Happy MerryNewYearsBirthdaysmas, Curt!

A few days after Curt Smith's 50th birthday, I said to James Roday, "Man, we should have done a song for him!" Well, that idea eventually turned into a real thing. James chose the song, I started with a first draft, James added input, and we just went back and forth via email about our ideas 'til we had something that we were happy with. This song is, of course, all vocal. If you had told me two years ago that I would be doing a trip-hop a cappella song with James Roday for Curt Smith, I would have laughed... HARD.

The plan was to meet up before Christmas to record James's vocals but Christmas was just too hectic, so we moved it to January. Yesterday, in fact. And I had this *silly idea* that my five year old son Jaden and I would pick up James at the airport without incident (He was SO excited to meet James from "The Smart Man Show"), and we would have a relaxed, fun day at the recording studio. The Gods had other plans. As I got to the airport, my son barfed up banana alll over the back seat. Not being prepared for THAT, I had nothing to clean him up with. So we parked and I took him into an airport bathroom. Then we picked up James in my freshly-barfed-in car. WELCOME TO SAN JOSE! Jaden continued barfing all the way back home. I left James to wander my house and take in the myriad of odd collectibles while I hosed down the car and kid. James was SUCH a good sport about the whole thing!

And THEN we went to Bill Hare's recording studio. (And Jaden barfed a little.)

The actual recording session was smooth sailing. Everything sounded great and James's vocals were perfect. The mastering took no time at all thanks to Bill and visiting engineer Danny Ozment's lightning-speed ProTools skillz. Meanwhile, the newly recovered Jaden was happily playing with Bill's cats and asking James, "Can you stay with us for a zillion days?" and "OH HEY! Where's GUS!!"

"Mom, do we have to give the Smart Man back? I want to keep him!" Well, Jaden, I think we'll let James go home this time. He's probably had enough fun for one day. :/

So, here at last is our song for Curt Smith!

We love you, Curt!! Thank you for being such an awesome and inspirational person in our lives. You *could* choose to be the type of famous rock star who doesn't interact with fans but you embrace us, care about the new people you meet, and continuously put good energy into the universe. We are all the richer for having you in our lives.
XO
Janice and James

Thanks to Revital for making a behind the scenes video out of the footage I sent her!