Trying To Get Through To You pt 2.

I get to Toronto amid a terribly cold time in December but was eager to go forward with the recording there. We were thinking that a choral arrangement would add a depth to the song and thus a friend of Victor's helped us with the publicity. Reaching out through all our connections we had about 25 of some of the best vocalists show up that cold evening at the CBC studio's in downtown Toronto.

The prior evening (11 pm) I got a call from the producer we had hired stating that he wasn't "feeling" the song and was just asking if I could take the track back from him. The track has a number of elements that were very concerning at the time but they're had already been work on it and included in the mix was a famous guitarist who himself declined after recording his rhythm parts on it declined wanting any acknowledgement that he was involved in it. This saddened me terribly as that as much as he did a favor for us he was perhaps uncomfortable with the track and possibly Michael's involvement. Hard to say as that I never got to talk with him after the fact.

So, I had a tune that was promoted and set for a recording session in Toronto the next day and I still wasn't happy with the outcome of the track. Lyrically it was great but otherwise challenging. I talked to the producer en-route to his apartment studio about stripping down what we had to a basic beat and no guitar, etc.. getting this simple track open to the layering of harmonies needed to build it up. I grabbed it and ran to the CBC studio to meet with Victor, Michael and the 25 musicians.

Included in the "cool canadian ensemble" were a mix of blues, hip hop, rock, jazz, rock, etc.. they're were canadian idol finalists (thanks to Farley Flex) like Daniel Panetta and raggae artists like Tanya Mullings.Humble. Good friend Angelica Mileto (fantastic performer/voice who kept right up with Liberty). We even had the luxury of the wonderful Liberty Silver and her 6 1/2 octave range.

Victor took on the role of choir director while Michael parlayed his thoughts on the tone of the song. The vocals came together well, overdubs of key vocals were tracked and off I went to LA to try and salvage the song. I was meeting up with Ted Jacobs at his studio to do another track "Roger" and had this in hand to see what we could do...

Randy Grossman

www.hwhrecords.com