Monkey Uncle wrote:
Lee Knight wrote:
I'll be going for a modern version of this...
Are you going to grow an awesome mullet too?
Upon first listen, I found myself agreeing with OGP and Os about the need to make it sound lazier/sadder/drunker. But after listening to Justin's sample, I don't think that's the right take, either. Sounds too draggy, especially in the chorus.
I think it might just be the soft tone of the fingerpicked guitar that makes the rough demo sound too pretty. Give it a good honky-tonk production, and I think you'll be fine.
That's what they call a drawl, not a drag. 
I have to admit that I'm not hearing what you are hearing. Give that sucker a decent arrangement, particularly in the chorus, and I don't think it would drag at all. But what do I know? 
I'm coming at this fresh, since I wasn't a part of the original crit. For me, "Dancing the Bottle" doesn't quite hang--it sounds like (or maybe is) a play on a phrase that I'm not familiar with. Either "The Bottle" is a dance that I haven't heard of, or I'm wanting to hear "dancing WITH the bottle". As someone who's just walked into the room, it feels like the title has evolved from an original idea, to the point that it can be tracked back to the original impulse, but got away from the intended meaning.
Aside from that, I like the melody--it's so hard to not just retread an old melody when doing country music, but you've got a couple of left turns that are unexpected but still feel natural. As you're singing it right now, the "bot-tle" in the chorus is really spaced out, to the point that I don't know if I would have even recognized the word had I not been reading the lryic--Bod Hill? Baw Dill?
Originally Posted by gennation
Lee Knight wrote:
...it is too fast right now. I had some issues with getting a shuffle represented on the guitar and sort of choked there. So the tempo will be more closely matched with the Crowel tune.
It's hard for me to swing and play like I'm hearing. But tracking it out... I think it'll be cool. And hopefully display a little humor and sadness instead of just sadness.
Hey once it's a hit, let someone else do the slow version as a cover.
I don't think I could get into the shuffle feel with that fingerpicking treatment very easily, either. A simple chug-chug-chug-a-chug strum on the beat sets me free to imply the swing in the vocal phrasing - that's how I do scratch tracks for shuffles. Makes it easy on myself...
nat whilk ii
nat whilk II wrote:
Lee Knight wrote:
...it is too fast right now. I had some issues with getting a shuffle represented on the guitar and sort of choked there. So the tempo will be more closely matched with the Crowel tune.
It's hard for me to swing and play like I'm hearing. But tracking it out... I think it'll be cool. And hopefully display a little humor and sadness instead of just sadness.
Hey once it's a hit, let someone else do the slow version as a cover.
I don't think I could get into the shuffle feel with that fingerpicking treatment very easily, either. A simple chug-chug-chug-a-chug strum on the beat sets me free to imply the swing in the vocal phrasing - that's how I do scratch tracks for shuffles. Makes it easy on myself...
nat whilk ii
Thanks Nat. Yeah, the fingerpicking was a last minute attempt to at least get the song out here for input. The chug-chug shuffle I could barely manage was sad. The day before I tried 3 or 4 times and just bailed on it and tried the picking the next day and could at least manage to get through, got the gist of the song across, and move on.
So yeah, fingerpicking is not happening and I never really thought if was. This is going to depend on a groove from drums for me to be able to represent it on guitar. Shuffles are something that at one time I was good at but... that's been 20 years now. All that intuitive feel for that style is no longer... intuitive.
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