After getting all the CD giveaway entries together, we have drawn a winner! Congratulations, Abigail F. for winning our CD giveaway!
Tomorrow morning, your brand new CD will be shipped off and headed your way!
Enjoy!
CD Giveaway!!!
Here it is! Our first ever Johnson Strings giveaway! You can get yourself a free copy of our new Johnson Strings CD shipped directly to you IF you are the winner of this drawing!
How to enter:
1. Go to http://www.thejohnsonstrings.com/contact-us/ , fill in your name and email address, and type "CD Giveaway" in the message box! (One entry per person, but, if you share this on any social media, let us know and we'll give you a second entry into the drawing!)
2. Congratulate yourself on your successful entry! That's all there is to it!
3. Depending on the number of entries received, we may decide to award a second CD!
4. You have until 11:59 pm on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 to enter. That's only one week, so enter now!!
You just might be a winner. You never know unless you try. Besides, what do you have to lose?
Winner(s) will be randomly selected and notified by email.
CD Giveaway Next Week!
Life has been hectic around here lately. Hence, the shortage of blog posts...not that nothing has been happening! Actually, it's quite the contrary! We have had many adventures. Several fun ones and a few...um...uh....not so much fun. (That's an understatement.) If possible, I will schedule in some time tomorrow to tell you about one adventure. Van Gogh didn't go, so we were seriously stranded! More on that later.
The title of this post gives you a heads-up on an upcoming web event! A CD Giveaway! Keep your eyes peeled for the details coming next week!
That's all until tomorrow!
What you've been waiting for!!!!!
Well, I hope it's what you've been waiting for! Our new Johnson Strings CD is available for pre-order at a $3 discount (the equivalent of FREE shipping)!
This offer will only be available until we have our new CD back from the pressing plant. So, hurry if you want to SAVE $3!
Be one of the FIRST to own our new CD!
We're so excited!
Pre-order by CLICKING HERE or on the image below!
http://www.thejohnsonstrings.com/latest-cd-the-johnson-strings/the-johnson-strings
Is the CD done yet???
Answer: Not quite. But it's coming.
It's a long process! Right now we are waiting to get the final master copy. Once we get that, we will ship a copy off to get it duplicated.
I am almost finished with the graphic design of the disc, insert, inside, and back cover. Those will all be proofread for the second and third times by almost everyone in our family.
Then, we will get into CD production mode while waiting on the discs... We do all the printing, perforating, cutting, folding, inserting, checking, shrink-wrapping, labeling, and packing ourselves. Anyone want to come over and spend a bunch of hours with us on this task???
That's all I have time for this week! I hope you are having a marvelous day!
The COOLEST music ever!
The cold is finally leaving us (maybe)! As spring is approaching, we are thinking about Easter and Christ's resurrection, so it is only proper that I post a few pictures from Christmas, the celebration of our Lord coming to earth.
(Pretty good excuse to use pictures I never got around to using at Christmas, right?)
I'd have to say, it was really cold doing the unloading and packing up for this concert! But, the warmth of the people there more than made up for our shivering.
Take a look at this music! Isn't it just about the best music you've ever seen?
What a church!
Nope. We didn't try to play the music. I wonder if anyone ever has recorded it...
Here's a close-up for your inspection.
CD project update:
Right now, the CD is being mixed by our engineer, and we are working on figuring out the order of the songs. I am designing the new CD cover, insert, back, and disc. The last of the song royalties are being payed, and we are excited about the approaching release!
Wishing you a wonderful day and a joyous spring season.
"And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said." Matthew 28:5-6a
He Is RISEN!
Our Second Adventure at Brookwood Recording Studio in Michigan
We are finally back home again! It was a longer trip this time because... well, I'll explain later.
After driving the 8+ hours, we arrived at our hotel, unloaded and... you guessed it! We practiced until 11 pm! The Best Western staff were kind enough to open up the dining hall so that we wouldn't disturb any other guests.
Yep. Practicing is what we've been doing round the clock lately.
Next morning, we started recording our first song at Brookwood Recording Studio with David Lau. While listening to and coaching us after each take, he made the discovery that somehow, when we were re-arranging our arrangements in preparation for the CD, a couple bogus notes had crept in!!! Out came the White-Out and Abigail went to work.
Oops.
The problem? Getting the stuff to come out properly!
After some laughs, we finally got enough white-out on the page and got on with the recording.
Next came lunch, then more recording and then going back to the previous session's takes and telling David which ones we wanted. He is SUPER fast (and good!) on those computers.
Then it was back to the hotel, supper, part of a movie, some truffles, and then listening for a long time to all the day's work in the studio.There were many decisions to make on what would go onto the CD. After all, it's on there forever! Kinda scary. And, we had to finish the CD by the end of the next day.
One quick portrait of the group + David Lau, our recording engineer before we hit the road.
During the time when the rest of us were recording one song, the guys played Rook, a really old, fun game.
While we were doing a take, David would be sitting with the score and writing in what takes were best in which places and any mistakes he heard. Such a great help!
Thanks David!
Click on a photo to view it full screen and then use the arrows on the right and the left...
In the early evening we were finished, and started driving. Only instead of going home, we headed east, drove to the coast, and then started back, driving for almost 26 hours non-stop. Very exhausting.
Find out why in next week's edition of the Johnson Strings news!
At the Studio: Recording the first half of our NEW CD!
We are back from our whirlwind recording trip to Ann Arbor located near Detroit, Michigan! Thank you for your prayers! The project is coming along fantastically!
On Sunday, after church AND after Abigail played in her piano recital, we drove over 8 hours to our hotel in Ann Arbor, the Red Roof Inn. Yep. We were tired. BUT, we had a great story CD to listen to during the hours in the van.
The night passed quickly and we were up early getting ready for the day. After a nice breakfast at Big Boy, we drove to the studio, arriving around 9:00 AM. As you can see from the photos, Brookwood Recording Studio is beautiful with huge painted canvas murals on the walls - very inspirational! The canvas painting behind the piano was actually used in a 1951 Hollywood movie!
We set up, recorded, listened to get an idea of our sound, recorded, broke for a quick lunch, recorded some more, etc. In between lots of the "takes" there were short breaks to check our instrument tuning. After all, they need to be perfectly in tune for the CD!
By the time supper came around, we were quite worn out and Daddy took us out for a wonderful meal at Karl's Cabin. Shrimp... crab... scallops... pasta... spinach... wild mushrooms... 3 cheese stuffed pasta... roasted red pepper cream sauce... YUM!
Then it was... back to the studio to record one last song: Luke's banjo solo. Check out the photo below of Luke in his "cage/playpen" :) His sound had to be isolated at least somewhat from the rest of the group.
Finally, after a great, informative talk with our sound engineer, David Lau, we hit the road for about an hour before finding a hotel and falling into bed.
By morning, we were greatly refreshed and went for a swim in the deserted heated pool after enjoying the complementary breakfast.
We packed up, and drove, making one short detour to The Chocolate Garden, a highlight of our trip for sure. After purchasing a few tastes, truffles, and a specialty hot chocolate, we were back on the road. (As food connoisseurs, we are always looking for new flavor combinations to duplicate at home!) Driving conditions weren't that great. It was snowing once again, which made the trip longer than normal. But, we arrived home safely!
We are now crazily practicing for our 2nd and final recording session!
Click on an image to view it full screen and then use the arrows on the sides of the page...
They did have a LOT of snow in Michigan! Don't those truffles make your mouth water?
Recording Studio Update!
Installment #3 in our recording saga...
Abigail found another studio where we can record our CD! (albeit over 8 hours away!) Praise the Lord! We were able to get a couple of dates in the near future that will work with our schedule!
One of the exciting points about this studio is that it specializes in classical recordings rather than rock, pop, and jazz. Our new sound engineer says he'll be able to get more depth in this recording than we've had in our other four CD's!
The studio is happy to work with us and it seems like it will be an amazing fit. We are looking forward to our trip to the Detroit area! Since this studio is so much farther away, we will have to consolidate everything into 2 trips instead of 3. Hmmm.... that sounds like more practicing coming up...
