The next installment of my reel-to-reel conversions is another tune where my grandfather isn't singing, but is pickin' it up on the banjo.
It's a cover of "Heartbreak Mountain", which may be a traditional bluegrass tune done by many others, but I remember it done by Buck Owens. The version I listened to back in the day (and now for that matter) is from his album "Ruby" which has a lot of bluegrass tunes on it.
The cover is fairly faithful to the Buck Owens version, only it's in the key of A instead of Buck's original key of C. The singer forgets a couple lyrics on the third verse and laughs, but I think it adds to the jam sound of the tune.
I tried a little more intensive EQing on this one, and fiddled a little more with various digital doo-hickeries in the Garageband. I think the sound turned out really full sounding!
Check it out on the player to your right!
10.27.2009
Two New Tunes!
I recently found a couple gems on the old reel-to-reel tapes.
The first one is a version of "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms," which is one of my favorite bluegrass tunes. My grandfather isn't on vocals this time, but the song features the banjo quite a bit. You can hear the lead vocalist yell out "5 String!" when he wants my grandpa to step up to the mic and play a solo on the banjo.
My Dad has told me that the main other two guys in the group were Chet Stubbs and Danny Stubbs, a father/son combo on flattop guitar and fiddle. He also said Everett Whitmore was in the group as well. I'm not sure what he played. Perhaps bass.
The second song is an instrumental version of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," better known as the theme to the TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies." It features the banjo pretty heavily and the mandolin as well.
I believe it's my grandfather introducing the song as "A little bit of 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' in the key of G." It sounds like his voice anyhow. I'm guessing he liked this one because of it's feature of the banjo and for the fact that it was a Flatt & Scruggs song.
You can enjoy the songs on the player to your right! The other recording is still there as well.
Enjoy!
The first one is a version of "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms," which is one of my favorite bluegrass tunes. My grandfather isn't on vocals this time, but the song features the banjo quite a bit. You can hear the lead vocalist yell out "5 String!" when he wants my grandpa to step up to the mic and play a solo on the banjo.
My Dad has told me that the main other two guys in the group were Chet Stubbs and Danny Stubbs, a father/son combo on flattop guitar and fiddle. He also said Everett Whitmore was in the group as well. I'm not sure what he played. Perhaps bass.
The second song is an instrumental version of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," better known as the theme to the TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies." It features the banjo pretty heavily and the mandolin as well.
I believe it's my grandfather introducing the song as "A little bit of 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' in the key of G." It sounds like his voice anyhow. I'm guessing he liked this one because of it's feature of the banjo and for the fact that it was a Flatt & Scruggs song.
You can enjoy the songs on the player to your right! The other recording is still there as well.
Enjoy!
10.20.2009
First Reel-to-Reel Digitization!
I have begun the process of converting some analog reel-to-reel recordings my grandfather made with his bluegrass combo.
My grandfather Wendell, who passed away a few years ago, had given me a Sony TC-530 reel-to-reel machine quite a few years back, but I had no idea what to do with it. It didn't work up to snuff for recording purposes, but there was a stack of his tapes that came along with it.
I have no ideas when the recordings were made (I imagine late 70's) but they were made at my grandfather's house in Marshalltown, Iowa. I'm just in the stages of researching, but I believe it was a three piece combo consisting of my grandfather on banjo and occasional vocals, and two other gentlemen on guitar and fiddle.
Sorry, my grandfather can't hear you over the sound of how awesome he is....
I posted the first recording I digitized on the player to your right, "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee." I chose this particular recording because it features my grandfather on vocals, which is rare as he usually just played banjo without singing.
I have no idea whether this is a "good" version of the song according to them. There aren't really any notes on the tapes about which take is which or whether it's a good one. I haven't even listened to all the tapes, so there could be a much better version of the song on a different tape.
I just wanted to start somewhere, so I started there.
So listen and enjoy!
p.s. Nerdy info = I sent the audio out from the reel-to-reel into my Tascam FW-1804 through the line input, then used the Tascam to convert it to digital as it has a Firewire output. I captured the audio in Garageband on my G4 MDD PowerMac. I then had to send the .aiff of the recording to Audacity to speed up the recording. Based on the fact that the song is traditionally done in the key of G, I sped the audio up 17%, bringing the guitar and banjo into G. Then I reimported in Garageband, doubled up the track, panned them for mock-stereo, and did some equalization to eliminate some hiss. Then I sent it to iTunes as an .aiff, and converted it there to .mp3 for the web. Whew!
My grandfather Wendell, who passed away a few years ago, had given me a Sony TC-530 reel-to-reel machine quite a few years back, but I had no idea what to do with it. It didn't work up to snuff for recording purposes, but there was a stack of his tapes that came along with it.
I have no ideas when the recordings were made (I imagine late 70's) but they were made at my grandfather's house in Marshalltown, Iowa. I'm just in the stages of researching, but I believe it was a three piece combo consisting of my grandfather on banjo and occasional vocals, and two other gentlemen on guitar and fiddle.
Sorry, my grandfather can't hear you over the sound of how awesome he is....
I posted the first recording I digitized on the player to your right, "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee." I chose this particular recording because it features my grandfather on vocals, which is rare as he usually just played banjo without singing.
I have no idea whether this is a "good" version of the song according to them. There aren't really any notes on the tapes about which take is which or whether it's a good one. I haven't even listened to all the tapes, so there could be a much better version of the song on a different tape.
I just wanted to start somewhere, so I started there.
So listen and enjoy!
p.s. Nerdy info = I sent the audio out from the reel-to-reel into my Tascam FW-1804 through the line input, then used the Tascam to convert it to digital as it has a Firewire output. I captured the audio in Garageband on my G4 MDD PowerMac. I then had to send the .aiff of the recording to Audacity to speed up the recording. Based on the fact that the song is traditionally done in the key of G, I sped the audio up 17%, bringing the guitar and banjo into G. Then I reimported in Garageband, doubled up the track, panned them for mock-stereo, and did some equalization to eliminate some hiss. Then I sent it to iTunes as an .aiff, and converted it there to .mp3 for the web. Whew!
8.28.2009
Last Will and Testament!
Alrighty, enough foolishness...
My latest recording is a cover of John Prine's "Please Don't Bury Me"...
I customized some lyrics!
One take on this one!
Awesome!
My latest recording is a cover of John Prine's "Please Don't Bury Me"...
I customized some lyrics!
One take on this one!
Awesome!
8.26.2009
New Funk Track!
We might have a fine companion to "Wuzzat a Godd--n Alien" and "Fudge Parts" in "Funk For Funk's Sake", the newest recording completed in just under an hour....
Enjoy on the player to your right... You might need to get up and dance to this one...
Also, all lyrics were ad-libbed as they were recorded...
That's me on various acoustic guitars, bass, and vocals... Garageband on the drums.
Funk!
Enjoy on the player to your right... You might need to get up and dance to this one...
Also, all lyrics were ad-libbed as they were recorded...
That's me on various acoustic guitars, bass, and vocals... Garageband on the drums.
Funk!
8.13.2009
Willard in Chains
My latest recording tackles a classic (so I've heard) Georgia Satellites song "Battleship Chains"...
I became aware of the song while listening to (Warren Zevon + R.E.M. - Michael Stipe) = Hindu Love God's version of it...
So I took a stab at it, and it's somewhere between the two versions... In style at least, in quality it's obviously much, much lower...
That's me on bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocals, and harmony vocals... Garageband is on the drums... Sorry, I didn't go to Sherbie's to record a drum part.
My first stab at harmony vocals, so laugh it up!
Also, try not to snicker at my terrible guitar solos... I thought the song would be easy because of the easy chord progression, but the simplicity proved to be more difficult than anticipated...
Enjoy it on the player to your right!
I became aware of the song while listening to (Warren Zevon + R.E.M. - Michael Stipe) = Hindu Love God's version of it...
So I took a stab at it, and it's somewhere between the two versions... In style at least, in quality it's obviously much, much lower...
That's me on bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocals, and harmony vocals... Garageband is on the drums... Sorry, I didn't go to Sherbie's to record a drum part.
My first stab at harmony vocals, so laugh it up!
Also, try not to snicker at my terrible guitar solos... I thought the song would be easy because of the easy chord progression, but the simplicity proved to be more difficult than anticipated...
Enjoy it on the player to your right!
7.17.2009
Priney Goodness
My latest recording (which you can find as track one on the player to your right) is a cover of John Prine's "Sweet Revenge"... It's a tune (and an album for that matter) that I've been getting into lately, so I thought I'd give it a shot...
That's me on acoustic, electric, bass, vocals, and drums...
Thanks to Sherbie for letting me come over to his place during the day and record a drum track using his brand spanking new (used) Premier drum kit he got...
The drum track was recorded with my Powerbook's built-in mic (covered with a couple layers of cloth and recording level turned way down) and the only adjustment to the drums and cymbals was a strip of painters masking tape on each...
So not too shabby sound for a shitty mic and not much set-up!
Enjoy!
That's me on acoustic, electric, bass, vocals, and drums...
Thanks to Sherbie for letting me come over to his place during the day and record a drum track using his brand spanking new (used) Premier drum kit he got...
The drum track was recorded with my Powerbook's built-in mic (covered with a couple layers of cloth and recording level turned way down) and the only adjustment to the drums and cymbals was a strip of painters masking tape on each...
So not too shabby sound for a shitty mic and not much set-up!
Enjoy!
7.10.2009
Genie-Meanie-Veeny-Ceeny
Recently I've really gotten into Gene Vincent, and so along those lines, as well as keeping in the recent pattern of alternating epic prog rock and 50's Rock n' Roll, I recorded a tribute version of Vincent's most well-known song "Be-Bop-A-Lula"...
That's me on acoustics, lead guitar, bass, vocals, screams, and a cardboard box drum...
Hopefully, after listening to it, Gene isn't spinning in his grave, and hopefully you aren't either...
The song can be found on the player to your right!
p.s. My first walking bass-line.... and yes, my guitar solos are ridiculously poor...
That's me on acoustics, lead guitar, bass, vocals, screams, and a cardboard box drum...
Hopefully, after listening to it, Gene isn't spinning in his grave, and hopefully you aren't either...
The song can be found on the player to your right!
p.s. My first walking bass-line.... and yes, my guitar solos are ridiculously poor...
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