I finally had my photo shoot for the new record with Nashville photographer and graphic designer, Pierrette Abegg. My friend Heather Dryden was on hand to direct the shoot. She directed the shoot for my "Good Samaritan" record and did the artwork design for that CD. I've changed the design for the site, as you might have noticed, and added a couple of the new pics. Pierrette and Heather did a WONDERFUL job at the shoot and Pierrette has done amazing post-shoot work on the pics. I'm very, very pleased with the results! Tom is finally home for a couple months and his goal is to finish mixing the record during this time. He will be going to Australia for three weeks the first part of December. So, he's using that as his deadline. After mixing is complete, it will be mastered. Depending on how the tracks sound after mastering, a few mix-tweeks may be necessary. Once we're happy with what we hear, there will be final mastering then duplication of the actual CDs and artwork. I had an artist acquaintance tell me that he is not duplicating any physical CDs -- he's only doing digital downloads. That may be the smart way to go in what is almost 2010. But I am old-fashioned. I want a physical copy of my music, of other people's music I like. I want photos. I want artwork. Lyrics, when I can get them. I don't want one killer single. I want 11 songs that transport me into the artist's world. "It's a singles market," someone told me. My response was that labels are not signing very many real artists capable of producing a CD full of quality music. And just because that is the case, no one will convince me that the album is dead. No, buy ANY of the Neko Case records I have in my collection. You will see that the album is not dead. In fact, I've already asked Santa to bring me a copy of Neko's "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" on vinyl for Christmas. To quote my own lyrics, "I'm a quarter jukebox in a karaoke world."