The Gift (19 page)

The words of the chorus went:

“Wait a minute,

Did I hear you say you’re going far away again?

Try to change it,

I can’t take the lonely nights without your love.”

Maggie thought it would sound good if she and Zak sang
together on the chorus and then traded singing the verses. She wanted Zak to
take a Dobro break on that song too. The band didn’t seem to mind if Zak sat in
on a few songs, the record company didn’t mind either since Zak and his band
had decided to sign with them and Zak was now one of their recording artists.

Abbie and Jerry had recommended that Maggie ask some of
their well-known bluegrass artists to play on her album. Maggie was happy to
take them up on their suggestion, she was especially looking forward to playing
with a young banjo prodigy from New York. He had a progressive sound that she
thought would complement her music. Abbie and Jerry also suggested that Carole
play twin fiddles with an up and coming young fiddler who attended the Berklee
College of Music. Maggie decided that she was going to ask Tucker Travis if he
would sing a duet with her. She still loved the song “Truck Stop Girl” and
wanted to work up a bluegrass version of that song.

The other band members had songs that they wanted to
record too. Jim had written an original song and Carole wanted to play a fiddle
tune called “Elzic’s Farewell” that she especially liked. Spencer wanted to
sing “Little Maggie” and perhaps “I Still Miss Someone”. Between the five of
them, they could easily come up with a dozen tunes to record for the album.

After rehearsing their songs for five days, Maggie and
the bluegrass band felt ready to record in the studio. Maggie, Zak and Justin
left Gabriel with Maggie’s parents and met the other members of Maggie’s band
at the studio. They all introduced themselves to the recording engineer. He
helped them set up the microphones so they could achieve a good sound balance.
Maggie felt somewhat intimidated by the equipment especially the 24-channel mix
console with its rows of faders. But Zak advised her to try to forget about it,
and just pretend that she was home in her living room jamming with her friends.
They ran through a couple of songs just to warm up, and then the engineer
signaled them that he was going to start recording Maggie’s song “Candle in the
Night”.

Maggie was nervous and her voice shook a little during
the first take. She tried singing it again and forgot the words. The engineer
told them to just play through it a couple of times for practice and then they
would try recording it again. But as they played the song, he secretly recorded
it and when they were done he announced that they had gotten a perfect take.
Maggie looked at Zak and laughed. He told her to just relax and that everything
would be fine. Then they went on to record Maggie’s other original song “Light
in the Darkness” and Spencer singing “I Still Miss Someone”. Maggie thought
that Spencer’s voice sounded especially good on that one.

It was getting dark by the time they finished, and
everyone felt happy that they had accomplished a lot for the day. Maggie and
Carole planned to go back to Maggie’s house and practice “Elzic’s Farewell” so
they could record it the next day. They were going to play twin fiddles on
that, a sound that Maggie loved. Maggie didn’t know the tune that well, so
Carole was going to teach it to her.

They were all exhausted when they got back to Maggie’s
house. Her mother had made dinner while they were gone and offered to warm it
up for them. Maggie, Zak, Justin and Carole sat down at the kitchen table and
ate the meatloaf and mashed potatoes enthusiastically. Gabriel had already been
fed and put to bed. Maggie was glad to have a chance to relax for a while.

After dinner, they all went into the living room and
discussed the recording session and what they would do the next day. Zak and
Justin decided to take a walk while Maggie and Carole practiced their fiddle
parts. After about an hour, the women had the tune down sufficiently so that
they thought they would be ready to record it in the studio the next day.

When Zak and Justin got back from their walk, Maggie
noticed that their eyes were suspiciously red. She also recognized the odor
lingering on their clothes. She didn’t say anything though, she knew they had
both been wound up from the recording session and needed to relax. Maggie’s
father told them that there was some cold beer in the refrigerator, so everyone
except Zak had a beer or two and then decided to go to bed early. Carole said
good night and drove back to her motel in the rental car. They all planned to
meet at the studio the next day at noon. Maggie had a hard time getting to sleep,
the songs that they had recorded were echoing in her mind, but after listening
to Zak’s peaceful breathing she eventually fell asleep too.

The second day of recording went even better than the
first. Maggie had gotten over her fear of being in the studio, and was much
more relaxed singing and playing mandolin and fiddle. They decided to work on
the cover of “Wait a Minute” with Maggie and Zak trading vocals and Zak playing
a break on the Dobro. While they were concentrating on recording their vocals,
Abbie and Jerry quietly slipped into the studio control room to listen. Both
Zak and Maggie were in good voice that day and sounded great harmonizing on the
chorus together.

When they were finished, Abbie and Jerry told them they
were pleased with the progress on the album. They then introduced themselves to
Carole and Jim whom they had never met before. They shook hands with Justin and
Spencer who they had met previously when the Bayou Blasters had played at
Jimmie D’s. They then told the band that they would see them tomorrow, they
didn’t want to interrupt them while they were recording.

Maggie and Carole then worked on the fiddle tune “Elzic’s
Farewell”. It took them quite a few takes to get that down perfectly, it was
difficult to play especially at a fast tempo. Spencer and Justin backed them on
guitar and bass, and Jim took a break on banjo. Zak sat with the recording
engineer in the control room as he mixed the recording. As he listened to them
record the fiddle tune, he thought that it would be an interesting addition to
the album.

When they were done recording these two tunes, they
decided to practice Jim’s original song so they could record it the next day.
They also rehearsed “Little Maggie” which Spencer was planning to sing, and
Maggie’s original song “No One Would Have Known”. They ended the session by
discussing some other song possibilities that they might like to record. Carole
suggested that she and Maggie sing the duet “The Sweetest Gift”. Spencer
thought he would like to sing “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight”, a song that he
and Maggie had played at bluegrass jams and was one of their favorites. They
also decided they wanted to record the Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun”
featuring Maggie on vocals and the rising bluegrass star from New York on
banjo. Carole and the fiddle prodigy from Berklee would play the Texas fiddle instrumental “Grey Eagle”. That would give them a dozen tunes which they felt
was sufficient for an album.  They thought it would be a nice balance between
originals and covers and songs and instrumentals.

The next day they recorded Jim’s original song and “Little
Maggie” and on the fourth day they recorded “The Sweetest Gift” and Maggie’s
original song “No One Would Have Known”. On the fifth day, they laid down the
instrumental tracks for “Truck Stop Girl”. Maggie would go back into the studio
later with Tucker Travis to lay down the vocal tracks. On the sixth day, Maggie
and Spencer recorded “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight”. Finally, on day seven
the young banjo player and the fiddler from Berklee came in and recorded their
instrumentals with the band. It took them seven days to record their album. It
suddenly occurred to Maggie that was how many days it took God to create the
world. She found that idea humorous, sometimes it felt like creating the album
was an overwhelming task too.

After the last day of recording, Maggie invited the band
and Abbie and Jerry to come over to her house for a celebratory dinner. Maggie
and Zak made some gumbo and rice, and Maggie’s father made sure there was
plenty of beer and wine. Maggie thanked everyone in the band for working so
hard on the album, and she thanked Abbie and Jerry for having faith in their
music. Maggie told her parents how much she appreciated them taking care of
Gabriel while they were recording. Then she kissed Zak and told him she
appreciated his support during the entire process.

Abbie asked the musicians if they had decided on a name
for the band yet.

“How about Little Maggie, a lot of bluegrass bands name
themselves after songs,” she said.

Maggie was not thrilled with the idea since she didn’t
like being the center of attention.

“We all contributed equally to the album,” she replied. “How
about a name that indicates that, like something with alliance or coalition in
it?”

“How about Joint Effort?” Spencer said and laughed.

Abbie and Jerry laughed too, but then told them the name
was out because of its drug connotations.

Maggie started thinking about the fact that a lot of
bands had names that indicated where they were from geographically. Her band
couldn’t do that because they were from Boston and Louisiana. Suddenly she said
“How about the North-South Coalition?”

Abbie and Jerry said they liked that, but then suggested
“How about Little Maggie and the North-South Coalition?”

Maggie said she didn’t like it because the name was too
long and she didn’t like the focus being on her. But Spencer said, “Maggie, it
was your idea to start the band and you found all the band members. You sing
over 50% of the songs. I think it’s time you step up and accept ownership.”

“Every member of the band made important contributions,”
Maggie responded.

Abbie said “It’s o.k., you don’t have to decide tonight,
but you have to come up with a name soon. We want to get this record out as
soon as possible.”

“Have you decided what you want to call the album?”
Jerry asked.

This was something that they had already discussed and
reached a consensus on. Spencer said, “We like the title of Maggie’s song
‘Light in the Darkness’ and we think that would be a good album title too.”

Abbie and Jerry also liked that idea. They asked the
band to think some more about a band name, and then they said good night.

After Abbie and Jerry left, the band got into a heated
discussion about their name. Everyone liked Little Maggie and the North-South
Coalition except Maggie. They said a lot of bluegrass bands had a female
leader, usually the woman who sang the most songs. In their group, that was
Maggie. This made Maggie uncomfortable. It reminded her of high school orchestra
when she had to take on the role of first violinist and concert mistress. She
didn’t quite feel that she deserved the leadership role in this group either,
everyone else was at least as good a musician as she was and probably better.
But the rest of the band overrode her objections. They felt the name got across
the concept that they were a bluegrass band from the North and South and that
Maggie was the spokesperson for the band. That much was true, so Maggie finally
acquiesced. Zak laughed to himself during this debate. He knew that the name
would end up getting shortened to Little Maggie and it would drive Maggie
crazy.

Everyone was relieved that the recording process was
over. Jim and Carole were looking forward to going back to Louisiana. But first
the record company wanted the band to meet with a photographer so they could
get some photos for the album cover and for publicity stills. The photographer
suggested that he meet the band at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln which was less than
half an hour from Maggie’s parents’ house. He wanted to take photos of the band
using the barns and animals as a back drop.

The first shot that he took was a group photo in front
of a red barn. The photographer insisted that Maggie stand in the center of the
shot with Spencer next to her and the other band members standing on the
periphery. Both Maggie and Spencer were extremely photogenic, Maggie with her
waist-length blonde hair and Spencer with his long, curly black hair. The
contrast between the two of them was visually arresting and you really didn’t
notice anyone else in the photo.

The photographer took some individual shots of Maggie
too. In one of the shots, he had her pose in the doorway of the barn. She was
wearing a low-cut gauzy white dress and the late afternoon sun shone through
the flimsy material so that you could see the outline of her body through her
dress. Because the photo was taken from the front, Maggie’s pregnancy wasn’t
obvious. Maggie didn’t realize it when she was posing, but it was an extremely
sexy shot. The photographer knew that Abbie and Jerry would want to use this
photo, either on the back of the album or in the publicity stills. He wasn’t so
sure that Maggie would be happy about it however.

The next day, Jim and Carole flew home to Louisiana. Zak, Justin and Spencer decided that they would hang around while the album was
being mixed so they could have some input as to the final sound. Maggie was
happy to leave that up to them. She wanted to spend time with Gabriel and her
parents and relax after the demanding week of recording.

The recording wasn’t quite done however. Maggie still
had to get together with Tucker Travis to put down the vocal tracks on “Truck
Stop Girl”. They discussed on the phone whether she should fly down to Nashville or whether Tucker should come up to Boston. He told Maggie that he was feeling
lazy and would just prefer it if she would come stay with him and do the
recording in the studio at his home. Tucker told her that she could stay at the
guest house on his estate, that he would enjoy the company.