Monday, June 28, 2010

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy - Session 7

Secret Garden
Fallen

Did the guitar parts for the above tracks this past Sunday. It went surprisingly well & quickly. As I'm still getting to grips with my guitar & amp it's kind of hit & miss what sound is cominng out at the moment. I managed to find a nice crunchy tone for Secret Garden, which is how I always invisaged it, however on playback it sounded too crunchy. It's something we're going to have to try to fix during mixing as I didn't want to spend all day trying to get the right sound. I did three guitar parts, the crunch for the beginning & end of the track, a smoother quieter tone for the middle section & finally a guitar line for where the guitar drops out during the first verse. Not sure how it's going to sound until it comes time to mix but I think it's all there.

'Fallen' was done similarly only with the smooth guitar for the majority & the crunch for the middle section, again it came together easily so fingers crossed it comes across that way during mixing. I don't want to go back & re-do any parts so I'm hoping it all sounds ok.

That's all the guitar work done now but I'm going to re-do 'Only a fool', it's the only song I haven't been happy with so I'm going to re-do the whole thing, I want that song to song good cause it's a potential song to give radio after 'Jimmy Jones'.

I also helped Allan move a piano into the music room, I'm going to ask him if we can use it for 'In the meantime', I really want some rockin piano on that track. Next up after the guitar will be my vocals then any remaining percussion/piano, then lastly the bv's. I feel like we're nearing the finish line.

Acoustic Pillage 2.0 - Burgendy Room, Bodega

Played the second Acoustic Pillage show this past Friday with:
Bill Hickman
Jak Stone

Was a really good night, I opened followed by the acts above. Everyone played well I thought, it was my first time hearing each of the other performers & I was impressed with the variety & level of playing on show. Particularly the Louis Baker trio who look like they're heading for big things. When I showed up for soundcheck earlier in the evening they were there setting up, they immediately introduced themselves & shook our hands. Good first impression, not at all the toff nosed jazz trio I was expecting. Once they soundchecked & I was immediately impressed & felt quite privileged to be sitting front & centre in the empty bar listening to them play.

My set went well, I played the exact set as the previous weeks acoustic lounge except transposing 'Portrait' & 'Like a dog';
I told you brother
Potrait
Like a dog with a bone
Trouble
Intro
Kia tatari mou
I hear the train a comin'
Poison tree
It's a good set but I need to start writing new material for solo shows as these songs are gonna get boring soon. Otherwise I enjoyed it, I love playing my slide & having an accapella song up my sleeve is fun. It's slightly nerve racking whenever I stand up to perform 'trouble' cause I'm not sure how people are gonna react to an accapella song but generally speaking I'm getting positive reactions. Friday night everyone started clapping along, which is the first time that's happened, it was a pretty cool, spontaneous occurance & it seemed to work. The rest of the set went well too, I'm getting more & more comfortable with the harmonica part in portrait so it's coming out cleaner & cleaner.

Overall a good show & happy with the way things turned out. Really getting a taste for these solo shows. : )

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Acoustic Lounge - San Fran Bathhouse Thursday 17 June 2010

Played the bathhouse last Thursday night. It was an important gig to me seeing as my last show didn't go so well, I felt like I owed Pete a decent set. A guy approached me before I started playing & asked if he could record the show, apparantly he's training to be a cinematogropher so he set up two video camera's & one mic & recorded everything. It had a real providence feel to it, that he happened to be there to record that night. I guess only time will tell, I gave him my contact details & he said he'd forward on the raw data to me. I haven't heard from him yet so I hope he follows through.
The set:
I told you brother
Portrait
Like a dog with a bone
Intro
Kia tatari mou
Hear the train a 'comin
Poison tree
It was the first time I sung 'I'll wait for you' in Te Reo, which was interesting. It came together ok, but will get better as I get more familiar with it. The set started well with a nice version of 'I told you brother'. 'Trouble' was another highlight for me, I was a bit trepidatious as I stood to sing it, acapella songs could go either way but that night it felt good & seemed to flow exactly as I want it to. The other high point was 'Poison tree' which is a really nice song to sing & play, although I always forget the first line of the second verse so I invarioubly end up singing the second line twice. Anyway, the whole set felt good & I'm pleased I could put on a better showing than last time. Unfortunately Pete left early in the set so he missed it anyway. Que sera, the life of the performer..