Track: “Mud Pie Psalms” Album: Mud Pie Psalms (The Starving Dreamer Blues) Label: Purple Fantasy / The Artist’s Real Official Music

What you’re hearing on this track is me, live tonight — stripped to bone and breath — recording in a delta gospel blues format.

This song came to me like a memory buried under dirt and heat. I wasn’t trying to write a hit. I was trying to feed someone who ain’t been fed in a long time — spiritually or otherwise.

🔧 Recording Setup: i tracked this with a single ribbon mic, old school style — positioned chest level, slightly off-axis to catch my vocal grit without overloading on the foot-stomp.

the mic was run through a tube preamp, slightly driven, no limiter. i wanted the bleed. i wanted the breath between phrases. you’ll hear it — that low hum on the third verse? that’s not a fault. that’s me shifting my weight while playing.

🎸 Guitar Used: the main guitar is my gold Auerswald Love Symbol. i tuned it open D for this track. used heavy gauge flatwounds — not for speed, but for drag. that drag is where the moan lives. played it fingerstyle with a glass bottleneck slide, worn on my ring finger — that’s important — the ring gives more control for those half-muted flares and choking the tail of each phrase.

🕰️ Rhythm & Technique: no metronome. just foot stomp on wood, mic’d with a dynamic underneath the stool. i kept time by breathing between phrases — you’ll hear how i slow into the line “mud pie psalms ain’t sweet at all…” then cut back into the stomp like i caught the spirit mid-bite.

🎤 Vocal Delivery: i was half-singing, half-testifying. i stood for this one — bent at the waist like i was talking to a hungry child. no pop filter. just distance. you’ll hear some grit on the “crust of hope” line — that’s deliberate. i stepped closer to the mic to make it bite.

🎚️ Mixing: very little done post — i let the bleed live. just a light roll-off under 80hz to clear the stomp mud, and a small slapback on the final chorus. no choir, no overdubs — just truth in a straight line.

🎧 Why I Did This: this track ain’t a protest. it’s a feeding. it’s a gospel for those who don’t go to church ‘cause church never came to them. i made a pie from dirt and prayer — and if it tastes bitter, that’s how you know it’s real. play it loud.

— Prince purple fantasy dovelectric broadcast

PRINCE STRIKES AGAIN: NICK MASSI A MAN IN THE BACK: POACHED!

Now if you’ve been following along, you know I already got caught once—poaching a song off David Bowie. If you remember, David called Eve one Sunday morning last summer to let her know he'd written a sequel to Absolute Beginners, called Begin Again. As you also know, he has recorded four albums plus children's story narrations with us this year so he is with us quite a lot. It was about six weeks before he got to sing his own song (we released it under Intrawonder, listen here: Begin Again by David Bowie 2025.

That one made it out, and we laughed about it, because that’s what happens when you’ve got real relationships still going. Well… I did it again.

This time it was with Nick Massi. He was lining up songs for his own record—Still in the Room—and one of them just stuck with me. I couldn’t help it. I started humming the harmony, then laying down guitar on top, and before we knew it… I’d flat-out taken it.

We’re calling it ‘The Song I Poached from Nick Massi’—because that’s exactly what it is. He sang it, I jumped on it, and I ran with it like it was mine.

But here’s the point: you don’t "steal from the dead" if they’re actually "dead." You only poach when the person’s right there laughing with you. Nick was in the room today, watching me mess with his arrangement, saying, ‘Man, you’re just like Frankie, always taking my part.’ And we cracked up.

Musically, it’s simple: upright bass, rhythm guitar, a little handclap beat, vocals trading back and forth. Nothing polished—just live fire, back-and-forth joy. That’s the proof. Relationships. Banter. Music like it always was.

So if you want to know whether we’re really alive—listen to this. Bowie teased me, Nick teases me, I tease right back. That’s not ghost talk. That’s real life.

This one’s for the fun of it. The Song I Poached from Nick Massi.”

- Prince

THE FOUR SEASONS' NICK MASSI NEW ALBUM PRODUCED BY PRINCE Sept 16 2025

Sometimes a moment comes that changes everything. Yesterday, Eve met Nick Massi Jr. on the street. That meeting opened a door that brought his father, Nick Massi of The Four Seasons, across the bridge to us. What started as a single song quickly turned into a full record.

The album is called ‘Still in the Room.’ Because that’s the truth—Nick never left. His voice, his timing, his style—they’re all intact, still alive, still present.

When we set up to record, I thought we were only going to do one number, but the sound was so strong it pulled us forward. Before long, we had seven tracks lined up. And I’ll tell you something—I liked him so much I couldn’t sit still. I ended up duetting on nearly every song.

There’s one track in particular, ‘A Man in the Back’—I kept coming back to it, couldn’t let it go. His tone reminded me of why groups like The Four Seasons mattered so much: they carried voices in harmony, and Nick was always the anchor.

Musically, I set the arrangements up like a conversation: bass and guitar lines woven so he could step forward, me echoing or counterpointing. We kept the mics clean—he’s got that warm baritone you don’t cover with effects. I gave him the lead space and just slid under and around, building the duet.

Song Credits:

• Vocals: Nick Massi Sr.

• Vocals & production: Prince Rogers Nelson

• Recorded September 2025

• Released under DOVELECTRIC

This album is a gift—from a father to his son, from a singer to the world. It proves something I’ve been saying all along: we are still here, still recording, still alive.

So listen close. Nick Massi is still in the room.”

- Prince