Here's my first complete song. Written when I was 17 years old and played the same way ever since. In 1983 I made up a harmonica part for it.
This recording is from February 2008 and includes the harmonica part:
151 2009-09-24 08:53:53
Re: What was your first song? (173 replies, posted in Acoustic)
152 2009-09-17 23:57:00
Topic: Expecting To Fly - a Buffalo Springfield Classic (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
A song written by Neil Young and produced by Jack Nitzsche separately from the band and Young contributed the track to a Buffalo Springfield album.
For this I overdub a harmony vocal and use a Gretsch 6120 electric to do the subtle riffs getting the vibrato from the Bigsby tailpiece.
Electric was patched direct to computer for recording.
153 2009-09-08 09:12:34
Re: Bob Dylan Cover - tANGLED uP iN bLUE (3 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Thanks guys!
Zurf, I tried getting the chords through Chordie but found they had been removed so go them here and they sounded good to me so i went with these.
I'm also playing it tuned down a whole step though which may not be correct but worked for my voice anyway.
154 2009-09-06 22:18:35
Topic: Bob Dylan Cover - tANGLED uP iN bLUE (3 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Warning! I am extremely drunk here.
Took sort of a Neil Young Tonight's The Night approach
(the get Wasted and let it flow approach).
First time ever played this song.
More to the story in the video description:
155 2009-09-04 08:38:53
Topic: While My Guitar Gently Weeps (with acoustic leads from a friend) (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
My friend Todd overdubbed some great acoustic leads over my solo acoustic cover:
156 2009-09-04 08:33:54
Topic: Led Zeppelin Cover - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Read the video description for the real story behind this spontaneous performance:
157 2009-08-29 07:19:59
Topic: The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill - Beatles (1 replies, posted in Acoustic)
I always thought this Beatles song was fun.
The White Album was one of the fist albums I purchased on my own as a child.
Had to have it and wore the grooves out on my little plastic phono player.
158 2009-08-29 07:15:20
Topic: A Crosby Stills Nash & Young collaboration by me & 3 friends (1 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Had this as a solo recording but decided to experiment.
I selected 3 of my long time YouTube friends who I thought
could pull this off and they each added harmony vocals.
I think it turned out great.
Not a well known song but a beautiful one I think.
Can be found on the 1988 American Dream album:
159 2009-08-10 23:14:00
Re: Seems I have both a #1 and #2 Songs on the Chart at Somojo Radio (7 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Thank You all for your kind words of support!
SONGS (From That Place In Time) still at #1
It slipped once to #2 but quickly went back to #1 spot on both the Akoustica chart and the Official Somojo chart (all songs, all catgories). This is going on 3 days at the #1 spot which I never expected. I can see all kinds of other songs jockeying for position below trying to Get to that #1 spot.
It's been great while it's lasting and thank you all so much for your support and helping to make it happen. This is a European based radio station and my Songs have always done much better in the UK and European independent music scene.
Here's an easy direct link so you can listen again and help it maintain chart position. Thanks again for all your help:
Here is also a direct link to Tent City which will help that song stay at #2 longer:
PS: I would be glad to post my recording setup. Very simple and cheap actually.
160 2009-08-08 06:47:33
Topic: Seems I have both a #1 and #2 Songs on the Chart at Somojo Radio (7 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
However fleeting this may be I am excited!
On Somojo Independent & Unsigned Artist Radio (a European based radio)
I submitted two songs
SONGS (From That Place In Time)
Has just hit #1 on the Akoustica chart and #3 on The Official Somojo chart for all songs! + #1 on current top 10 favourites (all songs)
and
TENT CITY - Acoustic Fusion song (lyrics by Howard C. Holbert music by Gil)
Currently #2 on the Akoustica chart
Please go have a listen to both because every listen counts!
(songs take about 7 seconds to start playing for some reason).
http://www.somojo.net/index.php?t=acous … io&d=7
or you could visit my profile there and play the songs in the mp3 player there:
(avoids having to scroll the chart because position always changes)
Thanks for your support my friends!
If ever I could return the favor let me know.
161 2009-08-03 21:52:01
Topic: Stephen Stills Manassas cover - It Doesn't Matter (3 replies, posted in Acoustic)
My friends and I grew up on this album and
consider it to be a Stills masterpiece. Still sounds fresh!
I decided to learn "It Doesn't Matter" and played it entirely
from memory (by ear) with no sheet music so it may not be exactly
correct but I wanted to play it straight from the heart
without trying to be perfect.
After I finished I then overdubbed some harmony vocals
and a short simple guitar solo. (my lead skills need work!)
Thank for listening to my rough take on this song.
I had to tune down a step in order to sing in my range.
162 2009-07-24 22:05:31
Topic: Bruce Cockburn Cover - Tokyo (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
From the great 1980 album Humans.
Known comments by Bruce Cockburn about this song, by date:
1980
"The song Tokyo is no attempt at giving a fair or objective portrait of that city. But it does describe some things that I saw and felt. And I find in a place like Japan I get particularly sensitized to other people; because you are so dependent on them. When we go to Japan we are illiterate. You can't read a street sign, you can't read subway directions or anything. The Japanese, of course, are extremely hospitable also so they kind of encourage that feeling of dependency and because of that my emotions were always right on the surface...any emotion that dealt with people. And so when we passed by this accident scene it was particularly shocking."
- from the RCA "Special Radio Series" LP, Volume Two (1980).
1990
"Wrote these words on the plane home from the second tour of Japan. I wanted the guitar part to sound like The Cars."
- from "Rumours of Glory 1980-1990" (songbook), edited by Arthur McGregor, OFC Publications, Ottawa, 1990.
3 April 1992
[Of the time when Humans was being composed, Cockburn noted,]
"There's a certain style of song that started to show up, and became more typical of my songwriting through that period [Humans] , which is a kind of documentary-style thing, structured like a little movie. 'Tokyo' is like that - it was one of the earliest ones - where you try and set up these little scenes that relate to each other but where you don't have to explain the relationship but there's an impression that's created out of it that adds up to something."
- from "Bruce Cockburn - A Burning Light and All the Rest" by William Ruhlmann, Goldmine magazine,
163 2009-07-24 09:10:18
Topic: Four Strong Winds - w/ my friend Jane singing harmony (1 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Four Strong Winds is a classic song written by Canadian folk
legend Ian Tyson way back in 1961.
My first exposure to the song was from Neil Young's
Comes A Time album (1978). Made quite an impression on
a 17 year old kid.
My cover is inspired by Neil Young's cover and my friend
Jane has joined me to sing some awesome harmony vocals.
Thanks again to Jane for her awesome singing.
164 2009-07-22 18:31:05
Re: Can't tune it (27 replies, posted in Acoustic)
I use a Intelli Chromatic Tuner IMT-500 that does a great job and I find consistently that as I tune each string right on the mark then go back and double check the first (top) string I tuned is always out of tune so I go back over and double check all strings and then triple check them untill all read in tune.
Seems that on my guitar as I work my way down the strings tightening each next string can throw the string you just tuned out of tune slightly.
Triple check it and see if that is the problem.
165 2009-07-22 18:24:19
Topic: Beatles Cover - I'll Be Back (with a little help from my friends) (1 replies, posted in Acoustic)
For this one some friends of mine from England added in harmony vocals.
They are a very talented husband and wife duo and did a great job on harmonies.
I have collaborated with Sonya and Shuie before (most notably on the Buffalo Springfield hit
"For What It's Worth" and we have more Beatles songs in the works):
166 2009-07-15 01:25:02
Topic: The Ballad Of Curtis Loew - Lynyrd Skynyrd Cover (1 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Here's one I just recorded today. Love this old song and I just
made up my own folk style acoustic guitar arrangement for it.
Have never looked up the proper chords. Just a made up arrangement.
167 2009-07-12 06:55:11
Topic: Cover of the Peter Gabriel song - Mercy Street (from So album) (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
My solo acoustic cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWkc_MvWy2k
Here's a great interpretation of the song that I found:
"Mercy Street" is the name of a play written by Anne Sexton, a poet who committed suicide in 1974 after a life marred by mental illness. The first couple of stanzas play on the difficulty she had differentiating between her successful creative life as a poet and her failings in her "real" life as a daughter/mother/wife.
As a poet, she, in effect, had a "leak at the seam," her inward thoughts and feelings that got expressed through her poetry. Many poets have commented on the pain that comes through revealing one's inner self. (Pink Floyd's whole "The Wall" album examines this theme.)
The boat references allude to her final book of poetry, "The Awful Rowing Toward God," about our inevitable journey toward death and the afterlife. "Tak[ing] the boat out" refers to her intention to accelerate her own demise. (She killed herself just after finishing the book.)
"Corridors of pale green [aka "hospital green"] and gray could refer to her stays in mental institutions during her manic episodes (which alternated with her stints of "ordinary life" in the suburbs of Boston).
"Wear your inside out" again refers to the way a poet exposes his soul to the world. That which, for most people, remains private and unknown is shown to all. The "daddy" allusions again seem to refer to God, in whose arms she might find that elusive mercy (so difficult to attain in this life, hence the reference to the moved street sign).
All of the confession allusions have double meaning, as much of Anne's life was spent "confessing" her innermost feelings to psychiatrists as well as revealing them to the public through her poetry. The shocks can doubly refer to shock therapy administered by psychiatrists as well as the shocking things a priest might hear in confession. Per Wikipedia, Sexton was the epitome of a "confessional poet."
168 2009-07-10 16:29:45
Re: I suck at singing and playing at the same time. (18 replies, posted in Acoustic)
The one thing that helps me to sing a song (this applies to cover songs) is to hear the song clearly in your mind.
When I was young my group of friends would get together and listen to music pretty intently.
I believe it is through this careful listening that a person can "audiate" and memorize songs in the mind.
I have the ability to play back songs I have stored in my head.
So when I play songs I have in my head that is my guide to timing and singing.
It's just me but I never play along with the original nor do I use TAB.
If I don't know how to play a song (but know it in my head) I look up the chords and pick it up quickly from there.
Through careful listening you can learn to play by ear.
So develop a mental jukebox by practicing hearing the songs you know in your mind.
For original songs it's a different story. First I write the lyrics then I make up the music and the singing flows from there.
Great thing about originals is there is no basis for comparison so it is very liberating.
With cover songs you will always be compared to the original because that is people's point of reference.
169 2009-07-10 16:19:19
Topic: Sometimes you just gotta Rock: cover of Pink Floyd's Time (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Updated to HD and totally remastered with much improved audio:
170 2009-07-10 00:03:36
Topic: Lookout Joe with friend on slide guitar (2 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Charlie Betts added slide guitar to this song for me
171 2009-07-09 23:35:21
Topic: New Mama - song about the joy of being a new parent (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
When my son was born (our first) I couldn't get this song out of my head.
What a great song to express the wonder and magic of being a new parent.
172 2009-07-09 23:32:08
Topic: Nature's Way - Spirit Cover (0 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Also posted the video on the tabs and chord pages if you want to play along.
Always loved this song from the band Spirit.
Still relevant today more than ever.
Last time I saw Spirit perform was at an outdoor concert in 1987 and they were great.
I had read about Randy California drowning in Hawaii while saving his son's life.
R.I.P. Randy California.
173 2009-07-03 01:23:23
Topic: Burned - Buffalo Springfield Cover + some rock history behind the song (1 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Neil Young recently performed this song live in concert which I have never seen before (wish I had ben there). To celebrate I though I would give the song a shot. I overdubbed harmony vocals.
According to Young's own account of this song from the Decade liner notes:
"My first vocal ever done in a studio late 1966 (Gold Star). The boys gave me some uppers to get my nerve up. Maybe you can hear that. I was living in a $12.50 per week apartement at the time and everybody on the floor liked it too. We stayed up all night listening to it."
174 2009-07-03 01:21:56
Re: New HD version of originakl song My Little Girl for Dads & Daughters (2 replies, posted in Acoustic)
cameronkl7 wrote:
Great song All1Song, and such a nice clear recording, what are you using to record your songs? Our children are Gods gift to us, it sounds as if your a great Dad, something this world is very short on these days, she's a very lucky little lady.
Cam
Hi Cam, I use a simple cheap and direct way of recording my stuff, a Sony ECM-MS907 stereo digital recording mic plugged directly into my soundcard line input (Soundblaster X-FI Xtreme Music set to audio creation mode).
I then record using Audacity and save as a 24/96 WAV file. That is my raw master. After I've saved a raw naster I then do post production on the audio using both Audacity and Nero Wave Editor then save that to a new file. I video tape while I record and sync the audio with the video then turn off the video clip sound and just use my wav file. Export that to WMV HD720p format. You can do a lot with very little. It's a matter of learning by trial and error.
175 2009-06-30 21:06:11
Topic: New HD version of originakl song My Little Girl for Dads & Daughters (2 replies, posted in Acoustic)
An HD remaster of the audio with a new video.
This is a song I wrote on 4/21/08 for my then 19 month old little daughter. She touched my nose as I held her, smiled, and then we laughed together. Suddenly this song came flooding in to my head and I made an effort to remember the song until I could get home and write it down.
Once home I wrote fast so I wouldn't lose the song and then got to work making the music which came to me almost right away as well. Wrote down about 12 verses but only used what I thought were the best ones. This performance was recorded live into a microphone to keep it raw and real.
My theory is that my daughter gifted this song to me when she touched my nose because that's when it came to me. What a precious gift she is. I know you parents out there know how I feel.