One thing I'm learning very quickly: recording an album of a children's ukulele orchestra is not as easy as it sounds. Tonight some of the advanced kids from the orchestra came by to try a few more songs. They really are very, very good, and their energy is amazing and inspiring. But it IS hard to find a balance between preserving the energy of their usual performances and managing to capture a relatively nice take of a particular song.

Admittedly, part of the problem is that we're recording in Paul and Daphna's living room, which is sonically wonderful but also jammed full of cool instruments and other interesting things; I mean, it's hard enough for me, the mature adult recording engineer, to keep focused in my headphones, and I suppose it's no surprise that when the kids arrived and saw me playing Paul's one-string electric broom-handle guitar which is played through a "Smokey" amplifier (made from a cigarette box), that they were more than a little distracted.

But I digress: despite the distractions, the four crazy cats (made extra-crazy by the torrential rains), and the fact that these kids ARE mostly between 8 and 12 years old, after all, I'm almost positive we have a good take or two in the can - I'll edit and post one tomorrow.