Skip to main content

Day One Hundred Sixty Six (Year Two)

So, I picked up the Tender Mercies record today.  It's quite spectacular.  There were a few things on it that I knew ("Wise Blood," "Four White Stallions," "Mercy") from Counting Crows bootlegs and overseas releases, but even having those touchstones, the record still impresses me.  It comes across as a bunch of guys sitting around in their living rooms, playing songs they've played for years, except that it has a cleaner, more thought out sound than most living room records I've ever heard.  Even Dan Wilson's "Free Life" from 2007 feels more "studio record" than this.  It's good though, because the musicianship and the songcraft shine through.  The band features 1/3 (I think) of Counting Crows, in the persons of Dan Vickrey and Jim Bogios. 

The coolest part of the record?  The fact that I got to pull out the acoustic tonight after I got home and play along with "Four White Stallions."  I really, really love that song.  When live shows start becoming a part of my life, that song will definitely find its way into my setlists somewhere.

I've loved "Wise Blood" since I heard it on an old Counting Crows live record, and having it on this album let me sit down with the guitar and start to learn it.  The song's in A.

And then there's "Mercy."  It's a song I otherwise only have as a live performance from a Counting Crows show, so having a studio version is nice.  This song, more than the other two I messed around with tonight, lends itself to opening up a bit and doing some soloing, and that's exactly what I did.  It was fun to both try and harmonize with the lines that were already there, and then fun to try and learn a bit of what they actually recorded.  Whether the lead lines will stick in my memory remains to be seen, but still.

All in all, a good night for music.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two Hundred Ninety Two (Year Five)

Today was the last seminary village cookout of the year. While we were all sitting around the picnic tables eating dinner, I got a chance to talk with a few of the Mrs.'s classmates about guitar related stuff. As it turns out, more than one of them wants to be more proficient on guitar. I'm not saying that this will lead to more teaching opportunities, but I told one of them that I would throw a folder together for them. Essentially, anytime I get a chance to talk shop is a great chance for me to reinforce some of the things I have been focusing on. If nothing else, it gets me thinking ahead to tomorrow's day off and a chance to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Three Hundred Forty Two (Year Four)

Tonight was a slightly unfocused night in the studio. It was a night of acoustic stuff, but most of what I got accomplished involved tinkering with different songs by Jackie Greene and Johnny Cash.  If nothing else, I set up the next list of songs I want to figure out. Tomorrow night I need to start getting back to the Acoustic Goldmine book, as well.  Every time I sit down with the acoustic for an extended period of time, I reconnect with the emotional side of that instrument.  There's so much to learn still in that book, so much information designed to improve my playing.  I need to take better advantage of it. I know it's crazy, but I'm already looking forward to Friday.  I really need to spend a lot of the day in the studio.  Getting a weekday off of work is such a rare commodity.  I need to do a good job of using my time wisely. 
Post a Comment
Read more