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5 days before their wedding, Maureen and Blair were discussing wedding favors. She wanted him to make a comp to put out, along with the other stuff she'd already put together. Of course, burning that many hour-long CDs wasn't really his idea of a good time at that point. Then he came up with an idea. (Yes, you can see the lightbulb.) But he had to call up Mike Fornatale to see if it was possible. The answer was...YES!
There was still one problem...They needed a song.
Tuesday afternoon, Blair went down to the basement and came up with "Plain & Simple". At 4, they went to Mike & Wendy's house. After a bit of chatting, it was downstairs to Mike's studio.
Blair played and sang the song to Mike, as best he could at that point. Mike listened, played it on his guitar a few times, then started recording tracks... Guitar, bass, drums... Maureen played organ. Blair sang. (Yes, REALLY!) Mike threw on an organ solo. Then, at Mike's direction, Maureen did all the backing vocals. Later, Maureen, Blair, and Mike added various percussion... Cowbell (MORE cowbell!), maraccas, tambourine, etc. And, finally, yells, handclaps, screams, and HEYs by Mike, Wendy, Blair, and Maureen.
Then some dinner at the Ridge Diner. (Blair's first time there, despite having taught in Park Ridge for 12 years.)
Then back to Mike's for mixing. At 11:30 or so, Mike had finished. And we walked out with a CD... Blair spent most of Wednesday burning copies for the favors.
The song was played twice at our wedding on August 11th...First, after Blair and his mom had their dance. Then, later on, after The Nashville Ramblers had finished their marathon 3 hour set. (They were incredible, as always.)
And so The Emby Confection is born.
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