"33"

This is the thirty third song ever released as the Calendar Project. I love this song. I wrote it in the wake of my grandfathers death. It is incredibly personal and I am immensely proud of it. When I wrote after his passing I decided to hold onto it for December because he loved Christmas. When it occured to me that September was the thirty third month of the project I knew that's where it belonged. I wrote the song for the Calendar Project but Route 9 started playing the song regularly and it got to a point that I can't even picture it without Erik on there.

The notion of everyone being the same age in the after life isn't mine. My friend Steve was the one telling me about that idea. I chose the number thirty three because it was on my beer. Every bottle of Rolling Rock has the number "33" painted on the side of it. Rolling Rock is the official Route 9 beer.

Erik and I need a little work on recording songs in pieces. Our entire CD was recorded live with no overdubs. Since "33" is a song we where already familiar with it seemed like a great opportunity to work on the recording process. After we laid it down in pieces we felt it lacked a quality that our live takes possess.

We got together again and did several live takes of the song. They where good performances but we didn't get the cleanest recordings. I decided to revisit the first version that we had worked on. (the one recorded in pieces.)
I found that with very little post production, like tweeking volumes and tack outs, that we had a really clean solid version of "33". It just goes to show that sometimes you have to step back from something and then come back to it with fresh ears. That's a luxury you don't always get when you're releasing a new song every month.

I wrote this song with my grandfather in mind. I like it because in the face of death it's still an optimistic song. I am also grateful that it's a song that was honed by being played live. My favorite thing about the tune is that I get to play it with a friend. I love how Erik can take a song about death and make it sound so alive!

"33"

Route 9