Two days before Thanksgiving I sent the final files to Stephen Tefft upon his completion of 16 songs. Yes, it does barely fit on one CD – over 79 minutes, but it sounds like it will be released as two discs. I’m very sure I’ve never in the 35-year history of Tesco Productions recorded that quantity of songs in a single project before. His wife had gifted him some recording time a while back, but life and family responsibilities had pushed the doing part down the road (there’s even a song about a long slow road – although not about the project). The recording began the day after Independence Day and we spent a good part of that week laying down all the basic tracks. This included multiple acoustic guitars (up to 4 on a couple of songs), bass and electric guitar, and most of the vocal parts. We generally met one evening a week for the next few months as we continued to add an eclectic collection of instruments from standard and bass harmonicas, banjo, jews harp, penny whistle, melodica (to name some of them), and a wide assortment of percussion. Stephen recorded some of these parts at his home and they usually lined up OK when we dropped them in the original recording sessions. We had tried to coordinate this process so it was as seamless as possible. The final few weeks were mostly focused on initial and revised mixes – with the first full mix runoff providing focused listening on their family vacation trip. With mixes completed I then mastered all the songs and there was only one oversight I missed which was easily remedied.

You can likely tell just from the instrumentation these tunes are not always your “normal” fare of lyric, arrangement and presentation. In your lyrical journey you’ll travel down paths of heart longings, relationships (both with God and each other), memories of childhood, and hope for tomorrow. There’s about as many styles as there are instruments, and yet it’s still a cohesive listening experience as you progress through. The songs aren’t out yet, but will be showing up soon on many internet streaming sites as well as their family website https://www.abitaskew.com/.

Yesterday a unique recording was made capturing the heart of Carmelita de la Guardia as she performed an original creation. Her song The Sicilian Heart was very nicely presented on a baby grand piano at a local recital room. Carmelita’s motivation for writing and documenting this song is a reflection on her family’s life in Italy and ultimately their immigration to America – complete with its struggles, joys, opportunities and living life together.

A video recording was also made by another person so a very pleasing product will be available for a December Gala release. You can find out more about Carmelita’s music and artist events on Facebook and many internet music sites. There’s also a prior post exactly 7 years ago here on the Tesco Productions website.

Near the middle of this month I was able to get away and road trip with three other men to a friend’s ranch near Pierre, SD. These trips are always an adventure and this one was no exception. Here’s a pic that’s at least one clue (no this isn’t an iron horse).

This particular ranch property is set up as an outreach and resource to connect people to each other, to the struggles we all have inside our lives, and ultimately to God our creator. So there’s always plenty of projects that facilitate the development and maintenance of the wide ranging “tools” that facilitate those goals. In the process of meeting people where they’re at, learning through talks, studies, comradeship and participation, both volunteers and attendees of events benefit.

During this particular volunteer time one of the projects was to finish prepping some cedar poles to be used as porch supports for a house that will likely be built next year. The original home was damaged this year beyond salvage by broken plumbing. So I’m seen here making my debut run captaining a rather large machine. The logs were successfully moved and many of them ground, trimmed, sanded and stained. Along the way there was much opportunity to wake up each day in a very quiet setting (nice for someone who’s always listening), and be reminded that “His mercies are new every morning”. (Lamentations 3:22-23)