"(The Only Good) Fire Ant..." genre: Acoustic
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	I get more requests to play 'Fire Ant' at my shows than any other song. This acoustic guitar finger-style tune features Alan Davis on fretless bass and Brandon Bumpas on drums and percussion.
	MP3.com CD: Surface Tension - buy it! CD: Surface Tension Credits: Michael Earhart - acoustic guitars Alan Davis - Hamer fretless bass Brandon Bumpas - drums, percussion
	Story Behind the Song This happy little tune was conceived while I was spreading a fire ant chemical in my front yard. Fire ants are nasty little critters. I was singing some sort of nonsensical words at the time, when it dawned on me that I had a new song on my hands. I went back into the house, picked up my guitar and had the basic structure of the song in no time. For you guitar players out there I'm using a Third Hand Capo in an Esus tuning for this tune, which means if I ever lose that capo, I won't be able to play this song in concert. The acoustic guitars on this and all of the other songs on this album are tuned down ½ step before any other trickery is employed. I like the loose feel of the strings tuned down and I enjoy the inter-modulation of the lower strings more that way. Plus, on the occasion when I sing, it makes it easier for me to hit some notes. This may be the first album with a credit to the Amdro Company. 'Fire Ant' was the second tune I began working on, the first day in the studio, August 6th, 2001. This song was inexplicably difficult from the get-go, and I ended up spending time during 9 different sessions tweaking, correcting, overdubbing and on one occasion re-recording an accidentally erased rhythm guitar part. To begin with, I recorded a stereo scratch guitar track for the bass and drums overdubbing sessions on August 15th, 22nd, September 12th, and October 1st. Unconcerned with accuracy with the scratch track I made quite a few mistakes, thinking that it didn't matter since it would not be kept in the final product. I was to find out that even scratch tracks require more discipline and effort than I initially put forth. Brandon Bumpas arrived on the 15th for the first percussion overdub session, and after he inspected the DW drum kit in the studio he pronounced it fine and proceeded to set up his snare and cymbals. After a 45-minute sound check we were ready to start. Brandon, Nick Wallace (engineer) and I huddled together in the control room, listening to the scratch track. I described to Brandon what I was hearing for percussion parts, and he had some great ideas of his own. I am not a percussionist, and though he was very receptive to my ideas, I was smart enough to give him free reign to play what he wanted. Brandon pointed out something strange rhythmically with the scratch guitar in one section just prior to where the bass solo was to occur. I listened to the part again carefully, and he was right. I had made a critical error in my ability to count to 4, namely I had left out the '3' downbeat. Since I had my guitar at the studio we punched in the corrected part and Nick made it sound great. After the drums were added Brandon laid down the congas and shakers. He came back on October 1 and added triangle and vibra-slap to the mix. Alan Davis arrived on August 22nd with his Hamer fretless bass. Alan doesn't really care for bass solos, but I talked him into performing one for the song. He was in the studio less than ½ hour and he was finished. Doesn't he sound great? I love the harmonic note he placed in the 1st measure of the beginning of each verse. And the sliding harmonic note at the end of the tune? Too cool! After we had the bass and percussion lines recorded it was time to get the guitars in shape. There was a slight delay in the proceedings when my Fishman Rare Earth pickup I installed on my Taylor 414CE quit working. I intended to use that pickup along with the Fishman Prefix that came factory installed on my Taylor for stereo spread and tone texture. I contacted Fishman direct and they got a replacement out to me within a few days. I recorded rhythm guitars on August 27th, lead guitars on the 29th, and tweaked the guitars in a few places on September 10th. I re-recorded the accidentally erased guitars on October 1st, and pronounced the song finished.

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