Hiya folks,

I'm back from Nashville/Tennessee and lemme tell ya, I had a great time, I met and played with some wonderful people and great musicians and am thrilled about the songs we recorded.

The cold hard facts: Duane Jarvis acted as producer and guitarist and booked us into George Bradfute's wonderful studio in Nashville. Rick Plant on bass, Billy Block on drums, DJ and I recorded ten tracks. Then DJ overdubbed some guitar, I redid some vocals and acoustic guitar parts. Then we had the great Steve Conn come in and play some beautiful organ, Wurlitzer and accordion on five songs. George also added some guitar and organ and Dave Coleman sang harmony vocals.

These guys are as good as they come. Rick plays bass with Buddy & Julie Miller, Billy has played with everyone from Jim Lauderdale to Radney Foster (to name just hist latest Western Beat endeavors), Steve Conn is a Grammy-nominated artist in his own right and longtime companion to Sonny Landreth, currently on tour with Shelby Lynne. The Tone Chaparall George Bradfute has played with tons of people and recorded amazing stuff, most recently Jason Ringenberg, Amy Rigby, Phil Lee ... the list goes on forever. And Dave Coleman is a very talented guitarist, singer and songwriter who fronts his own band The Coal Men and has toured with DJ.

Like I said, it was truly a wonderful collaboration and I got the feeling that these cats - as great and professional as they are - also enjoyed playing my songs and working with a kid from Germany. We even had a going away party of sorts, the mood somewhat dampened by Johnny Cash's passing on the same day.

What's next? I'm now going to mix the the two songs recorded with Jim Stringer and the Austin Music Band in June plus one number recorded with my band in August. Then we'll get these songs sequenced & mastered and the album will be done as far as I'm concerned.

We will then shop it around to record companies, looking for distribution in Germany/Europe and possibly even the States. I'm real confident that this record is if not a quantum leap at least a significant step forward for me. Let's see where it will take us.

So come on out to the forthcoming gigs and hear the Gunslingers' versions of my new songs and stay tuned for the album release (not to be expected this year, realistically speaking).

Stay tuned, stay in touch, stay safe,
Markus