Everybody was willing to listen to him except the banjo player, a bluegrass purist at heart. They'd had several heated discussions about it in the last few weeks, and Mason finally hit his limit. "You know what, I'll record every track you want to lay down and not argue. You are paying me, after all, so I'll stick to the technical side of things and stop giving you advice and suggestions. You guys are on your own now. I'll just roll tape and polish the sound."
The other five members thought that was a really bad idea, and two weeks later the banjo player was kicked out, replaced by a multi instrumentalist with a high tenor voice who was really good. He brought a couple of songs with him, that he and Mason worked on before he presented it to the group. When they played them, the group really liked them, even more when the new guy suggested one as a duet with the mandolin player, and her smoky alto voice meshed perfectly. They made it their lead single, and when it came out it crept slowly up the Americana/Roots chart until it hit number three, four months later.
By now Mason was having to turn down work, and it gave him the advantage to pick and choose who he wanted to work with, and it was a ratio of 40% established artists, and 60% new, because he loved the challenge so much, the rush of watching an unknown artist or group climb the charts almost addictive.
Chapter 31
Box Of Rocks was still a viable group. They stayed in touch while Al worked with her Latin band, Titty was in the final stages of a new album with her power trio, and Jon's jazz group were dominating the charts in Europe. About once a month they would practice together if they could get everyone there at the same time, and share whatever they were working on with the rest. A tour was discussed, and Mason told them he wasn't going anywhere until at least two months after our baby was born. That worked out well for everyone, because Al could headline a couple of festivals, one in Brazil, the other in Argentina. Titty was going to do a three month tour with her side band, and Jon was off to Spain to work with some new players.
Aaron, who his fans dubbed Mr. Smooth, which he liked so much it became the name of his second album, was working on his next recording, a mix of old standards, as well as five new songs, three his own, the other two collaborations with Mason. He'd filled the contract with the hotel in Vegas, and they threw a lot of money at him trying to get him to stay, but he took six months off to work on the record and tour. I asked if he had any panty throwers, and he grinned. "It averages between two dozen and a hundred a night, depending on the size of the venue. For every tiny little thong that hits the stage, there's a dozen pair of granny panties. Some of them are pretty used. We pay one of the roadies extra to put on a pair of gloves and pick them up every night."
He recorded a duet with Michael Buble, wo jokingly called him his biggest threat. They debuted it on his annual Christmas special, and it was the highest rated episode since he'd started doing them. Mason got a cameo in it, not as a musician, but as a new age Santa. The audience loved it.
Maddie was working on some stuff, and while they weren't touring Mason hired Jaime as a studio musician, working with whoever needed a drummer. He'd developed a really good reputation as a serious musician who showed up on time, worked hard, and was easy to get along with.
Mason was working with a young woman, a soul singer, and Zelda was one of the best I had heard in ages. I was kind of in awe of her, because her voice was so good. Deep powerful, capable of a mighty roar or a tiny whimper, and Mason brought the best out in her. Jaime laid down all the percussion tracks, and she took a shine to him, wanting him to join the band she was putting together for her tour, and was upset when he turned her down. She offered him a lot of personal incentives, and when Maddie found out she was beyond pissed. It took Mason and me two hours to calm her down when she came over to beat the other woman's ass. That told me a lot of how their relationship was going.
Mason roped Aaron into doing a duet with her, and it sounded like what would happen if you could have sex with just your voice. It was gonna blow the charts up when her record hit. I was getting bigger by the week, and Mason petted me relentlessly, until, feeling smothered, I snapped at him. "Goddamnit! Mason, I'm pregnant, I'm not sick. Treat me like a human being, not a piece of glass! Women have babies all the time, I'll be all right."
He just grinned, which pissed me off even more, and basically ignored what I said. If I sneezed, off we went to the doctor. I fell down once in my sixth month, landing on my ass. The only thing hurt was my pride, but he nearly had a heart attack. I did promise to be more careful. Being big as a whale was new to me, and I was used to being lean and supple, so it took some adjusting.
Al sneaked behind my back and planned a baby shower, and I was surprised over the turnout. Gwen made a rare East Coast appearance, while Maddie, Al, Titty, April, and even Zelda conspired. Besides our group, there were a few singers there, Mason was working on recording them, and they wanted to come. The men spent the time in his media room, drinking beer, after each gave me a hug and wished me well. At my insistence, the gifts were kept simple, diapers, wipes, bottles, two diaper bags, and enough clothes to outfit a maternity ward.
The best gift of all was a cradle built by Jaime. His hobby was woodworking, and he outfitted a little shop. He made mostly small stuff, although he did make a four guitar carousel, that Mason kept at the studio. It held his Schecter five string bass, his EB0 bass, his Fender Precision, and a Rickenbacker short scale. Jaime had to make another to hold his favorite guitars, and they sat in the studio office.
The cradle was made out of black walnut, oiled to a high gloss, and was traditional, with one runner being much longer than the rest. That was so you could place the baby in the cradle and rock it with your foot, while you sat in a rocker and timed the movements, leaving your hands free to work on whatever was required on a pioneer homestead. I looked at it an had a vision of several babies spaced out over the years, and it brought tears to my eyes.
Zelda wanted me to manage her, but I was a little leery because of the interpersonal relationships. Once Maddie was convinced Jaime was not going to leave her, she calmed down and told me I should do it. Mason thought it was a good idea, and so did Al, so she became my third act.
Jaime grinned, and made a big production of public displays of affection when she came to the studio, and Maddie finally calmed down.
Mason was working on something, something he never talked about, and it made me wonder. Most times he talked about everything, but he told me this was special, and he wanted to polish it before anyone heard it.
The day arrived. I was sitting on a chair beside Mason while he worked on some overdubbing, trying to smooth the sound of the act was working on, when I stopped him.
"Roll tape!"
"What? Why?"
"Because I have a feeling if you don't get me to the hospital pretty quick, you can record the birth of your son. My water just broke."
He pulled me outside and into the SUV so fast he didn't shut off his eqipment. He didn't listen when I told him to slow down, and we weren't that far from the hospital, so I was in a room being checked in less than thirty minutes. Mason called Al to let her know, and she called everyone else. Maddie and Jaime, her mom April, Aaron, Titty and the guitarist for her band, Glenda, everybody that was close enough to drive was there, flooding the waiting room. The others there didn't exactly know how to take it, having that much star power in the room with them. I was in labor for three hours, really quick, according to the doctor.
Maddy and Jaime were sitting beside a young husband with two small children, his wife in labor with his third. Jaime and Maddie offered to watch the kids, and he was off like a shot. Another expectant father was there, and he filmed Maddie and Jaime, each with a small child on their laps, singing lullabys to them. It went viral, and everyone who saw it recognized the expression on Maddie's face, realizing it wouldn't be that much longer before she was having one of her own.
Mason held my hand as I pushed and screamed. After the birth, I saw the bruises on his arm and realized how hard I was gripping him. When the baby came and I heard it's cries, I passed out. By the time I came around, Mason was holding our son, tears leaking down his cheeks as he smiled. When he put him in my arms my own tears started. Soon he was nursing happily.
Three weeks later I was home recovering. April had come over to help me, and fuss over her unofficial grandchild. I was dozing when I heard her scream. "Sasha, turn on Youtube!"
Chapter 32
She flicked the big screen on, and pulled up what she wanted me to watch. It was Mason, sitting behind a grand piano, on a sound stage that was totally blacked out. He had on a tux, the black and whites mixing well with the presentation. He played a long, slow intro, then started singing. I was sobbing hysterically in moments. It was a love song. To me. As the words rolled off his tongue and the music hit a cresendo, a picture of me, holding our baby right after the birth, scrolled across the screen and faded as the music stopped. The last sceen was a shot of the piano, and the videographer zoomed in, showing a small box, open, on top. The ring looked huge, a large ruby surrounded by diamonds. Then Mason's voice came out of the darkness. "Sasha, will you marry me?"
When I could finally see again, Mason was standing there. I may not have leapt in my condition, but I still covered the space between me and his arms pretty fast. I sat and rocked Robbie later, admiring the weight of the ring on my finger, remembering a song from the Grateful Dead. It was indeed a long strange trip to get me to this point in my life.
Chapter 33
Everyone was done with their side projects, and anxious to get back into the studio. They brought what they'd written, and worked a lot of hours refining them, until they had their next album in the can. To relax, they started playing old songs that had influenced them at some point, changing the arranging here and there. Some of the stuff they did was amazing. "You should do it!"
"Do what, Sash?"
"Record them, as a separate project. Release it just for fun, and I bet your fans will eat it up."
They just sat and grinned at each other and me, and started talking songs. They all voted they should bring songs in they wanted to record, and three from each would be chosen. Some of the songs were over forty years old, some quite recent. Aaron came by the studio to work on a track and heard them, and asked Mason to help him on a doo-wop song from the early fifties, for his next album. Maddie agreed to help on background vocals, if she got one for her new project. Al's band found out, and wanted to do a Tito Fuentes song for their next offering. Zelda, fresh off a very successful tour, asked Al, Titty, and Maddie to help her with an old Martha and the Vandellas song, for her next project. Jon wanted to bring his jazz band in and do some tunes from the thirties and forties, including In The Mood, and maybe one with the ladies fronting them in an Andrews Sisters song. I thought it was getting out of hand, but they were having a ball. They asked me for a name and album design, and I thought about it for a while. The whole project was covers of other people's work, and it hit me. 'Covered Up', with a picture of them all in the same bed, sheets pulled up to their chins.
The picture was taken in our kingsized bed. It was odd, the camera crew, the light techs, all in front of our bed as the photo was taken. Of course, Titty and Al were topless, and though you couldn't see anything, their nipples were standing proud under the sheets, and Jon was sporting an erection, caused by Titty rubbing him vigorously.
"Wait!" I yelled, running everyone out of the room, letting them back in five mintues later. They all noticed the bulge in Mason's boxers, and everyone including the technicians laughed, barely keeping it together for a good shot.
Chapter 34
I was rocking Robbie, thinking about how perfect life was, when Maddie burst into the house, in a panic, crying. "Mom's sick! She has cancer!"
I put a sleeping Robbie in his crib and got another child I was fond of in my lap, petting her as she cried her heart out. Mason was in the studio, but he wasn't working with anyone, so I told him he needed to get home as fast as he could.
By the time he got there I had her calmed down a little, and she told us what she knew. April had met one of the engineers Mason hired. He was about her age, a widower, and they hit it off, so much so that they married nine months later. Maddie and Jaime had been sharing an apartment for over two years by then, so he moved into the house Maddie had gotten for her mom. They seemed really happy, and everyone liked him. The way his eyes followed her when we were all together showed us how much he loved her. Then she got to feeling tired all the time and went to her doctor. He examined her, listened to her as she explained why she came, and ordered tests, including an MRI and X-rays.
Three days later she and her husband listened as he told her she had cancer. It was in the middle stages, so there was hope, but she was going to have to go through a lot of treatments, some of them unpleasant. April fainted, waking in the arms of her husband as tears rolled down his cheeks.
His absolute promise that they would always be together gave her strength, but it was still going to be rough. Once again, I was proud of how good a businessman Mason was. He'd incorporated years ago, and as he expanded, with the studio and my management company, he worked with providers to put together a pretty good insurance package. Aaron, Maddie, Titty, Jon, Jaime, members of Al's band, all the engineers and producers, as well as support personnel, all were covered.
