Meditative sit ups

I’m writing at present from Featherburn’s fiddle player Chris deVitry’s basement (henceforth to be referred to as The Citadel). Drum tracking tonight at The Citadel. I’m making the most of the downtime as we set up, writing you. We’ve been putting a bunch of hours in producing our coming album Camp. So far we’ve got scratch (template) tracks for each song to be included in the album assembled plus final recordings of bass and drums for every tune except Alchemy, which is what we’re leaning into at this moment. After we finish the bass and drums, I’ll redo my accordion on pretty much everything, Holly and I will hit final vocal tracks, Michael will record guitar, Chris will put down his fiddle parts, and we’ll gather the ensemble together to lay down some additional vocal harmony and gang shouts. Next in line is the editing and pre-mixing, which is what I learned to do over the pandemic (pretty tedious work if you ask me) before Chris embarks upon the final mixing and mastering. When all the tracks are finalized, I’ll pull up the mandala images we used to promote our live production of Camp (performed this past winter) to arrange into cover art, and I’ll send MOST of the songs off for digital distribution (Spotify, AppleMusic, etc.). I’ll save three or four tracks, whether they be extended intros, some story narration, maybe a song or two that we decide to hold onto, in order to offer them out as exclusive bonus material. Our Camp release party is slated for September 16 in Marietta Pa, but there’s a $%*T ton of work to do before then. Everything mentioned above needs to be finished and in the (digital) mail a month or more before then, and the path always presents obstacles.

It's weird. Of course it’ll be great to have another compilation released for folk to enjoy. Of course it’ll be fun to play a cd release party. Of course I’ll reflect on the work done and be proud and grateful for the opportunity. Although I know well enough that long periods of compression go hand-in-hand with any project that has a deadline, I wish I could say I enjoyed this part of it more…

The answer always comes straight back to me, though. The inner voice is clear. Perspective. it says. Strive to look at it now as if you would at the end of your life. Like you’d recall training for a long distance race, or writing a graduate thesis AFTER having done it. It never actually feels like Eye of the Tiger when you’re doing the sit-ups. Movies are stupid that way. Sit-ups feel like sit-ups. Every time.

I do believe that anything can be meditative, though. Quieting one’s mind on a cushion is hard. Finding your inner peace while waiting in the checkout line is harder. Stillness and gratitude while during calisthenics… well, we can always try.

Try. And may you hear Eye of the Tiger sound loudly as you do your sit-ups, even if they still feel like sit-ups!