VOM1T November 2018

[garthman]

Time for some music again.

 

It was quite a coincidence to hear a song about Mary Queen of Scots from MrHarryReems last month because a few days earlier I had decided to start work on a song about her too. Not a traditional song but one written by Sandy Denny, then a member of Fairport Convention. She named it "Fotheringay" after the castle - one of several - where she was imprisoned in England and where she was ultimately executed for treason.

 

Fotheringay by Sandy Denny (from Fairport Convention album "What we did on our holidays")

 

 

https://app.box.com/s/mk7xol3aecv5x57utgvsa4muwv9qat6z

 

 

Recorded in one take with a single Toshiba EM-120 * condenser microphone about 18 inches in front of me. Recorded with Audacity via an Avid Mbox.

 

* the microphone was a good score - on sale for "spares & repairs" because not working so I bid £1.50 thinking the integral cable was worth that much but only to discover that when I replaced the battery it worked fine. He he.

[Etienne Rambert]

As a project to learn new recording software, I re-arranged two Jerry Lee Lewis

honky tonk songs for acoustic.

 

I thought it would be easy. It turned out to be ridiculously difficult.

 

My synth, film-scorish music sounds difficult but it's easy.

 

After this, I'm going back to the synths.

 

When Baby Gets the Blues

 

This has been an extended exercise in humiliation. Listen to his original & you'll understand.

[DeepEnd]

I have a couple of recordings ready but I need to upload them so nothing until tomorrow. Stay tuned.

 

garthman - Well done. I hadn't heard that one and had to track down the original. Thanks for posting. (BTW, nice score on the microphone. )

Etienne Rambert - Yeah, it's easy to look down on "honky tonk" music when you don't what goes into some of it. Lewis is a classic of the genre and you did fine.

[DeepEnd]

I'm having trouble uploading files to my usual hosting service so I'm going to upload Lo-Fi versions directly to HC for now. You probably recall that I'm a SF fan and one aspect of fandom is "filk," songs with an SF/fantasy theme. Each year for the last several, our regional SF con has had a "tin filker" competition where you're given a theme a week before the con and asked to write a song. I'm sharing a couple of my entries. First is "Failure to Launch," based on the same theme, which won this year. The vocal isn't great but I hope you'll enjoy the song on its individual merits or lack thereof. The second is "The Land of Love," from two years ago, based on the theme "The final frontier." It wasn't an official entry because I got the times confused and showed up after the competition was over.

[Etienne Rambert]

DeepEnd:

 

Failure to Launch is great. You're so good w/ lyrics like that. You have a real gift for that kind of song.

It's not honky tonk. But it's tear in your beer music. And you're a master of it.

 

Land of Love:

 

I personally don't connect w/ this song as much. It's a lovely set of lyrics.

I didn't like the line ending w/ "in that frontier called death". But that's purely subjective.

I can't fault the lyrics at all.

 

Garthman:

 

The mic has improved your recording quality. Your voice & your playing here are very nice.

You come across as confident & wise on this song.

--

 

I wish there'd been a better turn-out this month.

 

[DeepEnd]

DeepEnd:

 

Failure to Launch is great. You're so good w/ lyrics like that. You have a real gift for that kind of song.

It's not honky tonk. But it's tear in your beer music. And you're a master of it.

 

Land of Love:

 

I personally don't connect w/ this song as much. It's a lovely set of lyrics.

I didn't like the line ending w/ "in that frontier called death". But that's purely subjective. . . .

Thanks. I was thinking of "Failure to Launch" as being more Blues oriented but yeah, "tear in your beer" works. "The Land of Love" was supposed to be about two people exploring life together and then whatever comes next. It just kinda grew organically from the basic theme. No, the line "in that frontier called 'death'" isn't upbeat but it's real life, about a love that transcends even death.

[Samilyn]

I liked both. Well done, gents.

 

[catscurlyear]

Great lyrics and catchy melodys, great stuff as usual Deepend.

[catscurlyear]

your vocal style is very distinct nice one and great recording

[catscurlyear]

Hi Howard nice choice of song again and great performance, i liked your audacity recording too .

here`s my choice this month it`s the Tears For Fears song Mad World done on my Tanglewood tuned down a full tone and recorded direct/ mic into the unpredictable but nice sounding Tascam us 2x2 .Ta

[DeepEnd]

Thanks for the kind words.

[DeepEnd]

I liked both. Well done' date=' gents.[/quote']

Both what? When you posted there were four songs posted. Two out of four ain't good.

[DeepEnd]

catscurlyear - Well done. I wasn't familiar with the song so I listened to the original. I appreciated your relatively striped down version. I can't finger pick worth a darn. I can do it but it sounds lame, at least to me.

[catscurlyear]

cheers deepend ,i was sort of copying gary jules version ,i`m suprised you havn`t heard that one,although it is very different from the original.

[Idunno]

Well, UPS brought me these new cans today while I was trimming up the monster oak tree in my front yard. Almost felt like it was an excuse to postpone the job but I decided to see it through.

 

Garthman got a new mic and a good song to pipe through it. Nice work as usual and I can say that the mic is an improvement, as are these news ears of mine.

 

Deep, nice work. I can hear in your voice some holding back. Don't. Drive around at night piping off to your windshield, if you need the seclusion to practice, but I think you could probably damn a few more torpedoes in both of these recordings. Good work.

 

Etienne, humility aside, your voice works well in this blues lament and the score is good, so I'm not feeling what you're saying. It's a good listen start-finish.

 

Cats, great rendition - restyling if you will - of a song I thought disappeared too quickly (kinda like life, I guess). Good stuff as usual.

 

Music has been on the back burner for some months as my focus has been shifted. Might contribute in December.

 

Thanks for keeping the vigil.

[DeepEnd]

. . . Deep' date=' nice work. I can hear in your voice some holding back. Don't. Drive around at night piping off to your windshield, if you need the seclusion to practice, but I think you could probably damn a few more torpedoes in both of these recordings. Good work. . . .[/quote']

Thanks for the kind words. I'm not a belt-it-out singer and it takes a bit to come out of that. I'll try to work on it though.

[catscurlyear]

thank you.

[garthman]

Well done, everyone. Next VOM will be the weekend of 15th / 16th December. Some Christmas songs would be good but, as usual, anything goes.

[garthman]

I loved it, Marc.

[garthman]

Two great songs, Deep.

[garthman]

Oh that was so very good, Cats.

[DeepEnd]

Thanks.

[MrHarryReems]

Sorry I'm late to the party this month, no excuse but laziness on my part.

 

Garthman: I love this. I'd heard *of* this song, but I'd not heard it. The guitar is very well played, and well sung. Very good job from start to finish, and being a Scottish tune gives it extra points.

 

Etienne: As DeepEnd stated, Honky Tonk can be deceptively difficult, but you pulled it off. Nice work on the guitar especially, and good work pulling it all together. I did notice what seemed to be a bit of a timing issue toward the beginning, but I also know that much like Scottish music, this sort of music often lends itself to peculiar timing. You said you were going back to the synths last month, and I'm glad you didn't. I really appreciate hearing your music month to month.

 

DeepEnd: I can honestly say that these are the two songs this month that I most wanted to listen to, and the links aren't working!! Any chance you can upload to something like instaud.io??

 

catscurlyear: Dude, you did NOT disappoint with this one. I was thoroughly impressed with this fabulous arrangement of a great tune. Fabulous job!

 

Here are my subs for this month:

 

The first one is a song about a Scottish whaling ship that was reportedly written by one of her' sailors just before her last voyage, where she was caught in an ice flow and went down with all hands.

 

The Bonnie Ship The Diamond

 

I recorded this one with the following:

Taylor 814ce

Squier J bass

Muramatsu EX flute

I cheated on this one and layered in a Carvin DC400W electric guitar over the choruses.

The vox, guitar, and flute were recorded with an Avantone CV-12 tube mic, the bass and 'guest' guitar with a GLS Audio ES57.

 

There's still a bit too much punch in the snare, so it could use a bit more work in the mix.

 

The second one is an interesting tune. There are many versions of this song, from sailor shanties to chorale versions, to things you wouldn't sing in decent company. It's mostly used in reference to Irish seamen coming home for the winter. I really wrote the arrangement to use a fiddle as the lead instrument, but since I don't play one of those, you get the flute.

 

Whup! Jamoboree

 

I recorded this one with the following:

Taylor 814ce

Dean 6 string banjo

Dean acoustic bass

Muramatsu EX flute

 

Everything but the bass was recorded with the Avantone. The bass was a blend of the ES57 and a DI.

 

 

 

 

[MrHarryReems]

Sorry I'm late to the party this month, no excuse but laziness on my part.

 

Garthman: I love this. I'd heard *of* this song, but I'd not heard it. The guitar is very well played, and well sung. Very good job from start to finish, and being a Scottish tune gives it extra points.

 

Etienne: As DeepEnd stated, Honky Tonk can be deceptively difficult, but you pulled it off. Nice work on the guitar especially, and good work pulling it all together. I did notice what seemed to be a bit of a timing issue toward the beginning, but I also know that much like Scottish music, this sort of music often lends itself to peculiar timing. You said you were going back to the synths last month, and I'm glad you didn't. I really appreciate hearing your music month to month.

 

DeepEnd: I can honestly say that these are the two songs this month that I most wanted to listen to, and the links aren't working!! Any chance you can upload to something like instaud.io??

 

catscurlyear: Dude, you did NOT disappoint with this one. I was thoroughly impressed with this fabulous arrangement of a great tune. Fabulous job!

 

Here are my subs for this month:

 

The first one is a song about a Scottish whaling ship that was reportedly written by one of her' sailors just before her last voyage, where she was caught in an ice flow and went down with all hands.

 

The Bonnie Ship The Diamond

 

I recorded this one with the following:

Taylor 814ce

Squier J bass

Muramatsu EX flute

I cheated on this one and layered in a Carvin DC400W electric guitar over the choruses.

The vox, guitar, and flute were recorded with an Avantone CV-12 tube mic, the bass and 'guest' guitar with a GLS Audio ES57.

 

There's still a bit too much punch in the snare, so it could use a bit more work in the mix.

 

The second one is an interesting tune. There are many versions of this song, from sailor shanties to chorale versions, to things you wouldn't sing in decent company. It's mostly used in reference to Irish seamen coming home for the winter. I really wrote the arrangement to use a fiddle as the lead instrument, but since I don't play one of those, you get the flute.

 

Whup! Jamoboree

 

I recorded this one with the following:

Taylor 814ce

Dean 6 string banjo

Dean acoustic bass

Muramatsu EX flute

 

Everything but the bass was recorded with the Avantone. The bass was a blend of the ES57 and a DI.

 

 

Cheers!

-Reems

 

[DeepEnd]

MrHarryReems - Both were well done. Always glad to hear from you. )

 

. . . DeepEnd: I can honestly say that these are the two songs this month that I most wanted to listen to' date=' and the links aren't working!! Any chance you can upload to something like instaud.io?? . . .[/quote']

Sorry you couldn't hear them. When I try to upload music to my usual hosting site I get a "Security Error" message and I haven't heard back from their tech support.