I've been working a lot lately on the follow-up to Pairs, and recently finished tracking some cello and alto saxophone for it. Apparently my alto sax is totaled, for all practical purposes, and I sure as hell don't own a cello, so I ended up renting both of them for a month. I hadn't played much cello before, but found that a lot of the technique from my string bass playing days came in handy.
Tracking for the new album is probably about 80% done, with mostly vocals and some guitar, bass, and drum spots here and there. Nothing that's left is quite as interesting as the cello and sax, and so I say to them "Adios fellas-- it was a glorious month."