Good day in the studio.  I finished mixing all but the last tracks–“Cat and Rat” and an alternate version of “Scouring the Shire” with percussion.  All of the other songs are awaiting mastering.

Nathan Deese of the band Barrowburn is adding additional instrumentation to those two songs.

“Cat and Rat” was written like it was from Grimm's Fairy Tales but in song.  I wanted something in the great folk tradition of personification.  So she wrote this lesson about straying from home and added a cat because of my musical history with them. 😉

It came out a little like a story ballad, sorta like “Rose”.  I asked Rie Sheridan Rose to write “Rose” based on the idea of the song “Tam Lin”.   If you haven't heard “Tam Lin”, listen to Show #17 of the Pub Songs Podcast.  It's a traditional song and was recorded by Nick Hennessey for his album Of Fire, Wind and Silver Stream.  I LOVE that performance.

“Cat and Rat” seems similar to me, but it has more instrumentation than just vocals.  Originally, I just had autoharp and vocals, but it just wasn't doing it for me.  Bodhran didn't work either.  Nor did the first whistle track recorded for it.  Nathan recorded a new whistle part and different percussion.  He's also adding octave mandolin.

I love the sound of “Scouring the Shire” as you might've heard it on the Pub Songs Podcast.  However, it's such a rocking song, it could easily be turned into some sort of Celtic rock piece with the right percussion.  So that's what Nathan is gonna try out for me.

I decided to cut “Hobbit's Breakfast”.  It's a cute idea.  It's a folk song sung in a round.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't sound good enough for the rest of the songs on the album.  Maybe I'll do something else with it.  For now, it's cut.

Now the toughest thing is determine the song order.  Typically, I like to put the best songs first.  Then I scatter tracks where they sound best.

The title track, “Don't Go Drinking With Hobbits,” would be great as a starting song, but it is already the first song on What Color Is Your Dragon?.  I don't want to have two albums with the same first track.  I already did that with The Bridge and Soul of a Harper.

With 20 tracks to choose from, it's tough to find those placements.

Meantime, I think I'm still on schedule to officially release the album on Bilbo Baggins' birthday, September 22nd.  I'd hate to not have the album at ALEP 2: There & Back Again.  (Don't miss this event.  I won't!)