio.
"Energized" is barely adequate to describe the way Melissa and I felt, but it will have to do. Over the next two days that feeling would only be multiplied. Magic was in the air and we both felt it. I should say here that Melissa was raised in Austin, with its music scene a core part of who she had become. Stevie Ray and Double Trouble had made her life worth living during the boring and unsatisfying years of high school. So this album project was near and dear to her heart as well. We both felt like we were waking up in the middle of an awesome dream.
Mike was waiting for us in the studio, with an unusually silly grin on his face. He could barely sit still - and he's just not usually that kind of guy. Then Chris Layton arrived to begin setting up his drums. Normally Mike will allow two to three hours to tweak in drums but, all in all, set up and microphone placement and setting levels only took about an hour. During that time David Grissom and Tommy Shannon showed up and we moved their equipment into place. Lastly, Riley Osbourn pulled in and we were just about ready to go.
This was the first time that chris and Tommy and David had done anything together since the band "Storyville" and it felt like old home week listening to these guys catch up on each other's lives. I want to make a personal observation at this point - I've been on the Austin music scene for ten years and there was always this attitude among the musicians I met and/or played with of self importance and tremendous ego, almost as if they knew something no one else did and were unwilling to share. I half expected to encounter this but it just didn't exist; these were just really good people who were here to do what they loved - make music. These guys weren't a bunch of wannabes trying to prove something. If there were ever anyone in the world with the right to an inflated ego it would be these men. In one way or another, they have all been to the proverbial mountaintop. Chris and Tommy were the driving rhythm behind Stevie Ray's music. David has played on hundreds of the recorded songs you hear on the radio, and with artists we all know - John Mellencamp, Allman Brothers, and Joe Ely to name a few. Riley has tickled the ivories with such greats as Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson, and we are all sitting around eating sandwiches and talking about the details on our lives. Chris' braces, David's new house under construction, kids in general. The time is 12 noon. Time to make some music. Time to make history.
The Songs
All of us were in the break area/kitchen part of the studio and I had brought my two guitars. "Melissa" is an 81 Fender Strat and "OB1" is a Black Guild acoustic/electric. I picked up "OB1" and played and sang the first song "Ashes to Ashes" just like I perform it live. David Grissom did all the arranging and took some notes as I was playing. Riley also took some notes for the keyboard parts, and as the last note was still vibrating from my strings, everyone took their places and began setting their levels and getting their headphones on. We did a quick run through of the entire song, got everyone tweaked up and rolled tape. The really cool thing about making music is when it just happens. Everyone just clicks, all the subtle nuances are there, all the breaks are perfect and the rhythm and words just flow together at the same time. It's a mystery to me and I am awed by it every time. Whether I am watching it or part of it, I always find it wonderful. We listened to what we had just done and heads nodded and we shared a laugh. First take. Very cool! This set the precedent and the pace for almost the entire day. By six o'clock we had recorded six songs and we were all starving. Mike's wife, Janet (a woman of many talents and a gourmet cook with an absolutely marvelous garden) had been working most of the afternoon up at the house preparing a feast of Shrimp Creole and garden fresh salad. It was marvelous! A little small talk after we ate and it was time to hit the road back to Austin. The moon was beginning to rise and it was almost full. Melissa and I were wired from all the emotion and adrenaline and what the first day brought about and tired all at the same time. The drive back home was relaxing and beautiful. Sleep was almost immediate when our heads hit the pillows. And sweet. Tomorrow was yet to come.
The next morning was the day of the full Moon, the last day of the astrological planetary alignment and Mike Morgan's birthday. The same excitement of the night before was still lingering with us as we drove out for the second day of recording. We had all decided the day before that noon would be a great time to resume our work. The drive out to the studio seemed like a blur as my thoughts were on what I wanted to try to finish up that day. What songs to do, how long would we be working, was the same magic that happened the day before going to be there again, how's my voice feeling ... a million things to think about it seemed like, and yet, all around me was this peaceful, serene hill country. As I looked around me, I felt a calmness wash over me and all the worries stopped. Once again, the scenery took on a surreal appearance and we turned onto the road that led to the studio.
When we pulled up to the studio, we both felt our hearts start racing. We discussed it briefly as we walked to the door of the studio. Mike was waiting inside, pacing around the room. He just about exploded when we walked in. He spoke of the power that he felt swirling in the air. He spoke of the planets and his birthday and the energy that was coursing through his body. Chris, Tommy, David and Riley all arrived not long after that, and Mike brewed all of us some coffee. While we were talking, I picked up OB1 and started to warm up a little. I told everyone the next song I wanted to do was "Stevie's Statue." I handed Tommy a copy of the lyrics so he could peruse them and everyone gathered around the coffee table with note pads in hand.
Melissa and Mike were all sitting at the mixing console and I had my back to them facing a window, when I started to play the song. That's when something strange as well as unexplainable happened. The lights in the whole studio dimmed and then came back up. I had my eyes closed (as I normally do when I play and sing Stevie's Statue) so I missed it! But Melissa and Mike saw it. Mike looked at Melissa and said, "That's impossible, I mean physically and electronically impossible - every circuit in this building is surge protected" ... but somehow, it happened. The way I see it, nothing is impossible in the spirit realm. Stevie was in the house, I could feel him, blessing and approving what we were doing - and if you close your eyes when you listen to that song, I know you can hear and feel him also. The rest of the recording session went just like the day before, one song per hour with most of them done in first take. The whole experience seemed to move everyone to a state of euphoria. Chris, Tommy, David and Riley all asked if I had more songs, for another album. They wanted in on the project - and we hadn't even finished this one!
All in all, we recorded eleven songs in eleven hours. The numbers 11:11 have always had some kind of special significance throughout my whole life and now they were even more so. We didn't even realize until later in the week that this had occurred and it kind of blew my mind! Having a dream turn into a reality right before your eyes is, to say the least, an awesome thing. It was a life changing experience for me, and my prayer for you is that this music and the entire album will do just that for you - change your life and the way you view the journey we are all on.
The Beginning...
It was dark when we finally pulled out of the studio and headed back to Austin, ragtop racing down the road, wind blowing against our flesh, and the light of the full moon bathing us in its magic and light. We were listening to the first rough mix of the new Sky Malone CD, completely awed by what had been born over the past 2 days. We felt humbled by the majestic full Moon, illuminating the Texas hill country and hanging over the skyline of the live music capital of the world. I love Austin, Texas. It's the coolest city on planet Earth. Not only is it the most happening live music scene around, but there is an attitude here (well in South Austin anyway) that's reminiscent of the spirit of the sixties. The sixties were about lots of things - revolution against the norm, civil rights minorities, a horrible war in Vietnam, the youth of the time seeking a different and better path than the one we saw our parents on; but the single most defining thing that set it apart from any other time was the Music. Woodstock (the cool one!) and Hendrix and Joplin and the Stones. The list could go on and on, and still does in the new millennium. The voices of the past are still with us, and even though they are not here in the physical sense, their spirit remains. You know the face of Austin is rapidly changing, as our world. It seems the world has discovered the secrets of Austin - new people arrive daily, and with them are their attitudes, their values and their diversity of cultures - but most of all, they bring with them change. Some good and some bad, but one thing remains the same in South Austin - the Spirit of Music.
Any given night of the week you can go hear live music being played all over the city. From blues to country to techno to rock, it's all there. And that's why I'm here as a working musician. Music is about moments or people or places or things that we all encounter on this journey called life. Music is the most effective, personal, passionate form of communication that we as humans can, and probably will, ever experience together. Music may very well be the only thing that mankind as a whole will ever be able to agree on. It's the only true global language, because it can convey emotion and evoke feelings whether you understand the words or not. In the days before we had instant worldwide forms of communication, it was the traveling minstrel that spread the news of the day, singing of events, people, great battles and far off places. He or She mirrored the times they lived in, as the music of today mirrors who and what we are as a society and as humans in general. So far, my own journey has had its hard times as well as its good, and each song on this album is just a reflection of where I've been - maybe a glimpse of where I am going. My prayer for you is that at least one of my songs on this album will touch you somehow, evoke a feeling, spark an emotion, bring back a fond memory of one of the many places of your own journey - and when that happens we will have gone there together somehow. In the Spirit, in the Music, in the Beginning...
Sky Malone