Fuzzy Slippers

I’m doing some session work again this week… and it’s at another studio that I’ve not been in before. Fuzzy Slippers in lowertown St. Paul is a super cool room with all kinds of vibe. I’m working on a record for an artist named Jay Asplin. This is another project produced by my friend Nate Sabin, and I am enjoying the opportunity to work with him again.

The coolest part of these sessions is the other studio musicians I’m playing with. Aaron Fabbrini is on bass with Ben Gowell on guitar, like the last session I did with Nate, and both of those guys always bring tons of creativity and great playing to the table. The new faces are… a killer engineer Todd Robbins, and the great multi-instrumentalist Phil Madeira. They are both from Nashville and very well-known (click Phil’s name for a link to his wikipedia page… SERIOUS credits on that guy’s resume).

I am definitely feeling out of my league on these sessions, and I’m excited about that… which brings me to the main topic of this post…

The challenge of playing music with people who are better than me is cool on so many levels. First off, I get to see how they work, glean some wisdom from them, and grow a little in my craft. Then, I find myself being pushed to perform on a higher level than I would normally push myself to, which also helps me to improve my ability. I also love the feeling of being the underdog – knowing that I’m the “young new guy” in the room and learning how to rise above the intimidation that comes with that.

Anyway, this should be a good week. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be making music with these guys. If you look real close at the picture above, on my floor tom you’ll see a container of wafer cookies that we used as a shaker on the tune we just tracked.