In September 2019, we recorded live Blood Moon, Lucifer, Unwritten Tune, She’s On To You, Higher In the Blue, Wind Blows and Hope at my cabin in Mio, Michigan over a weekend. This is their story.
Charging bears, frog swamps, big fish and campfire jams all played a role in the sound on The Night Wild. My dream was fulfilled, as I finally got the opportunity to record at my childhood cabin in Mio, Michigan. All four band members and engineer Chris Stoll headed north for a weekend, where over 3 jams, we recorded 7 songs. Blood Moon, Lucifer and The Strange, She's On To You, Unwritten Tune, Wind Blows, Higher in the Blue and Hope were all recorded there live in our makeshift studio.
Saturday night, after a long day of fishing, partying and recording, we went for a 1 am night hike to the frog swamp to hear the symphony. As beautiful a sound as you'll hear, echoing in the silence of the old growth Huron National Forest. The first part of the hike was on the dirt 2 track, easy going, but Roach heard something in the woods and didn't want to enter the deer path to the swamp. We all laughed and walked a half mile more up the trail through a section of woods we call The Serengeti, ridiculing Roach the whole way of course. On the way back we finally had him convinced to go off trail to the frog swamp. A couple hundred yards into blackness, flashlights lighting the way, a baby black bear about a foot taller than the ferns, 20 yards out, charged. Being in the deep of the woods, running was not a option. Me and Pat were first and stood our ground. The bear closed to 10 yards and then took a sharp veer to the left and disappeared into the blackness. Worried about the mother, surely lurking, we all quickly turned the other way and made our way out the woods. Laughing our asses off the whole way back, adrenaline like we've never felt, pulsing through our veins. The energy amongst us the rest of the night was so high, everyone was lit up like Christmas trees, telling stories and recanting the tale. We all headed home the next day, glowing in our experiences and proud of our conquests.
We recorded the other four songs, Soul is the Sun, The Silence, Rollin Hills, Fertile Valley, and An Outlaw and His Mask, live, in an evening at The Rockershop in Toledo, Ohio. I later overdubbed vocals, a couple guitar leads with Pat and mixed the album over the next few months in The Rockershop with Chris.
This video is that story, one we'll never forget, one we're happy to share, hope you enjoy.