Little Rock! In keeping with what is apparently a US tradition of misleading placenames, Little Rock is actually a Large City. I understand that in 1722 a French explorer landed near a some rock formation on the Arkansas River and named it la Petite Roche. For those of you who no habla Francais, that means “the little rock.”

Seriously great name, Jean-Baptiste Benard de la Harpe. Keep up that exploring, but maybe let other people name stuff, OK?

Anyway, I had the mad hookups in Little Rock due entirely to my good friend Ramón Chaparro. Unfortunately I was unable to fully utilize those hookups due to the aforementioned delays in Memphis. I arrived in Little Rock at about 10:00pm, too late to get any recording done.

But not too late to have a pleasant evening with Ramón’s parents. They were my hosts for the evening and set me up in comfort and style.

“What was that you said earlier about the circle being complete?” asks the nearby ugly passerby, who is as of yet unnamed (you guys need to get on that, readers).

Funny you would ask that, ugly passerby, because long ago, Ramón was making an epic roadtrip from Little Rock to Portland (where he now resides and where you will see him later) and he stayed with my family in Omaha. Now, here I was staying with his parents. The circle is complete.

“Are you the master now?”

Not really. That would be He-Man.

“Oh, right. And She-Ra.”

Yes, thank you for covering my non-PC blunder.

“So did you record anyone?” asks Attractive Girl, getting us back on topic.

Yes! Not many people were available during the day on a weekday for some reason, but I did record with one fellow who got off work early enough that we could meet up before I had to leave. That fellow was one Kevin McCormack, a drummer and percussion wizard.

Kevin’s super power is tabla drumming, which he has picked up in recent years. I thought I knew what that was, but I was mistaken. This is tabla drumming, as opposed to what I thought, which I won’t say so as not to reveal my weaknesses to my enemies. It has a really broad sound, with sharp metallic highs and organic lows, and was an awesome sound to get on the project.

Another way in which Kevin is like Superman is that he can move so fast that he becomes blurry.

Kevin told me he was intrigued by tabla drumming because it is reputedly one of the hardest drums to play. Kevin has been studying under a tabla teacher, and from my perspective, that teacher has done a great job. If you see him, please congratulate him on behalf of this project.

NEXT: Meet me in St. Louis, Louis.