To round off my awesome week of musical adventures, the band and I went to Al Fresco Place Recording Studio to begin recording a new studio record!

First of all, I love Al Fresco Place Studio. It’s one of the most laid back and comfortable studios I’ve been in. And Jeff Carpenter, the owner, engineer and more, is so great to work with.
The new studio album is called “Sobering.” It’s actually an older collection of songs and it’s getting a new life with the help of Jeff at Al Fresco Studio and the Kevin, Butch and John of the Nick Peay Band.

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The next musical adventure last week was my monthly couch concert series, Live From Your Living Room. This month I was excited to have Mark Kramer, of Tender Mercy, who just released a new album on cassette called, “Sacred Sphinx.”

I’ve always loved Mark’s musical style, his sparse, echoey chordings and reverby vocals. His new album, “Sacred Sphinx,” is fantastic. He played several songs from it during the live part of Live From Your Living Room. We ended up play about 50 minutes, which is a bit longer than usual, but I just love listen to Mark’s music.

After the live portion, we sat and talked about Mark’s background and songwriting style. I was really interested to know what led Mark to the sparseness of his songs. And I was totally surprised by the answer!

You can watch the live video from Live From Your Living Room below. Make sure to check out the full podcast at Live From Your Living Room or subscribe and download the podcast on iTunes.