Finally a finished recording project of nine songs. This is "Time and Again"..

A song we had to go back and remake with quite a few changed lyrics and music. It was originally one of our first two attempts to record in Pro Tools.

I would like to think it's much better now.

Removed pending an official release of our CD...

There is a song by another artist that follows ours by the way. Only a temporary site to store our tune until i get it on our website
He is our bass player (Chuck) and recorded it at home on his digital recorder. Wretched Man I believe is the song.

Great job king!

Nailed it!


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Thank guys. Its proven a tough journey for an old fart like me to try and recapture any of the exuberance of my youth. Doing so at some level has proven critical to the process though.
Whatever you are feeling will come through in your work. And I often feel..well, 63 years old.

And then, at the same time trying to learn modern day techniques for producing music, which is a whole different world now. It's been very challenging to say the least.

Dude, the Stones make you look like a kid.

That is a great tune, and imo has a lot of Bob Seeger qualities to it. Let me know when the single or album is available for purchase. I will download this song or album in a heartbeat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan_bgblue

Dude, the Stones make you look like a kid.

That is a great tune, and imo has a lot of Bob Seeger qualities to it. Let me know when the single or album is available for purchase. I will download this song or album in a heartbeat.

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Thank you Dan. I don't see how those guys do it.

I have a lot of work to do and a couple of decisions to make regarding just what you mentioned. I will probably have the songs professionally mastered for limited CD release, and then digital distribution. I'll shop around for the best bang for the buck as there are several (or several hundred)
available. Thing is, as I understand it the two formats are mutually exclusive and so priced. So I may forego mastering solely for cd and marked via Soundcloud or something. Thats the avenue top hit Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road went. And a huge door has been opened because of it...

The mastering I done on the final tracks was digital and good for getting a consistent volume level. That doesn't compare to a mastering engineer taking your final mix and running it through a gazillion dollars worth of analogue and digital gear and setting compression, EQ, and output to industry standards on each song. And establishing a uniform polish to a particular project.

In other words, it will still take a while to have this completed.

You created art! Congratulations!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan_bgblue

Dude, the Stones make you look like a kid.

That is a great tune, and imo has a lot of Bob Seeger qualities to it. Let me know when the single or album is available for purchase. I will download this song or album in a heartbeat.

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Wow, Dan. I listened to the tune before reading down the thread and that is exactly what I thought. Bob Seeger.

GREAT tune, Dave!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan_bgblue

Dude, the Stones make you look like a kid.

That is a great tune, and imo has a lot of Bob Seeger qualities to it. Let me know when the single or album is available for purchase. I will download this song or album in a heartbeat.

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Dan, I think you have nailed the comparison.

Great job, Dave!

Thanks my friends. Seeger was one of my major musical influences of the last fifty years, along with Fogerty, and pretty much all the rock bands from the sixties and seventies. I also hear a little country fried version of some glitter rock vocal cover stuff I once did in a couple of tunes. Namely, Uriah Heep.
I tried to stay true to myself but you are, at least in part, whatever you take in over your life span I think.

My Dad was a great country guitarist similar to Chet and Merle Travis. So I grew up with both hardcore country at home and the rock influences of the day.

A side note:

At some point around 1966 my cousin and I were learning a song just released by the monkeys called Im not your Stepping Stone. He lived near a bunch of duplexes rented to the military at the time, about 3/4 mile from the gold vault. Anyway we had the little checkmate racing stripe amp turned up pretty loud and a well dressed young African American approached us. It was just after sunset and outdoors on his porch.
Anyway he said he was in town for the day visiting an old army buddy and would like to jam with us if we didnt care. I offered him my guitar and he said "I cant play right handed but if you have an extra input I'll go get my guitar"

We waited a few minutes and the young man came and sat down beside me playing a right handed Stratocaster strung upside down.. And oddity I immediately recognized because dad had fine instruments. Anyway he proceeded to play a song I had never heard before and played at level that caused me to pretty much just sit there. Maybe I added something here and there or maybe I didnt play at all.. all I knew was he was superb at his rhythm, the lead solo, and singing the song that I can still see him doing today.
After he was done a couple of ten year olds didnt have anything much to say he didnt mean to embarrass us but he did. He kindly thanked us for letting him join in and headed back to the duplexes while we packed up and quit.

He wasnt militarily dressed but this is the unforgettable (for us at least) and kindly face of the young man in the photo...
http://thesmokinggun.com/sites/defau...endrixarmy.jpg
Private James Marshall Hendrix, and the song was "Hey Joe"

I cant prove it was him, but I know it was even though he should have been in England in 66.

There were no equally talented copycats who sang and played the same guitar in the way Hendrix did in 1966. Nor was he yet a star.

How his life ended, along with a handful of others went a long way towards preventing me from leaving home and giving myself solely to music back in the day.
I probably wouldn't have achieved great success but the lifestyle could have been the same and yielded a similar physical result.

Cool tale Dave. I do not remember seeing anyone playing an upside down Strat before him. He enlisted in the army and spent time with the 101st airborne outfit and was stationed at Fort Campbell in Clarksville from 61 to 62. He was discharged in 62 and stayed in Clarksville for a short time and played gigs at local clubs and also played with the Isley Brothers and Little Richard before he moved to England and offered us Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary around 66.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan_bgblue

Cool tale Dave. I do not remember seeing anyone playing an upside down Strat before him. He enlisted in the army and spent time with the 101st airborne outfit and was stationed at Fort Campbell in Clarksville from 61 to 62. He was discharged in 62 and stayed in Clarksville for a short time and played gigs at local clubs and also played with the Isley Brothers and Little Richard before he moved to England and offered us Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary around 66.

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Yep, The King Kasuals worked the Chitlin' Circuit pretty hard. One stop was down in BG but I cant remember the name..the armory or something like that.

Check this guys in depth story of Hendrix out Dan.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060714...jh_chitlin.htm

I was not in B G back then but in Russellville, the black performers would rent the National Guard Armory for Friday and Saturday night shows. Rent was cheap and they had an elevated stage at one end of the building and the floor area was a half basketball court in size. They would pack a couple hundred folks in for the shows.

I lost my oldest and dearest friend Dan Bowen Thursday to cancer. He was also my drummer for probably 25 years. Much of what I have ever done musically in life was as much him as me. Our first time playing together he asked if he could try to play drums for my cousin and I back in the late sixties.. He then went home and collected anything that sounded like a drum, boxes and old kettles or the like. Then we proceeded to actually make music as he was a natural.
From that point on Dan had some of the best equipment that could be be bought and setups to rival all the R&R giants.

A musical perfectionist and a fine person. I will miss him terribly for that and much more.
From 1981..

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Originally Posted by kingcat

I lost my oldest and dearest friend Dan Bowen Thursday to cancer. He was also my drummer for probably 25 years. Much of what I have ever done musically in life was as much him as me. Our first time playing together he asked if he could try to play drums for my cousin and I back in the late sixties.. He then went home and collected anything that sounded like a drum, boxes and old kettles or the like. Then we proceeded to actually make music as he was a natural.
From that point on Dan had some of the best equipment that could be be bought and setups to rival all the R&R giants.

A musical perfectionist and a fine person. I will miss him terribly for that and much more.
From 1981..

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I heard a song, No Regrets, by the Walker Brothers and thought about your sound.


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That is about as good a compliment as one could get Boss. Thank you, and everyone else so much.
It's been a daunting two years plus creating this without the help of a major company behind me and with no foreknowledge of The Pro Tools recording platform.
Every part of every song was arranged by me with the input of my keyboard player. Bass, drums, guitars, synths, Lyrics, and all.
I tried for years to convince band mates to work with me at taking this step to no avail. The common perception being that after you make it in the business then you have the time to dedicate to it.
It has been physically and mentally exhausting but extremely gratifying. I'd estimate 15 to 20 hours a week with a ten hour day added every week or so and constantly in the back of your mind.

And so I'm satisfied if nothing else, this work is as much a part of me as anything I have ever done short of making some great babies. The lyrics all have a sincere meaning to me, and the vehicles they're delivered on expressed in only the way I know how to play and just as importantly..listen. So it doesn't matter so much if it sells, just that it exists. Ya' know?
All in all, I look at it more as a graceful way to exit, and leave some mark of my musical existence behind.

In the industry its said you will always get three responses to an original work. Those who really like it....those who hate it...and those who are indifferent. The best any artist can hope for is an equal part of all three.
And even an initially small percentage translates to a rather large targeted audience. Targeted being the keyword.

By the way, all digital versions of the new album such as Soundcloud and our website are now gone pending an official release at ITunes, Spotify, Pandora, etc.. in a few weeks. The title was changed to "The Way Back"
There will be physical and digital distribution online as well as individual song downloads.

The physical CD's are complete, look and sound really good.. and make great coasters if nothing else. :)

The main thing is I am leaving a whole body of work behind for my Grand kids, and hopefully theirs. It'll be sort of like a part of me hanging around to see my family grow even after I move on..

But, God willing, I may make another.

Most of you music Geeks are probably already aware of the info in this article, but for those that might have missed it or are just searching for a bit more info on the new developments, I will share this.

MIDI 2

This will broaden the world of midi. We used midi to trigger keyboard software inside of Pro tools.
The same software that drives the most expensive digital pianos, organs, and synths you hear live exists in a software only form on the WWW.

One of the better grand piano sounds in the world recorded at Abby Road Studios.. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FeIK3xPN8vA/maxresdefault.jpg

All accessible on cheap keyboard controllers or magnificent workstations. In other words, the same sound a great keyboard player or pianist gets, is available to you on your 99$ casio.

They all play digital samples which are indistinguishable from the real thing due the huge advances in analogue to digital conversion over the last two or three decades.
Basically, digital recordings of the most expensive grand pianos in the world..the greatest drum kits, the most impressive organ sounds, horns, strings, vocals, amplification and effects, etc..
And that conversion is not static as you can go back to the analogue world and color it, saturate it, and otherwise manipulate it to your hearts desire too convince the ear you actually used those instruments and digital reproductions.

We even use a digital emulation of a rare reel to reel to color tracks making them sound like they were recorded to gear once limited to only the top recording engineers in the business. This how it appears in Pro tools..
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lKP0FwvOh...1600/LED+3.png

Don't let the picture, which actually moves like the real thing, fool you. You can remove the picture and still operate the software.

And via midi virtually every rare or affordable instrument, sound, room, or effect is available for todays musician.

This will expand those abilities even farther and to instruments once considered far to complex an algorithm to emulate and control at it's basic parameters.

Even now, almost all vocals are a combination or entirely digitally corrected, either for effects (like kid Rock or Cher vocals that tend to jump from key to key) or to fool you into believing they have perfect pitch. An entire simulation of their natural voice digitally modified for perfection and to avoid any slight pitch mistake. Even your favirite country music singers are cheating..haha

I used real guitar and bass amplification and mics for all but the keyboard parts. And I refused track my vocal pitch digitally. I did correct or slide some parts around however prior to mix down