It's the season of "goodwill to all…", that wonderful time of the year when we find time to remember our friends and family and - wherever possible - make plans to spend time with those who are closest to us. Here in the U.K. there are no restrictions or limitations on the Christmas decorations that can be displayed on your own property and - as I am writing this, at the end of November - although advent does not officially commence until the first of December, I have already seen many (as yet, mostly un-illuminated) sets of lights being "affixed" to houses and shops around the area in which I live. It is good to feel the unselfish seasonal "spirit", amongst the almost frenetic activity that leads up to the Christmas holiday. All those cards to be written and posted; all that Christmas food to be planned, purchased and prepared and all those presents to be chosen and wrapped. For me, personally, I look forward to spending time with my wife and my two daughters and (on a "rota" basis) with most of the other members of my family (there are too many to get altogether under one roof - unfortunately, hence the "rota").

After all the preparations, comes the chance to relax and enjoy the season… From all of us at Sting and Snow, heartfelt greetings!

NASHVILLE 2004 REPORT (part three - the final instalment!)
"Studio time" is a little alternative to the "real time" of normality- at least it feels that way. By the time we finally get to the studio after a full year (or more) of detailed planning and preparation, it seems as though you have finally come to the end of the "Yellow-Brick Road", reached the "Emerald City" and are in the presence of the denizens of the "Wizard". There is no opportunity to make mistakes, prevaricate or procrastinate any longer - immediate and decisive action is required! Continuing with the "Wizard of Oz" analogy and thinking about the three of us who travelled to Nashville in September, (myself, Søren Christensen and Carsten Nielsen), I am not sure which of us was the "Tin Man", the "Cowardly Lion" or the "Scarecrow" but there was no escaping the feeling of awe - that you endure whilst in that Magical Kingdom of the studio!

By the end of our Second "studio-day" we had achieved our objective, having recorded all fourteen new pieces of Square Dance music and having completed the final mix-down of ten tracks. The musicians were long gone by now and the three of us were left to watch the "Wizard" - Kevin McManus - at work. We finally completed the second day at around 9.00 pm and left to visit the Wild Horse Café, which proved to be very entertaining… That evening, the "top song" was one called "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy!"; an amusing sentiment, which could easily make a Square Dance - but with the "risqué" "double entendre" - I am not sure that it should…

The next morning we started a little later, at 10.00 am and were able to witness and "oversee" the mix-down of the final four new tracks as well as three additional hoedown tracks, for future release. Part way through this work we had the chance to enjoy a very pleasant lunch, in the company of Kevin. We visited his favourite "Hot Chicken" restaurant - and when I say "hot" I mean "HOT!!!". Although I opted for the "regular" chicken, I believe that Søren and Carsten (who took the "medium" variety) can still taste the spices! Curiously there were two other options: "hot" and "atom bomb", I hate to imagine what the effect of those options might have been… After several cooling drinks, we returned to the studio and finished the "operation" at about 3.00 pm on Friday.

This left us a little time to ourselves, so - after bidding farewell to Kevin and all the great people at Nashville Teleproductions- we headed out, to visit United Record Pressings Inc.,to show our faces and say "hi" to the hard-working employees who change tiny vinyl pellets into perfect plastic records!

United Record Pressings Inc. are not too far from the studio but we tried to do the journey on a "game-night"! The local football team were playing at home and we found ourselves in a queue of cars trying to park in downtown Nashville, to see the game. We finally arrived at United just before 5.00 pm, which is their usual finishing time, so we went into reception - half expecting to be told that we were too late… However, like most of the people in Nashville, the United staff were more than happy to accommodate us. We met with Eileen - one of the main members of the United team, in the reception, who, very kindly, offered us the "ten-cent-tour"; we accepted. The factory is fascinating and I will tell you what I can remember and tell you a little about the process.

Upon receiving the recorded music and vocal tracks on a DAT tape, from us, United's first task is to "master" the music and create "plates" and "stampers"; these are the metal parts that contain the patterns which, when pressed into the soft hot-plastic, produce the "grooves" in each record. Once the "plates" and "stampers" are ready and loaded into the presses, large bins of vinyl pellets are melted down into a vinyl soft-plastic form to be squeezed out and "squashed" into shape; the labels, which appear on either side of the pressing, are also fed in at this stage.

The plastic, once squashed, is trimmed into a perfect circular shape and then the press opens and - the now fully formed record, with labels "affixed" - is "ejected" onto a silver spike where it cools. Periodically, the stack of freshly pressed records are removed (manually) and slid into the printed sleeves (another "manual" task).

After a specific number of pressings have been completed, a member of the United team, takes a record into a sound booth and plays both sides - to ensure that there are no "glitches" in the process. Once the check has been carried out, the stack of records is packaged in boxes of 25 for despatch to the distributor.

For more information about the record pressing process, visit the United Record Pressings Inc web-site (just "click" on the their name in this sentence to visit the site).

To see a few more pictures of our visit to Nashville, please "click" on this LINK. Amongst these pictures is a picture of our "stand-in" Steel and Dobro player, Mike Johnstone, who played for us on the second day. I realised that I had not included this picture in the previous two months; please note the "fuzzy" image, is nothing to do with Mike, it is my camera! Also, remember that other pictures and some mini-movies including short sound-samples of the new songs) can be seen (and heard) on the October and November News-Letters.

Finally, then, with all the new music completed, My two colleagues and I spent Saturday shopping (at the Opry Mills shopping Mall - next to The Grand Old Opry). We then visited the Grand Old Opry itself on Saturday evening and saw the show. This is a fantastic evening's entertainment, as well as the top-line New Country stars, we saw several "head-liners" from years gone by. We were particularly pleased when we saw some of our musicians, from the studio sessions on stage!

Sunday we travelled to the white-knuckle ride park "Six Flags over Kentucky" and enjoyed the high-speed thrills available there, before flying back home on Monday. Based upon our experiences, I was already making plans for the 2005 studio session…

And now on to other news…

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
We are still working on this feature - BUT all of the histories (including the lyrics) have been added to the catalogue and to the Latest Releases and Future Releases. Keep an eye on these, there will be more soon…

THIS MONTH'S NEW MUSIC:
Our new vinyl releases for December are: - The E.L.O. song - "Rock And Roll Is King" (vocal by Paul Bristow) and a BRAND NEW double sided hoedown/patter record called "Fab One / Firefly". Our new MP3s are "He'll Have To Go" (vocal by Paul Bristow) and the double sided hoedown/patter record named "Boiled Beef / Carrots", both of which - having been previously released on vinyl - can be heard (in part) on the Listen To The Music link.

Some of you may have noticed an error on the Hanhurst tape with last months MP3 release of "My Very Own Lucky Star" (vocal by Maarten Weijers),whilst it was correctly listed, the wrong track was actually played on the Tape. Bill Heyman has corrected the error on this month's tape. It is worth a listen, as there is a special "extra" track on this release containing the instrumental with Tim Marriner (from Royal Records) providing harmony.

November was the largest month, so far this year, for new vinyl; 21 new records in total! Despite this, both of our tracks achieved top-five listing on the Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service Best Seller listing. These were "Merry Xmas, Everybody", which came in at No.2 and "Three Steps To Heaven", which achieved a - very respectable - No.5

FUTURE RELEASES: (Please check out the Future Releases link for full details)
Well I now have to try and find that special box where I "stored" my Christmas records, at the end of last year's season… I know that I put them in a "safe" place! So - to paraphrase my good friend Bill Heyman, I will talk to you again on the January News-Letter! Until then, have great holiday season!

Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)