Old Denny Music

D Major Instrumental
Don Shelton played drums, likely mic'd with one or two $20 Radio Shack mics. I borrowed Tom Green's old Dokorder four track for a weekend and I probably also had borrowed Ed Fliege's Fender Rhodes. Bass was my old Jazz bass plugged direct into the mic preamps on the 4 track. You can hear me coughing on the beginning, I think I had a bad cold, and I've always blamed that one really loud bad note on a sneeze while I was shooting the guitar track.

Fine Line
My first tune working with Dan Gherna and probably my first really polished sounding recording on my TEAC 3340, recorded out at my trailer on North Prospect. This one won a radio contest over in Indianapolis, launching Dan and my recording project to instant local fame (relatively speaking). Dan sang, Tom Green played drums, Roger Prillaman played the B3, and Roger Freise and Dody Cosmedy sang backups.

Dan's recollections: I recall you saying - wouldn't it be nice if we were able to play an original song in the Ray (nimrick) Dew Drop band. The cheesy 'round' thing and you were kind enough to write 'Headfirst' around it. I remember the day they called Tower Hobbies to tell me we had won the album contest, I thought we were all going to be stars within a couple of months. lol. In retrospect, it's almost too bad we did the Riker thing.

Karen
Dan's tune, fun Elvis Costello-esque thing, written about this pouty little blond he was seeing at the time. Tom Green played drums, there's some Dody on the backing vocals, I played the organ line on an old Farfisa. More fine Radio Shack mics and trailer acoustics.

Dan's comments: The Farfisa. You talked me into giving up menthol cigs the night we did vocals and Karen sat on the floor and watched.

Stand There
Hot on the tail of the radio contest, I needed a follow-up hit and wrote this rather bombastic little number. Got some cool parts, but overall a little heavy handed I'd say. My brother was in town and did a drum track for me, quite a nice drum track really, with my now trademark Radio Shack mic drum sound with trailer ambience. I played both guitar and bass thru an old Leslie. I still remember working on the guitar solo tracks in the morning before going to my car stereo installation job. Got home and sure wished I'd tuned up better, but I never went back. Dan sang it, Roger Prillaman and Dody did backing vocals, and you can really hear Roger on the last chorus kicking in the emphatic "How can you..." bit.

Dan remembers: I was in awe of Keith's drumming. I recall spending the night on your couch and you played 10cc "I'm not alone" and Small Faces 'Itchykoo Park" as wake up tunes. Still love both of those songs. Thought Stand there would be the 2nd single.

Vertical Expression of a Horizontal Idea
I booked Roger Prillaman and Paul Creighton to come out and sing this and I was frantically scribbling lyrics in a notebook when they arrived. Luckily they were the two perfect guys to breath life into this wacky song, immediately taking it to Frank Zappa land. I'd recorded the rhythm bed over at Tom Green's basement studio, probably on his TEAC 3440. Tom Green is on drums, and there's a bass solo recorded at half speed where I didn't have enough tracks and didn't punch out quite in time, stomping on the first beat of the last chorus vocals. Ah, the joys of four tracking!

Toys
By this time I was moved into 303 S. Elm and had put enormous effort into building a studio in the garage there. Tom Green played the drums, I just used the room sound of that studio for the backwards "reverb" on the toms. Dody sang it-- I think I was listening to Pat Benatar or something. It's got one of my fave guitar solos I've played, very Boston-eque, nice tone from my homebuilt Marshall, with me standing right in the little isolation booth with the cabinet to get the little bit of feedback. Two guys from Apaloosa that Dody knew came over to sing the backups, I forget their names.

Give That Girl a Chance
This was my first tune ever working with Keith Harden. Rick Cummings played the drums, Keith played guitar, and I played bass. I think I was going for a kinda Boz Scaggs thing on this or something. Diane sang background vocals on the choruses. It's a particularly grainy sounding thing, so I suspect I may have gone an extra bounce to get all the tracks in there at Cram-It-On-A-Four-Track studios.

Can't Have It Both Ways
I think my influence at the time was the Rolling Stones "Shattered" tune. Keith Harden sang it, Rick Cummings played drums, and I slightly sped up the track during mixing, something I tended to do back then to try to make the track sound more alive and exciting.

Tricia
More heavy use of the little Korg synth, and likely my first drum track using a modified Drumatix. I had carved up a Drumatix and added separate outputs for the snare and toms. This is a tune I wrote back in high school. I still remember how Ed Fliege and I talked about this cute girl named Tricia who was kinda shy and quiet and therefore hard to talk to, but we both sure thought she was swell. Keith Harden sang this, and you can really here my home made plate reverb banging away on this one.

Read Between the Lines
Kinda a cool song but for the stiff Drumatix drum track. Here I was beginning to sync a synth up to the drum machine in some primitive pulse triggered sorta way. Guitar tones were via an EH Little Muff fuzz run directly into my old LT Sound noise reduction unit, using the expander path to yield the high rolloff and noise reduction.

Emperor's New Clothes
I'm really getting electronic sounding here, probably the Drumatix triggering a Juno 60 synth borrowed from C.V. Lloydes where I worked. Keith sang it. This was during a period when Adrian Belew was renting rehearsal space from CV in the same building as the music store, so I had a little Adrian influence going on. Keith Harden played the Adrian-esque guitar solo.

Put Out the Fire
Superb tune written by Erin Isaac (aka Bonnie Bohler or maybe Bonne Susan Bohler-Wolf). She was a sweetie of mine for a while, on and off. She'd written this swell tune and I did up this electronic production of it with her singing. If anyone knows how to get ahold of Erin, please email me: dennis.croningmail.com

Adrienne
Keith Harden wrote and performed everyting on this tune. I totally didn't get it at the time, he brought in an acoustic 12 string, a big ol' Gretch hollow body guitar, harmonica, and just put down this beautiful tune, but because I was so electronicked out at the time I didn't appreciate this tune at all. But it stands the test of time so much better than most that stuff I was working on.

Surface Tension
Influence on this was Thomas Dolby. I was fancying myself quite the electronic music dude, and I tried singing one myself. Not too bad except on the choruses which are lame-o-rific. I remember having John Kellogg from Combo Audio, the hot local band at the time, come over to lay a guitar solo, but then I didn't keep it for some reason.

Fluffy She's My Kitty
My step-daughter Jess sang this along with her friend Molly. Gosh, I think they were like 7 or 8 years old. It was so fun having them out in my little studio, looking all serious, singing about Jessica's kitty. This has been one of my most "popular" tunes I've ever done, putting all my supposedly serious music to shame. For a while, Bear, C.V. Lloyd's sound guy, carried this on tour with the Sammy Hagar tour sound system and would play it at sound checks before a show. I even had some record company guy call me about it. Steve Galetti (Diane's brother) played the drums.

Letting Go
Steve Galetti played drums on this, a very fine track for a beginning drummer. Keith Harden sang it. One of my better lyrics of the era, I think I was resigning myself to the fact that I wasn't going to be a Big Time Musician and was trying to separate myself from doing music. I may have also been trying to kick the Erin habit, not quite sure. Anyhow, I'm sure it was all very cathartic and all.

Wound
Although I'd set aside music to some extent, I kept coming back to it. This was a one shot little ditty, looking up Dan Gherna again. Tom Green drums, Bill Millikin came over and did the sax break. Hanging out with old friends again, baby, nostalic at the age of 26.

Dan's thoughts: I recall Teri Silver stopped by the studio when I did the vocals. Had a 'thing' for her at the time.. You had me strap on the 1 pickup Epiphone that only had 4 or 5 strings in order to get a 'live' vocal feel. Your vocals were great. Aw, shucks, thanks Dan. Yours were too!

My Hands Are Tied
Here I got my two favorite vocalists together, Dan Gherna and Keith Harden, and had 'em try to do a tune together. I'd borred a Linn drum machine from Creative Audio, kinda a nice groove. I believe I played this old Hondo bass I'd bought for Diane, along with this one pickup Epiphone guitar with no finish. Nothing but the best instruments for me.

Second Prize
Me trying to sing again. Not sure what I was listening to that influenced this one. Sounds kinda like Foreigner or something. This used the Drumatix driving some drum modules that I'd designed along the lines of the Simmons drum modules (remember that brief fad?) Andy Baylor stopped by and contributed the lead break.

Dayglo Winnebago
At this point I was living in a little house on Fair street in Champaign that I was renting with Gina. I was using one of the bedrooms as a tiny little studio. I actually wrote this music back in high school (minus the intro lick which I later repurposed for "Lucky Night") but here I use it for the supposed theme song for Dan and my high concept band, The Happy Campers.

Blow Dryer
One of three main Happy Campers tunes we wrote. This is all Dan's morbid sense of humor, a cute little ditty about killing your unfaithful girlfriend/wife by dropping a drow dryer in the bathtub. The sound effects on the end were accomplished by actually dropping something into the bathtub there on Fair street, touching a finger to the end of a guitar cord to get the buzzing sound, and then Gina did the scream. Rich on sax, Alesis drum machine, done on the Fostex R8 borrowed from Keith Harden.

Dan reflects: The Camper tunes were not spontaneous like the early stuff but fun to do. I still cringe when I hear 'Cubs Songs', the dog left the room when I played it tonight. I *loved* playing 3 piece with you and Harmon. Did you save any of the basement sessions or live Campers tapes.

It's So Big
Little pop tune of a guy basically singing in thinly veiled double entendre about the size of his thingy. Rich Hogan on sax again.

Faxing All My Love to You
A Happy Campers original that we actually managed to perform live. I think I used to try to sing it live. That's never a good thing.

No More Cubs Songs
Dan and I were hanging out watching the last game of the playoffs. This was probably their 1989 season I'd guess. I think we were done with the Happy Campers at this point. But after the Cubs lost that day, Dan was seized by inspiration (or beer) and we ran upstairs and wrote and recorded this entertaining little ditty. Dan called up a friend at WLRW, we ran the tape out to 'em and they dubbed it. They gave it pretty heavy airplay for the next couple days. It was my one and only recorded performance on sax using an instrument I'd rented that summer to try to learn.

What's in a Name
Keith Harden and I hadn't gotten together in quite a while, but he came over to Fair street to sing and play guitar on this one. I was amazed at the time with this new trend that folks would actually buy clothing that was no more than a walking advertisement for the clothing company that made it, e.g. Guess. Now we just take it for granted.

Callipygean
Gina and I have now moved to our big house in Mahomet where I have an enormous basement studio area. This was recorded using Keith Harden's Fostex 8 track. I'm probably just getting going organizing my Midlife Crisis Heavy Metal Band. I was listening to Def Leppard a lot, and had been influenced also by seeing my brother's metal bands. This is actually one of my fave tunes tho. Keith Harden did a really nice job singing it and playing the guitar break. I borrowed Tom Green's Roland R8 for the drums and used I Yamaha floppy-based sequencer to drive a Roland D50 for the bass part. Shortly thereafter I think I popped for my own R8 which I used heavily for years thereafter.

Lookin' Up Your Number
Pretty dorky lyric with a really awkward, lumbering groove (if you could even call it that) from my Def Leppard-influenced phase. Keith Harden and his girlfriend Frankie came out for an evening of partying with Gina and me, and we recorded this rather quickly. I called Frankie down to deliver the "I wanna make love" line, which she was terribly retiscent to do. But she finally complied, rather hesistantly as you can tell. I repeat myself in the guitar solo. Only thing I like from this tune is the bridge section, but overall I'd say this one wouldn't have made the album. (Needs more cowbell.)

Can't Have This
Rose and Bryan Garber did the vocals, recorded in my basement at Mahomet, still in the early phase of the Stiletto band. It's almost a cute song. I think this was back on the Alesis drum machine though. I'd lost track of Bryan for a while but he popped up playing in Vegas in a Stevie Ray tribute band called Coldshot. Now he's in Austin and we even got together for a Stiletto reunion.

What Comes Next
Yikes, what sound quality! I'd purchased a cheap 4 track cassette micro-studio thing, I have no idea why. Maybe I'd decided I needed to do more spontaneous stuff with less production or something, I dunno. But I did this all on that machine, mixed to another cassette deck, and then all that fine audio is here captured in crisp digital format.

First Move
Stiletto had ended at this point, but I continued to call Rose up to do recording stuff. I had already done a project with her at Creative Audio (or whatever Jon Pines was calling it at that point) but had decided I had been too MIDI and here I wanted to return to more of a live band feel. So I got Rick Cummings, Leon Reeder, Vic Serbe, and Rose to sign up for a series of rehearsals with the idea that we'd get a half a dozen songs together and then go back to Creative Audio with 'em.

Fragile
Another from the Mahomet basement rehearsal sessions. I think Gina and I were "separated" at this time, with her going after Dan while I continued to chase Rose. Leon played guitar on this one.

More Bitter Now Than Ever
This was a reworking of one of the first tunes I'd ever recorded on 4 track out at my trailer, called I think "Someday You'll Learn" plus a line or two from another really early tune called "Weekend Lover." Ah, plagarizing myself is always a quick way to get a tune done. But this one turned out a bit better than either of the early ones, less rambling form-wise. Love Vic's slide way up the neck of his fretless on the ending.

One Man
More Mahomet basement sessions. I'd later re-record this with Dawna and Deana Nelson. But the Rose version rocks more.

When You Fall
I kinda like this one, altho I recognize it's not exactly a smooth ride harmonically. Some excellent high harmonies by Rose in places.

Perfect Pair
I'd done the rhythm track for this with the gang out in Mahomet, but now Gina and I were really splitting and I moved into Keith Harden's house for a couple months during the summer, I'm guessing 1991 or 1992. I set up in Keith's basement and Keith and Rose sang this little duet. This was right around the time I started working with Dawna as I wrote and recorded "The Night I Cried Onstage" entirely at Keith's that summer.

Fade
Actually much later, probably not long before moving to Seattle. I'd written this grunge-influended thing and while doing some other 8 track sessions for 3rd Stone at "Creekside Studios" when I lived on Cypress. They recorded this version for me with Jeff Markland on drums and sorry, don't remember the rest of their names.

Costa Replacemen
I'd written and recorded a version of this with Erin years before, but I now reshot it as kinda a reggae thing with Ginger singing. Jeff Helgesen played the amazing trumpet stuff, and maybe it was Peter Rouble on sax, don't remember the bone player.

Let Go
A last tune I did with Ginger, a really nice track. I sorta forgot about this, didn't think I really finished it, and then I "found" it a few years ago and was knocked out with what a nice vocal it was. Her coolest ever. Hey, Ginger, if you ever find yourself here, get in touch, OK? dennis.croningmail.com