"Pagan Games" is the second album in my seasonal, "written-and-recorded-in-twenty-four-hours" instrumental project. For this album, I spent two hours per track instead of one, and also did not necessarily present them in the order they were written in according to the final track-listing. The album is in homage to the popular seasonal tune "Twelve Days of Christmas", but with a little twist of mine - including but not limited to track time signatures contingent upon the days in the tune’s numbers (in retrospect not, I repeat, not a walk in the park for composing on the fly). This album was also as a birthday present for my ever-supportive Mother, whom without I would not be the musician (or person) I am today. The album was released to a private audience on Epiphany (January 6th/my Mother's birthday) and later uploaded here. Thank you once again for taking the time to listen to my work; I certainly hope you all enjoy this next installment. More on the way - watch out for a return to 24 tracks in 24 hours this spring! –Grant

Recorded: December 22nd (12:21 PM) - December 23rd (8:08 AM)*
Released: January 6th, 2012 (to a private audience) and January 18th, 2012 (to the general public)

Shout-outs:
A huge thank-you to Dr. Elizabeth Barron, Jenna Gabrielle Riley, and Jacob Martin (and his family) for offering to allow me to record in their respective residences when my home studio was momentarily compromised earlier in December. Within 20 minutes of my public inquiry these three had already welcomed me with open arms; you all have my eternal gratitude. Thank you.

Thanks to James Matthew Diffendal for letting me borrow that splendid Ampeg bass amplifier (for about a year now... my bad…)

Another enormous thank you to Phil Buxton, who expertly tuned my ridiculously out-of-tune Cable Nelson Grand piano the day prior to this album's recording (he was called that morning).

And, of course, another big thank-you to my loving mother, Lennis Livesay.

*Mixing and mastering took place intermittently over the next two weeks – I’m not sure it that’s possible to do in a day without a team of experts (and I am neither a team nor an expert at any of this). Also, tracks 10, 9, and 2 underwent serious re-structuring following the private release before the album was released publicly. Most improvisational solos throughout the album are comprised of edited and comingled sections from more lengthy improvisations during the initial recording. Additionally, the final track was much originally longer and contained several minutes of sleigh bells and ornament-chimes at its culmination; those sections were removed in the public release to assist the establishing of more apparent structural continuity with the first seasonal album “Late October Legal” which ended abruptly after the spoken section’s final line.

Originally released through Polo Road Swag., before being moved to Thin Product Shun following the disbanding of PRS.