The image above shows the "J-card" or cassette insert from the first release of Father Fox's Feast of Songs in 1986. With the exception of the song "Oh My Goodness, Oh My Dear" -- which was recorded in Rollins Chapel in Hanover because it features an organ -- the recording was done in our small dining room at 7 Low Road, Hanover NH. The recording is dedicated to Morris Block, who was slated to be our cellist, but died tragically in a boating accident just a few days before.
For the recording session, we carried mattresses downstairs to prop up against the windows to block road noise, and the construction crew working on the house next door kindly agreed not to use any noisy equipment that day so that we could record as quietly as possible.
The sound effects for the stories that are included on the tape/CD were done at the end of the day, when the musicians and children had all gone home. This left the two recording engineers, plus the percussionist, A. Nonymous -- aka Cindy Crawford and me. The two of us got more and more punchy as we tried out various "strikers" to get a magical sound out of the chimes. After trying pencils, mixing spoons and assorted other items, we found the right tool (a screwdriver!) but by then, due to recurring bursts of uncontrollable laughter, we had to keep starting over. It was really late when we could finally declare the recording "done"...