Woke up this morning, so ready to finally sing. The cold is gone, I think. Of course, my girlfriend just caught something...from her cat. Both of them are sneezing. Please, God, I can't catch the cat cold. I'll stick him the damn oven.

Today: backgrounds for "(not so) sad", maybe lead for "Monday Morning"

We're thinking about bringing my sister Melissa back in to sing the middle section of "monday morning". It might be cool. Blake thought it a very "Pink Floyd" thing to do, and for that alone, I'm interested in at least hearing it.

Neal, in true Neal fashion, was up for whatever direction we gave him, and provided a great taste on 5 songs (3 on organ, 2 on upright piano). The organ stuff was excellent, and we figured he'd rock that, but the piano stuff was totally sublime, tear-inducing shit. We literally hugged after his take on "When I Get Out of Jail". We had to collect ourselves to continue to the next song.

The songs are arranged too tightly for him to "solo" or anything, but he comps...shall we say...quite well. He's a fantastic musical fit for this disc.

But of course, the best thing about him is his vibe, which he gets all over everything. We had been talking about working together for a long while, and I couldn't have imagined a better way for it to have worked out.

The music for this disc is now done. I've been a little sick, so I've delayed vocals, but I think we hit them for real next week. Still, two songs are ready for mix, and many background vocals are finished.

Couldn't sleep last night, I was so psyched.

Tomorrow, Neal Evans of Soulive is playing on the disc. So psyched. He's a good friend, and such a great player. Can't wait for the session.