The final part of the 10th day in the studio involved finishing up the song Many Paths. This song has been the leading contender in the “song that might not make it onto the CD” sweepstakes, but after this session, it’s definitely a keeper. This is the song that had eight different choruses before I finally settled (but not until after I’d recorded it the first time) on one that I’m happy enough with. It’s a capella, which is absolutely terrifying for me, since my vocal performance is the thing I’m least confident about. We’d asked Jenny Goodspeed to sing harmony on it, assuming she’d basically since along on the repeated lines intended for audience participation and then maybe also join in on the (hopefully now settled) chorus. In our first recording session with her, she said she’d come up with a really complicated evolving set of harmony parts for the song, and wanted to see what we thought – but because they were complicated and she wasn’t sure if we’d go for it, she hadn’t fully worked them out or learned them. So the plan – once we decided we really liked her vision (and discussed some basic directions about how it might be implemented) – was that she would go away and work it all out and then find a time to come back and sing. That was Thursday evening. And the parts she came up with turned it into an amazing choral-sounding song. It starts with a low harmony just doing the repeat lines and the chorus on the first verse. Then the second verse she joins in with hums on the solo verse lines (and all the harmony gains a second part). The third verse starts out with a unison first line, a high harmony only second line, and then full harmony for the rest. It’s absolutely gorgeous and really creative. I’m so grateful that she considered the song to be worth that care and effort, and the parts she came up with completely change – in the best way possible – the feel of that song. When she’d finished recording, Dave and I put percussion instruments on the song, too. (Much of this two-day stretch in the studio involved wandering around looking for things to hit or shake.). Dave played a shaker, I played the claves, and Dave played the afuche (an instrument I’ve always loved but never knew the name of). And for each we figured out what kind of rhythm it should play and where it should come in. The final result is wonderful, and unlike anything else on the CD.