Mike and I completed two songs-Georgia on My Mind, and Tangerine, and I posted them to myspace.com/alisondonahue and our cello-bella.com web site. We produced these ourselves, so we are hoping to make these available as free downloads from this site soon. Look for the links to download coming soon...!

Today, Alison and I reworked some tracks and mixed down "Georgia On My Mind" and "Tangerine". Best of all we did it in CuBase, so it's DIGITAL. Watch this space (and our web page) for availability.

Down in the basement

Yesterday, Alison came over to my house and we spent about 4 hours in my basement studio. We used my (obsolete) Tascam 4 track tape studio, just for practice. I also have a Lexicon Omega with CuBase down there hooked to a PC, but I'm still getting used to using it, no easy task. Rather than make Alison sit there and watch me struggle, we just went to the old-fashioned tape machine.

I was once again struck by her interesting approach to music. When we start work on a new song, she can always come up with something musical "off the cuff" that improves each time we practice it. After just a few times, she is amazing me with something so original and imaginative. So, she was laying down a cello track and I was suddenly keenly aware of how lucky I am to be working with her making music. We recorded "Tangerine" and "Georgia On My Mind". As we worked on Georgia, I kept hearing mandolin, so after she left, I added some. I really like the result.

One of our great fans said our sound is a combination of "Django and Bob Wills". I looked up Bob and found his site--Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, http://www.texasplayboys.net/ and decided to morph that moniker to fit us. How about Cello-bella! and her Texas Playboy!

Here's a link to a Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys track I found that's scored to a Three Stooges video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGKvobvlnMU

It was posted on Youtube by Jaxom98125

Alison

Alison:
Hope all moms got a nice break yesterday. I spent part of mine at my son's soccer tournament, and it was a great day here in MI to be sitting in the sun. Thanks to everyone who sent us emails requesting a CD of our music. We have one in the works and will let you know as soon as it's available. Some of the emails we got as a result of the radio interview on "The Story with Dick Gordon" were really touching. It has been very exciting knowing that our music connects with others. I can't bear to watch the news anymore, it's so dreary. We do find refuge in what we are doing musically. I'm not looking for a big escape, just a temporary "emotional shelter" from the economic tsunami blowing through here. Hopefully we can be a port in the storm for others too.

I visited with my family out in South Lyon today after a gig in Harrison Township, basically driving from one end of SE Michigan to the other. Showed off our appearance on "The Story" yesterday. Especially cool was the fact that my aunt Suzie, who was mentioned in the interview as the bobby-soxer (look it up), was there, so we got to reminisce about the good old days when I was three.

New Directions Cello Association

I'm a member of the New Directions Cello Association. It's a group of cellists that are exploring alternative ways of performing on the cello. They have a workshop coming up in June 5-7 in Ithaca NY that includes some great artists: Jody Redhage, Corbin Keep, Rufus Cappadocia, Jody Redhage, Stephen Katz, Claude Lamonthe, and Abby Newton. There will be some sessions on playing and singing at the same time, which is something I'm working on developing. For more info, visit their web site at http://www.newdirectionscello.com/

Cello-Bella

Last Saturday afternoon 5/2, we had a great time at the Detroit Zoo playing in the MamapaZooza Festival with 2 other bands, Girls Night Out and The Mydols. We played a lot of our favorite "old songs for the New Depression" as well as some newer ones that were kid favorites. It was fun watching all the kid jumping around and dancing. Our friend Craig Strain joined us on electric bass.