• The final mixing day.

Right now, the clock says 10:13 PM. Earlier today, much earlier, about 1:45 AM I was in one of those irrational, late-night mad panics we all suffer. I had just calmed my oldest daughter by 5 minutes, Amelia, back down and put her back into her crib when a question began bouncing around inside my brain like a super ball fired into a concrete room: does Jaime have Tim’s guitar tracks for tomorrow’s session? Christ, I was going to end up going into Hyde Street studios for my final mixing day and not be able to do the one thing I really needed to do. How could I be so stupid? Why am I so lame? Wasn’t a brain injury enough, do I really need more grief from the universe? I started to perspire, I was angry, if I were Charlie Brown I would have had a black scribble above my head. How was I going to solve this? What to do, what to do, what to do? Lying back in bed and hating myself for being such an idiot, I looked over at the bed side table and watched the red light on my Blackberry blink and I fumed. But wait, I could check my email on the BB and see whether or not Jaime had the tracks because if Tim had sent them, his email would still be in the phone. It was. And when I woke up this morning I helped Catherine with the babies and then drove to Hyde Street around noon, where Jaime had already set up the amps I had requested for re-amping Tim’s tracks and we got right down to it. And by 6:00 PM, when I had to leave, everything was sounding good and Jaime promised to send final files for one last listen as I headed out into the Tenderloin to find my car and drive home. I had intended to buy a fancy bottle of wine to celebrate the day but the babies were waiting and I had to get home so the wine ended up being whatever was in the fridge. Still, it was cold and crisp and clean and good. Hard to believe a nearly four year journey could end so quietly but it has. No wrap party, no debauchery, no letting loose. Just finishing, and, frankly, I’ll take it.

- Here are a few photos from the final studio session for Cerebellum Blues, Playlist One.