2nd installment of Phil on his Idolchatter blog!

Phil's Pages: 2nd installment

Here's the second blog entry from Phil, who's also celebrating the debut this week of his single, If You Didn't Love Me, on the country chart at No. 55:

Thanks for all your great feedback and encouragement last week on my first blog. I saw that several of you wanted to hear more about the new record and being in the studio, so here goes…

After a week of visiting country radio stations in Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison, Green Bay and Milwaukee, I went back into the studio this past weekend.

Wayne Kirkpatrick is producing the album -– he’s produced the last two Little Big Town albums -– and we’re recording out at his studio. It’s probably not what you would imagine if you were thinking of a Nashville recording studio. It’s in a wooded neighborhood outside of town -– you wouldn’t even notice it was there if you didn’t know to look for it. We’ve already recorded three songs, including my single, If You Didn’t Love Me. This week, we put down vocal tracks for three more. We have to have everything recorded and delivered in March and the CD will be in stores on April 15.

I think a lot of people are expecting me to go towards a pop-country sound with my album. My goal, though, is to make it as roots-driven as I possibly can. Wayne’s a master at that elemental, organic sound. Everywhere else in Nashville, they’re using ProTools and all this digital stuff, but Wayne still does his records on a two-inch tape machine. He’s recording to a 24-track analog recorder. He said he built the studio with all the equipment that he learned to record on, so he doesn’t see any reason to change as long as he still likes the way it sounds. There are no synthesizers on the album, at least not at this point. He just brings in great musicians to lay down great tracks.



Chris McHugh is on the drums. He travels with Keith Urban and plays on his records. Jimmie Lee Sloas is on bass guitar. Phil Madeira plays organ on the album. My favorite artist of all time is Rich Mullins, and he played on all of his records back in the ’80s.

Gordon Kennedy plays electric guitars, which is cool because I’m a big Garth Brooks fan. When I was watching one of Garth’s Kansas City concerts recently, Gordon was up there rocking the lead guitar and I’m thinking, “That’s the same guy who’s playing on my record!” I felt really cool. I’m not really cool, but I felt that way.

Dan Dugmore is playing steel guitar, which is a huge thrill because he’s played on pretty much everything James Taylor has released since ’71 or ’72. He definitely adds a Southern spark every time he comes in. We listen to his steel-guitar track solos and they just make you feel like you’re floating.

A relative newcomer to Nashville, Randy Kohrs, is playing dobro. He sounds like a seasoned veteran. He plays a dobro solo in the middle of one of the tracks that we have down. I was lying on the studio couch, almost drifting off, when he started playing his solo. Hearing it was like having a shot of caffeine bolt through my body.

Wayne’s pretty much playing everything else on the album.

I got to watch the Miami auditions last week and saw two Jacksonville girls -- Corliss Smith and Brittany Wescott -– so I’ll be rooting for them as long as they’re on the show. Got to show a little hometown love.

This week I’ll be in Florida visiting radio stations all throughout the state. My last stop will be Jacksonville, so I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces this week.

Also, I’m going to shoot the music video for If You Didn’t Love Me in a few days. Roman White, who directed Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats and All-American Girl, is directing. We’ve also got more recording to do, so I should have a lot to cover for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for all your support! Talk to you then.

Posted at 11:46 AM/ET, February 04, 2008 in Phil Stacey | Permalink
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