Cherry Beat - Recording Sessions (Part Fifteen - The Band's First Reunion)

August 1998
Fourteen years after the band Cherry Beat split up, the leaders of the band Peter McDonald and Sam Whitby got together to discuss a possible band reunion. All those past years without playing together as a group had certainly seemed to ease the tensions that had happened between them in the late 70's - early 80's.

While they knew that a band reunion would not be easy, they felt that it could certainly be possible, provided they were willing to work together, and provided they were able to get some additional musicians to play, unless either Torquil Dohrn, the band's longstanding lead guitarist, or Devon O'Connell, the band's longstanding drummer were willing to rejoin the band.

Both fellow ex-members of Cherry Beat were invited to rejoin the group, but both Torquil and Devon turned down the opportunity to rejoin. With Gregory Dogan back as the band's producer, and Chudley Maron - who was also the band's original producer - back as the band's music supervisor, the band knew that until they could find more band members to join, they would need to either play all the instruments themselves via overdubbing, or employ session musicians.

8th September 1998
With Peter McDonald and Sam Whitby back together as a group, the band held their first recording session in over fourteen years on this day. As a warm up, they recorded a couple of cover versions on this day, instead of original compositions.

The said recordings were a cover of a Rockabilly song "Rock This Town" written by Brian Setzer and originally recorded by Stray Cats. And an old 50's song "Judy Drownded" which was written and originally recorded by Irving Burgie.

"Rock This Town" was completed on this day, while future overdubs would be needed to complete "Judy Drownded".

The main reason "Judy Drownded" wasn't completed on this day was because the band was unsure exactly what instruments were played in the original recording, and they felt that to record a decent version of their own, they needed to use a similar lineup of instruments.

Luther Canup and Percy Duncan, two session musicians that had previously performed on certain past Cherry Beat recordings would play on the band's recordings of "Rock This Town" and "Judy Drownded".

6th October 1998
A handful of session musicians were brought in to add additional instrumentation and backing vocals to "Judy Drownded" on this day. Most of these session musicians had never performed on a Cherry Beat recording before, but there were a few familiar faces from previous recordings.

25th October 1998
British musician Milford Ekdahl is now officially a new member of Cherry Beat, in which he joined as a guitarist and keyboardist. As Peter and Sam both pointed out, Milford wasn't involved in the group's original incarnation, so he had nothing to do with the conflicts and tension that resulted in our breakup, so it was nice to have a new addition to our group, though it would never be the same without Torquil and Devon.

29th November 1998
Former Cherry Beat drummer Devon O'Connell subsequently agrees to rejoin the band, after turning down recent invitations to rejoin the group from August until late November. With three of the core members of Cherry Beat back together, along with a fourth new member, the band felt that even if it wasn't a success, they would at least be able to record a new album.

4th January 1999
This was the band's first official recording session for their thirteenth album. Gregory Dogan would serve as a co-producer for these recording sessions, with Chudley Maron serving as the band's music supervisor.

On this day the band recorded a new composition "Mochaccino Springs" which was written by Sam Whitby with input from Peter McDonald. The song was described as an attempt to write a song with a mild Indian flavour, but also with a dark and moody feel to it.

This would be the first recording by the band to feature Milford Ekdahl as a Cherry Beat. Ironically even though Sam was the primary composer of the song, it was Peter that would serve as the song's co-producer along with Gregory Dogan.

8th January 1999
Session musicians Ivory Copenhaver, Elnora Jardine, and Ezra Wichman respectively add tabla, tambura, and sitar overdubs to "Mochaccino Springs" on this day. Royce Shoop

10th January 1999
Peter McDonald and session musicians Tracey Lessman, Ned Morphis, Emma Picou, and Morris Savala record cello overdubs while Ciera Batz, Royce Shoop, and Duncan Utsey record double bass overdubs for "Mochaccino Springs" on this day.

11th January 1999
Peter McDonald records a second backing vocal for "Mochaccino Springs" on this day, while Sam Whitby records a backing vocal and a fuzz bass guitar overdub.