Dreams Out of Dust

Well that’s it. The new Wishbone Ash compact disc was mastered in London last night. I couldn’t be there for the event but it was in capable hands. I guess the session took about 7 hours. There are many things to take care of in mastering and it’s a highly specialized job, putting the shine and polish on a work very dear to the artist. An album may have been a year or two in the making and cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars / pounds to a few hundred thousand. The mastering engineers, these back room boffins, really earn their money and have final control over what you hear on the actual CD. Things like audio level, fidelity, gaps between the tracks, fade ins and fade outs etc.

Of course, we in the band have now all listened to the music umpteen times and need a little rest from it. You will all, very soon, start that process of listening, letting it gestate, comparing, deciding, rejecting, applauding, wondering… What fun all of this is. Dreams out of dust. I used to love the old days of a vinyl LP release, getting the thing in your hands for the first time, checking out the hidden details and signals, the sleeve notes / liner notes and artwork. It’s a little different with CDs but still a thrill. A lady in my local town tax office told me she was turning some of her old LP covers into framed artwork for her grandchildren. She mentioned Van Halen and others and boy did I start to feel old ‘cause we go back way before that. But in another way, it feels really good. It’s like having done something with your life. I’m sure everyone who has been in this band and others like it, feels the same way…you know, kind of like leaving your stamp for all eternity. To me that’s real success beyond money or anything as crass as that. Of course, not all of it is praiseworthy but it’s human and if you fling enough of it against the wall then just some of it might actually stick..ha.. ha.. A little more is revealed each time, like making another cut in a gem stone or shaping a sculpture.

Wishbone Ash often makes me wonder to myself. It’s definitely mystical, this band. Even the name itself. It’s got contradiction in it – yin and yang, fortune and sorrow, life and death, hope and dreams, a blessing and a curse – all of this. I’ve witnessed it all right from the beginning. I’ve seen how it’s been shaped by it’s large cast of characters with their personalities, egos, talents, relationships, needs, wants, neuroses, generosity, greediness, love, hate, kindness…I could go on and on since it’s been a palette, this band, for all of the emotions and a great deal of human experience that makes up life. I’m grateful to all of them and feel very fortunate to have seen life through this vehicle and it’s STILL not over – amazing! Of course it’s not only the band, it’s now the greater community that we’ve created and you the fans are all an integral part of it. You can run but ya can’t hide.

Right, that’s enough of that. I just woke up from a restless sleep and penned these notes. It’s been really hot and humid here in the North East the last few days, quite uncharacteristic for September. It’s 2.00a.m. and I’ve just realised it’s 9/11 already. A day to remember and reflect on. I guess we can all remember what the day was like in 2001. I don’t think there can have been a brighter, clearer day, weatherwise. Living an hour or so from New York, I never saw the sky so blue…Technicolor…life before and life after, forever changed, a defining moment for the world and America. God bless us all. G’night.