Our primary intent in making Daddy's Cadillac was simply to have a CD on hand that features our singer, Sheila Voss. Sheila's been with The Dang-Its now for three years and, except for a few demo cuts, we didn't have any recorded music with her. We planned for a quick, live recording session and, as such, were prepared to produce a good recording, but perhaps not up to the standards of our two previous releases, when we took much more time in the studio. By the time we started mixing the tracks, we knew our modest expectations had been exceeded by leaps and bounds.

We recorded 14 of the 15 tracks on Daddy's Cadillac in one session, May 8,  2009, at the studio space of the now-defunct Coney Island Studio. Our audio engineers, Tom Blain and Aubrey Ralph of Ultimate Audio (photo below; Tom Blain standing), brought their mobile recording gear into the empty-but-still-usable studio rooms and set up shop. Band members started arriving at 1:00 pm, lines were run and levels checked, and we started tracking at 4:00. We started by recording two instrumental numbers, neither of which turned out to be solid enough for inclusion on the disc. From there on, however, we hit a good stride tracking 14 songs over the next several hours. No song needed more than three tries, and several songs were done in one take.

A few days later, on May 20, Sheila and I recorded the fifteenth track, a lovely, simple acoustic guitar-accompanied ballad called Daddy's Oldsmobile, along with two vocal tracks that completed the May 8 session. From there it was in Tom Blain's hands. Tom finished the mixing and mastering, and the work he did once again demonstrates why he is the audio engineer of choice for many area bands, Harmonious Wail and L.J. Booth to name two.

At the same time the recording, mixing and mastering was taking place, I was trying to decide on the graphics for the CD sleeve. Between the title cut, a jumpy Delavantes Brothers song called Daddy's Cadillac, and the above mentioned ballad Daddy's Oldsmobile, a theme was presenting itself. A third song with an automobile reference, Good Years, focused the search. As always I worked closely with our pedal steel guitarist, Rick Nass, who is a professional artist and illustrator. We cast about for interesting images that called to mind the golden age of the American automobile. It seemed appropriate to look in that direction given Detroit's long fall from that bygone era of mammoth vehicles and truly amazing and beautiful designs. The moment Rick showed me the image of the boy standing in front of the Cadillac, the cover design fell into place. Easy for me to say that. I depended on Rick to tweak the image and on my wife, Dana Johnson, to do the layout. Their work was superb and I love the cover, and all the more so because the boy on the cover looks a lot like I did at that age.

We hope you enjoy listening to this collection of songs as much as we enjoy playing them. They are favorites of ours and of our fans and friends, and they accurately reflect the way The Dang-Its sound in this our 11th year as a band.

Thanks for checking in with us.

Tom Waselchuk