Category: Musicology
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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…
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Picking up steam
A little while back we all agreed things felt like they were starting to drag a bit, and since then we’ve been making rapid progress toward completing the recording of all the parts for all the songs on this record. This month has been another ambitious one. Just a week or so ago we went…
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Twice in an orange moon
We got back into Goody Sound studio a second time this month and got a lot work done on six of the twelve songs for my album. For one (“Saint Lucifer”) we just tweaked a bass note or something so no real update to share there. As always these “Pleasant Valley Sessions” are produced by…
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Down to the studio
This record recording process started a year ago in February and for twelve months through January of this year we recorded one song a month, getting the basic tracks down. Since then we’ve been working on the arrangements and recording overdubs. I feel like we’re building momentum here toward the finish. In the meantime, I’ve…
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Building the sound
In May, after a couple of grueling weeks at work, we got back into Goody Sound for a nice long session overdubbing four of the songs for my album. (As always, these are sneak peeks of rough mixes, works in progress.) Carnegie Hill Jeremy Goody is a fantastic engineer with razor-sharp ears, and Megasonic Sound…
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Can the drummer get some?
New job and all, excuses excuses, still playing catch-up, so anyhow back in April I was back at Megasonic with product David Gans and engineer/co-producer Jeremy Goody with magnificent drummer John Hanes (who already added impeccable parts to “Saint Lucifer” and “Dirty Ol’ Sunshine”) in the house again, this this time to add a little…
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Like leading lambs
We’ve kept plugging away on the album project. Back around March we went back into the studio to clean up a few of the basic tracks. For example, we cut out the extra chorus after the bridge in “All I Know” and we shortened the intro the “Long Haired King.” I’m still not happy with…
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Let’s pour one out
What a long, strange year it’s been, recording one song a month for twelve months running for my record, Layers of Meta. We started with a song I had just started writing, “The Long Haired Kings,” last February. That day in the studio was just my producer and friend, David Gans; our engineer and co-producer,…
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Swim-two-birds logo ideas
As part of my songwriting trip I established a music publishing company for publishing my songs and managing that side of their rights (I also signed up with BMI for the songwriter side of the equation, and included my alias, Crispy Bacon). The company is called At Swim-Two-Birds Music in full but generally I just…
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You’ll know when
This whole album project evolved somewhat naturally from my ongoing songwriting efforts. As far as I can tell, writing songs is the best writing medium for me. I’ve written short stories, novels, poetry, and plays, and in each case I feel that I was able to carve out something worthwhile from time to time, but…
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Dirty ol’ tune
In that same spirit of catching my breath toward the end of the year I find I never did share any of the rough mixes of the third song we recorded this year, which must have been back in April. This one benefited a lot from having John Hanes on drums, and I feel he…
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Nobody called it that
At least in my day, nobody called our neighborhood on the upper east side “Carnegie Hill,” although that’s what they call it today and maybe some folks, like realtors, even called it that back then. A bunch of things converged in 2020. I was getting a bit more intentional about songwriting. I read the wonderful…
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Why I use a chamois
So a lot have been going on. Usually I rush over here breathless with excitement about my latest recording session but now I’m in catch-up mode again. Back in October I took off a long weekend for my birthday, and on that Friday went to Megasonic to record “Sham Song” (also known as “Chanson”). After…