Way back in March 2010 we updated you on the result of an auction which had on offer a recording session with Jon Carin, renowned producer and musician for the likes of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, and David Gilmour, which was won by BD regular Mark Owen Nutto.

Mark told us then that "recording with Jon was a blast and it was much more than I expected it to be. Up front, I had a little apprehension, so I'll tell you a few things of my experience that [others] might find of interest. After winning the auction, I sent Jon three of my songs, in a demo form, and he provided guidance on the one he thought best for recording. I sent him the song in a Pro Tools file in advance of our recording session. When the day finally came to record in a professional studio in Manhattan NY, I didn't quite know what to expect, as I have never hung out with any “rock stars” before. Would he bite off the head of a bat like Ozzy Osbourne? How was the song going to turn out? How much time would we have?

"Well, Jon is quite the professional, not only on how he approaches music, but on how he conducts himself. Musically, it was quite interesting on how he built the song up by recording tracks that started with a shaker track, then moved on to tambourine, snare drum, bass guitar, Kurzweil keyboards, lap steel, harmony vocals, and lead and rhythm guitar played with his trusty Gibson Firebird. It was quite amazing on how, in the space of a few hours, Jon built the song up until it became a quite beautiful and moving song. The next day was spent on mixing in Pro Tools HD and Jon went at it again using DigiDesign plug-ins and his expert ear.

"All along the way he was asking me what I thought and was open to any suggestions and input I had. In addition, Jon was relaxed in talking about all things Pink Floyd and even gave me a pointer or two on guitar playing. When I was a 15 year old lad, it was listening to David Gilmour's leads on Shine on you Crazy Diamond that led me to pick up guitar playing and subsequently to become a huge Pink Floyd Fan (saw the Animals, Wall, MLOR, Division Bell, and all the solo tours). So now, a few decades down the road, having an opportunity to record with a member of Pink Floyd is a dream come true and in some ways completes a full circle."

Well, the CD - Pavlov's Chalkboard by The Unemployed Teachers - is now available to buy, having been released at the end of 2014, and features special guest appearances by Jon Carin (on guitars, vocals, keyboards and percussion!) on Running With The Wind, and Greg Hawkes of The Cars, on Little Child. It's a really interesting album, quite heavily acoustic but with a variety of instrumentation used throughout. There's one track which is reminiscent of Wish You Were Here, betraying Mark's love of the Floyd! You can order it now from Amazon.com and also CDBaby.