The Pros and Cons of doing it "All My Byself"

When my daughter Shannon was very small, if she was proud of herself she used to say "I did it all my byself."

I keep thinking of that. Getting waves of emotion, from pride to worry.

As those who've seen me perform live are aware, I am a one woman band. I kick bass with my left hand, play split keyboard with my right, and use a drum machine on the fly (manually throwing in the intros, fills, verse, chorus, bridges and ends as I play.) I have good gear, and I'm impressed with the live feel and sound of my PSR S 900 drums.

Because I was on a tight budget, the only way to do this CD in time was to play most instruments myself, and to engineer and master it myself. I had no choice, and I did my best. With each song I gained more knowledge about what sounds great and what sounds mediocre.

I hired only two live players; Chad and Dana, and words cannot express the added depth they gave to the songs. And so I'm left thinking, "What if I'd hired a complete band? What would it sound like?"

I couldn't do that, and as it turns out, when I listen to my tracks, I smile really BIG, tap my feet and say "cool!" which tells me I'm pulling it off.

Its kind of like baking cookies from TOTAL scratch; getting the wheat from my garden, the eggs from my chicken coop, the chocolate from my cocoa beans. Maybe I should have gone to the farm with the best wheat and eggs and cocoa beans. My cookies would have definitely tasted better if I'd done that. But these are MY cookies, lumps and all. I put all my love in them, and that, at least, shows for sure.

Next CD I'll do it right, and hire more players, and it will be slicker and cooler. But this CD, simply titled "Rose Winters" will always be my first, the one I did "All My Byself."