Category: Musicology
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The mixdown
Naturally, there is a learning curve to recording an album. Of course there are more than one way to do that as well, but the way I am doing mine has gone something like this so far: So anyhow, as noted above we started the preliminary mixing last November 13, getting two of the track…
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I surrender, I surrender!
We got back into the studio (at last!) on October 21, 2024, as “Down to the Mountain” completed its evolution from string-band ditty to secular gospel roof-raiser. Down to the Mountain We met for a rare evening recording session at Goody Sound to get these harmony vocals added to “Down to the Mountain.” Lorna Kollmeyer,…
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Hacking time
As I’ve gotten older like everyone else I have noticed how time speeds up. Each new days is a smaller fraction of your life than the previous one. A summer that lasted a lifetime when you were nine passes in the blink of an eye when you are 50. But there is a positive side!…
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And you can sing along
Because of a variety of scheduling vicissitudes (some good, some less so, but all’s well that ends well) we got back to Goody Sound last week with singer Lorna Kollmeyer, who added her voice to three of the songs on the record (with more to come, stay tuned). Side note: I sing all twelve tunes…
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The new phonebook is here!
I was unwinding on Friday afternoon near the end of a long week and tuned into Human Music with Bill the Cat on Humboldt Hot Air, coming soon to actual airwaves near you (if you live near Humboldt, one would assume). As expected (disclosure: I am long time fan of Bill’s deejaying, mixtape, and playlist…
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We all got drownded
Playing around with short clips, I recorded the first verse of “Moses” a capella, the second with just percussion, the next few on acoustic ukulele, the few after that on the same acoustic plugged into an app, and the final verse on my electric uke. Recorded over the course of several days and then stitched…
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Dirty ol’ lie
Quick reel from October 4 with my electric ukulele and a looper.
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It’s not about you, man
Then on September 30, I recorded this live version of “Saint Lucifer,” which started off (and still is, when I play it solo) a Dylanesque folk song with a hook vaguely reminiscent of Casey Jones. It has evolved, on the record, into more of a rocker.
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News is fake and the world is flat
and a junkie’s in the alley with a baseball bat! (Sep 26 2024)
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Cigarettes and Skoal
For the record, I know the signature drink at Pedro’s was the kamikaze, but hurricanes scanned better. (Recorded September 22, 2024.)
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He didn’t get it from the wind
This is one of the last tunes I wrote for the album and in some ways it’s my favorite, in that it doesn’t really imitate a specific stye or other type of song, exactly, though the other day I wondered if maybe it was a bit influenced by mid-70s Floyd stuff like “Wish Your Were…
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Don’t tell me all your secrets, talking crow!
This song, “Down to the Mountain,” is made from some of the oldest ingredients. On the album it has developed into a kind of secular gospel tune but when I play it solo, as I did here on September 19, 2024, it’s still bog-standard string-band stylee:
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Verdigris and indigo
I was in the midst of writing”The Long Haired Kings” when I first went into the studio to start working on the album, so we tackled it first. Here’s a live version from September 16, 2024:
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A scientist’s dream
Since “Giving Zoo Wolves Lessons in Music” is something of a jam-oriented song, I thought it would be fun to work up a loop (with a bass ukulele, then a baritone ukulele, then an amplified acoustic concert ukulele) before singing and playing the song and taking some solos on an electric ukulele. It’s long enough…
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We spent divine nights
Lyrics by Peter K. Hirsch, music by me. (This one recorded September 12, 2024.)
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No one does it solo only
Then on September 11, I posted this live take of “All I Know (Finn’s Song)“:
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Before I ever wrote a real song
A live take of “Sham Song” from September 9:
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The show must go on
For the first time since starting this recording project back in February of 2023, we were not able to schedule at least one session last September. Around the same time, Cecil and I got together to play a little and I struggled to find my hands on my own tune, “The Long Haired Kings.” This…
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Palette nearly full
At this point we may have recorded all of the instrumental parts. I mean, we reserve the right to add a trombone here or a french horn there, maybe a synth part, etc., but for now we have got all the instruments recorded according to the current plan. Next month we’ll work on backing and…
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Third time’s the charm
We squeezed one more studio session at Goody Sound into July, to do a little more work on two o the songs. The Long Haired Kings Working on “The Long Haired Kings” a week earlier we noticed there was bleed from my original scratch vocal onto the basic rhythm track David Gans had played, so…
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Connecting dots
We got a lot of work done on the record in July. After the steel sessions covered in the previous post, we came back a week later to get Joe Kyle Jr.‘s upright bass onto three tracks and for me to add ukulele fills to another. As I noted in one social media post, “Picking…