"Real thing" is the first single from the upcoming new CD from the Johnny Hawthorn Band. This recording project has been taking more then the usual amount of time to complete. Here's some back story... PHASE 1 – February 2010 - The project didn’t start out as a “new CD” but rather “let’s record a couple of songs” type of deal. My friend (producer/engineer) Charlie Pollard has an amazing studio in the hills of Malibu(Creekside Studio’s). I wrote a couple of songs and we tracked the basic instruments (Mike Sauer/drums, Steve Heidtmann/bass). Since there was no rush (and I was busy on the road) it took a few months to finish the overdubs, vocals and mixes. The two songs “Real Thing” & “Find my way” sounded great and everyone was happy. PHASE 2 – Fast forward to December 2010 Charlie asked me if I had anymore songs that I wanted to track (I had three songs I was working on) and I replied “Yes!”. He mentioned that he was friends with drummer Greg Bissonette (David Lee Roth, Ringo Starr) and his bass playing brother Matt. They were both available and could record the tracks so I jumped at the chance and we knocked out three more songs. (Just can’t be your man, Gimmi a sign and Running a lie). These tracks also turned out great. However by the time we finished overdubbing and mixing it was 7 months later. Like I said there was no rush because there was no “CD project”. We were just having fun and cutting great songs. PHASE 3 – December 2011 – After mixing the last three songs I said to Charlie “we might as well track another batch of songs and make a CD”. By this time I had been playing with the current line up (Hampton Flanagan-drums & Michael Sunday -bass) for a while so we were rehearsed and ready to roll. We spent a day recording 5 tracks and got some awesome drum sounds. I also did a solo acoustic song called “Morning Song” which brings the grand total up to 11! PHASE 4 – Well, we gained some momentum but alas hit a snag! Charlie has been tending to a huge home project which has put my project on hold for a while. It’s a bit frustrating but I’ve come to the conclusion that good things are worth waiting! This bunch of songs is going to be sonically awesome and the best sounding CD ever for us! We’re shooting for completion in June AND I have posted a few of the new songs on the player on the site so its not all doom and gloom!