Welcome to week 5! It's a little bananas that I have been able to keep this on schedule (so far) and get to this point. Normally, I feel like I would have gotten lazy or distracted, but it's been nice keeping up with this.

This week's song is "When it Rains" by Paramore. I had met these folks in passing, probably 15 years or so ago, and then a couple more times when they toured with my good pals in Hit The Lights. As fate would have it, my band back then, The Showcase, actually got to play the last few shows of that tour, which was right before the band went in to make the album that would blow them up, Riot! I didn't really attach to this record when it came out. As a 20 year old kid who was struggling to find his place in music, it felt like they weren't part of my community anymore, but I honestly think I was just angry and being a brat. I had heard the singles, obviously, but it took a few years for me to hear this song, and when I did, oh boy, was I so into it.

This one is the first time I've done a more intense collaboration with other people, and the first one that I had folks send me tracks to mix/edit with the stuff I've tracked here. For the bass, I had the pleasure of working with my dear friend, and Mercy Union band mate, Nick Jorgensen, and he absolutely slayed it. He heard things I wouldn't have been able to recognize and gave me a perfect track within a day or so; the guy is a pro. And, he did it without any kind of fancy set up; just a direct signal, so all I really had to do was add a little color to make it shine right.

I was able to get my pal Blake Wyland, who some may know from his podcast, The Tone Mob, his other podcast, Chasing Tone, or just from his place in the music gear world, to throw down some rhythm guitars. Blake hasn't recorded anything in a while, and expressed some uncertainty in his ability, but he was gracious enough to fit tracking into his schedule (work, kids, life!) and did a really great job. His track, which was done with a beautiful Whalehazard guitar into his Benson Vincent, really added a nice chunky dirt tone to give the song some body, as well as some complimentary chord voicings. Without his track, I don't know if it would have been as lush.

Now, Allison and I have been together for three and a half years, which is nuts and way longer than anyone else I've ever been with, but for a number of reasons, we've never been able to do something musical together. She has a theatre background, and sings all the time, but had never been recorded, nor has she sung a song like this, but when the project started to come together, I thought it would be really cool for her to do it. Honestly, for her first time in this scenario, she did a really great job. She took direction well, she didn't get discouraged, and she was able to figure out things that worked for her. Her voice isn't tuned or overly processed; just a little reverb and compression really, and there are parts of the performance that I immediately reacted to with excitement. On top of all of this, we had a crazy weird glitch happen and I lost everything she did, and she came back down and did it all again, even better than the first time.

This is the first cover that has been tuned to Eb, which is what Mercy Union plays in, and thus a bunch of my normal go-to guitars are set up for. I got to finally just play without using capos or having to make adjustments, and literally from the second I plugged my Nash tele into my Slick-18, it was the exact tone I was looking for. I layered in my Black Falcon into the OD-75 to give a little extra clarity, and I really love how it turned out.

As I look back on everything I've done this month, I see such a step forward in my ability and I'm really happy about that. Listening to the first cover, and then listening to this one is like night and day. I've also learned things about workflow, planning and overall efficiency that are definitely going to help with everything that comes next. We have a bunch of great songs coming, as well as more guests and collaborators that I'm so excited to get to work with, because not only do I respect the hell out of them, but it's just nice to get to do stuff with friends in this crazy time.

This will be the last song/day to contribute to the Movement for Black Lives before we switch to another charity doing great work for our country and world. The few dollars I've been able to collect through this project will go to something that we desperately need in our society: people devoting their lives to care for everyone, and especially those who have been forgotten for too long.

Thank you all so so much for participating in this, and supporting it. I know it's a bit weird to release documentation of your own growing pains as a musician, but you have been so kind and encouraging.

See you in August.

Rocky