Gretchen - guitar solo

Let the solos begin! I recorded the song I wrote for my first CD, Cedars of Ketchikan, at Carol's studio the StARTled Salmon. It turned out pretty good. Carol really liked the take we kept. It is very important not to be too close to the mike or your sound gets muddied and the notes aren't crisp. Kind of a mumbling thing happens with the guitar. Well, after a couple of false starts I got a take I could live with. It would be nice if we could use the multi-tracking feature to run a second track alongside and fix the errors where they occur. I'm probably the only one that listens that closely and who else cares anyway? It sounds great, plenty of bass and thumping, etc.

I need to get back into the studio to do a couple more songs, not guitar solos. Things are starting to get backed up! I want to re-record the song I wrote and recorded with John Long, Broad Street. It is one of the few from that album that I still play and I think it has life and possibility. Also, the fishing songs Visit Angoon and Malaspina and the Polar Lady need to be re-recorded. The versions I have of them are just thin and without body, they need to be done with a good mike and mastered. So that's three more.

One other thing we did this time was re-mix the Swan piece, I've listened to it a few times and the flute is just too loud, the voice and guitar both too soft. So we fixed the levels for that and it turns out to be a 25 MB file now, where the other two songs are each about 2 meg. It's just as long as it ever was, go figure. Well, it sounds better anyway. It just doesn't email as well!

I've actually got time to write some new material and have a half-finished piece that might need words, might not. It sounds to me like the eternal noodle but if I broke it up into sections and did some regular chord progression I could write words to it... hmmm...

I sure wish there were more places to play and more nights a week to do it. These songs need to be brought out and exposed to the light of day!

First Vocals

I got in the studio and recorded the title track "Green and Grey". I've always been a little sentimental about it, and while I want to say something else with the title (about how everybody around here is either green or grey) it hasn't turned out to be a song about Ketchikan. It's a song inspired by my friend Jill Jacob, who once remarked to me that time goes by so fast, it's already been 10 years since she moved up here to Ketchikan. Most of the rest is fiction. But I liked the idea of an enduring friendship and that it happened by accident of location. After all, isn't that where they all happen? And that strong bonds, feelings and identity can result even in an out of the way place like here, where there are so many different walks of life walking so close together.



"Though we rush ahead to save our time we are only what we feel." ~ On the Way Home, Buffalo Springfield


I found a real sweet spot for the mic, not too close and not too far. After a couple of false starts I realized I would have to write the song out if I were ever to remember where I was. You can only play it a few times before you have no sense of where you are in the song. The words hold it together, and you need them as a guide to lay the initial guitar track. So we had to stop while I wrote the song out. Then back to work, another false start, and it came out easily.





The Singing


While I love to sing I'll be the first to admit there are better singers than me. I can't stand the sound of my voice when I'm by myself, singing solo. It's like nails on the blackboard. I have to keep telling myself it's ok, I'm the only one that notices. I'm not, but when I look at my options I'm still the only person that knows these tunes and I guess I have to sing. I sang it twice and listened to both cuts, Carol patiently crocheting something the whole time. Didn't like either one. Not much of a shock there. Well, it's new and raw and I haven't heard it much before except when I've sang it, and you don't really hear it then anyway.

I decided to do a who-cares-it's-just-a-song take, and see what kind of a feel it had. More like hanging it all out, letting the spirit move me, don't think about the sound just think about the melody and words and give it some gusto. While I sang this way I had a sense of what I was trying to say instead of what I was saying and the song was growing, being born. I was putting the emotion in, injecting my feeling about the song not the meaning of the words. The third dimension - music, meaning, and feeling. Aaahh, expresion at its infant birth. It's a better recording of the song than I had before, more of an artistic, uncontrolled attempt. And it worked.


I played the song last night at the cafe, the last song of a nervous and bang-it-around set. When I arrived the crowd was not what I was expecting, and there in the front row were Darrel and his wife, rightwinger slam-the-dems people who I like, but avoid politics with. Once I was set up I could see they were with friends, people I didn't know, and that they were out on the town showing off their home to visitors. I didn't want to ruin it all for them, but I didn't have a plan B or second set to include all audiences. So, I couldn't say what I wanted to say, I couldn't play what I wanted to play, and I had to just wait and see what bubbled up out of me. As they say, my game was off. Fortunately for me, Terry was there and suggested some of my own pieces and that broke the ice.


Well, it was Friday the 13th after all and the first thing I did was break a string. But folks were patient. Turns out people like my own songs and they liked what I was playing even if I didn't feel comfortable and was nervous. So after about 30 minutes of hacking up some of my favorite songs I played Green and Grey and it was enthusiastically received. I need to get more experience playing in front of people I guess, develop more of a repertoire and get my knack back. Terry wanted to know if I had written that one. I feel like there's been a kind of accomplishment and it started right here with the Green and Grey song.


Now, on to the rest of them! Carol said Monday will work for her.

The Swan

We made a decent recording of the Swan piece by Saint-Saens. Margaret easily fell under the spell of Carol, who casts an air of ease and comfort across her studio. She had something of a scratchy throat and her voice wasn't what Margaret wanted but she did 3 or 4 takes and Carol got it. It took about half a day but I recorded the guitar part. It's been interesting using the new software. It was a good thing, because after taking a break and chatting a little about relationships, I decided not to use the click track after all. The music was talking I think. It was saying it needed to breathe and the metronome was choking it out.

I made a right brain switch and felt focused and attentive but not pressured, not looking for doing it right the first time. When that happened I knew it was the right time. I played through it one time and noted a couple of spots that needed watching, then told Carol "this is it" and she recorded me. It went smoothly. But there were a couple of things in the music I hadn't noticed!

At the end where it slows and is more interpretive, I have been playing a Gsus4 where the music clearly shows an Ami7 with an E bass. Never noticed that before! And the final harmonic passage ends on an arpeggiated Emi harmonic series with a G added in the bass - I had always played straight from the D harmonics to the G. It added a few seconds to the recording. How did I ever miss that???

There is more to say but without becoming long-winded I was mostly happy with what I played and Carol seemed happy with it. So we quit while we were ahead and burned it for Tanya.

Tanya came in as part of her helter-skelter schedule right at suppertime after picking up her daughter and taking her to college and just before going to community choir - she had barely a few minutes to dash off a recording! Ever the professional, she didn't waffle or waver and she made the cut. Tanya played 3 times and picked the best one, left for choir. She was there maybe about 20 minutes total.

I got there 10 minutes later after dropping the kids off at karate to find Carol mixing it down. We agreed the voice and flute should be about the same volume, with the guitar dropping into a "support" position. That's when the magic happened. So the piece has Margaret reading the Swan poem, guitar picking it up and the flute taking it away. At the end it sounds like the flute and guitar are in the same room taking cues off each other. It ends gently and if you ask me quite nicely.

Afterwards, I dashed over to Margarets to play it for her. She of course isn't happy with her part. She doesn't like the sounds of her breathing - which is kind of cool sounding I think. It's the Grandma touch! She also doesn't like how she reads a couple of words. I'm not happy with mine, either (a couple of goobers we could fix) and I haven't heard Tanya's report but I have a feeling she won't like her playing either!

Perfect! It's got character.

Sweeping up the pieces

I'm glad to be asked to come visit the Startled Salmon to do some more recording. It is a great opportunity and I feel comfortable with the music and the ideas. I only wish I had some more of my own music to contribute. I have been lax of late.

I've performed The Swan by Saint-Saens with Tanya publicly on two recent occasions. She plays like a true master, constantly on top of the tone and the pitch, making each phrase speak volumes more than the notes on the page. She graciously agreed to play and squeezed me into her schedule. I don't know how she keeps up with all the things she undertakes, really. Bless her heart for effort but she is constantly overloaded and I personally wouldn't handle the stress as well as she.

I asked Margaret to read the Saint-Saens poem that opens the Swan in Carnival of the Animals. She was a little hesitant at first, but said she could do it so long as reading was all that was involved. I assured her all she had to do was show up. So she's on for Wednesday early early, I'm thinking 9am. It will be nice to have her voice on disc for eternity. I was talking with my wife and she said it would be nice to record all the stories and family history M is known for and put it down, too. I guess we'll see how she handles staring that microphone down.

The pieces I've picked are about half mine and half other pieces, about half solo acoustic and half songs where I will sing (the Swan excepted - it's the only arranged piece). The preliminary list is:

Gretchen - Just the Way You Are - Your Song - Malaspina and the Polar Lady - Visit Angoon - Green and Grey - The Swan - Broad Street - Just a Closer Walk With Thee - Lady Strong - Bright Baby Blues - Dune - Tears in Heaven - Homfeld Suite - Soliloquy - Yesterday. I will have to pare it back to what I can actually do justice to in the short time I have. It will be good to have my chops and head together before I go in!

I am planning to play on three guitars. Mostly I will use the Taylor 514c. It has the best response and is a wonderful instrument. For variety Tanya is letting me use her 1973 Ovation nylon string. I haven't decided which songs I will use it for, but I'm happy to bring out my new one-arm guitar which arrived yesterday. I've tuned it up as best I can, it has a lovely lower register tone-wise, very nice response and is a bit of a touchy little beast if I say so.

But as I say, which guitar for which piece is still up in the air. True excitement. I will have mastered recordings I can pick over to finish the long-suffering CD I started 5 years ago, Green and Grey. I want to do a work that incorporates Southeast Alaska and that is a mountain of experience to draw on. This will hopefully be a crack in the doorjamb, and much much more material will present itself. I'm starting to make notes to myself and get song ideas together again.

Excitement! A chance to make a record! I am sweeping together the pieces of a project I had all but abandoned and keeping the dust for proper collection and storage.