On the REK Xmas Tour last year we had a couple of days off to travel from Chattanooga to Fayetteville, Arkansas. I had this song mostly arranged and a demo recorded. So, I decided to encourage my band to spend the bus ride learning their parts. I have a good friend, Jason Weinhiemer, with a recording studio in Little Rock, Fellowship Hall Sound. The plan was to stop for the night in LR and try to get a good recording of this song. That the song was called, “Let It Fall Into Place” had not even occurred to me. Indeed, that’s what I was doing and hoping for. That things would through preparation and some luck fall into place.

To say the band was not altogether thrilled with the prospect of spending their night off working goes without saying. And part of me felt guilty for even asking. But, I also knew that we had precious little time at home in the foreseeable future (not for the reasons I anticipated, though). They all played along though. Even The Tijuana Trainwreck with my sketchy midi horn parts. They sat back there and sketched out the parts like that pros they are. I made the chord charts for everyone else.

When we got to Little Rock it was cold. Everyone needed to get settled, and get food, etc. It was late in the afternoon by this point. I asked Winfield, Jeff and Keith to go with me first to the studio to see if we could even get a good basic take of the song. Horns and Sisters would be on-call that evening if we did.

It was all very much a crap shoot. Still, worth it I thought to maybe make some magic together. Indeed after an hour or so of working together we got this solid take. In the pocket but still loose and funky. It’s a funny thing getting humans playing together while in their own head space, in various states of physical and mental health. Again though these are all pros who know how to just play without getting too wrapped up in their own stuff. Each of them are their instrument. Ego just isn’t a determining factor when creating recordings together. It’s all about the feel, the spiritual, emotional life within a given performance of the song. It’s a bit new age. But that’s the best way I can describe it. Transcendental funkification!

Once we had the take I put in the call to horns and sisters as to who would be next. The sisters were ready. They arrived promptly and began to listen, work on the harmonies and the arrangement. I had neglected to bring the tequila. Luckily there was a liquor store within some walking distance. I walked in the freezing cold to get my girls some booze. It’s the least I could do. Then walked across to a grocery store to get mixers. When I arrived back feeling like a hero, the horns had arrived with Tequila!! 😂

That’s when the party began. Shiny Soul Sisters knocked it out of the park per usual. Then TTW came up to bat. Now the horns can often get bogged down in the minutiae of parts and the myriad harmonies. Luckily we had a pretty solid arrangement. And within an hour or two we had them running across home plate to score.

The only part missing was a the solo in the middle. I had zero ideas other than Winfield. But he had already gone for the night. Jason’s friend who lives above the studio happened to be a decent piano player. So we had him come down and bang out a solo.

And that was pretty much the session. Next day we were back on the tour. A little bit buzzed about making such a cool track. But, generally forgetting about it.

I stayed in touch with Jason about it. The solo just wasn’t sitting right with me. I like the first part. But the second half was not as interesting. After some discussion we decided to enlist my old, old Shreveport friend Chris Michaels. Chris has long been one of the best musicians I know. He has lived in Little Rock for years. And I often see him, Jason and others when we play there. Jason said that Chris was rather adept at playing angular, weird guitar parts in the style of, Marc Ribot. One of my favorite guitarists.

I had to hear this. Chris finished the solo out with this quirky ass shit. And I dug it. The whole concept of letting things fall into place couldn’t be more apropos. It was perfect in that sense. At least to me. When this solo happens that is absolutely random, I hear in it the ultimate notion of things falling into place.