Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Joy to the world

#61

I’m gonna take your advice, Oldhat. The car is put back together and I’ve got enough time for a shower, a beer, and dinner before the Gator game starts at 7pm. I figure it’ll only take a quarter or so before the Gators are so far behind that I’ll lose interest. Then I’ll do some recording.

I understand what you mean about enjoying spending time in the field without worrying too much about taking a deer. I got that way back when I was trout fishing a lot. The fishing just became an excuse to be on the river.

#62

— Begin quote from "ldpayton"

All I need now is a couple of miles of swimming to complete my Idiot’s Triathlon.

— End quote

Greta idea. I like the concept of that competition. Unfortunately, I AM qualified for that one.
Sorry you’ve had such a rough day. The good news… the evening is likely to be splendid in comparison (I know… easy for me to say).

#63

— Begin quote from "Oldhat"

so it’s not really about taking one but instead the peace and quiet in being in the woods from daylight til’ dark.

— End quote

I came to the same conclusion about fishing when I was younger. I sometimes would go and wouldn’t even drop a line.

— Begin quote from "Oldhat"

I was hunting just outside of Muhlenburg county Ky…when I drove to Ohio I went right through Paradise and then through Bill Monroe’s home place. One of the Everly brothers was born in the area also so that was interesting.

— End quote

We used to drive through there on my way to my grandparents when I was a kid. When we went through there we’d sing the song that went something like “Hey Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenburg county, down by the Green River where Paradise lay…”

#64

Yep Mike I was humming Prine’s “Paradise” all the way to Ohio.

Mr Peabody didn’t get it all as that is still a really beautiful part of our great country. People are nice too.

Chug the first one Larry then savor the second - you may even want to walk outside and scream in the air to let ol’ fate know that he won’t get you down! Flip him the proverbial “bird” if-you-will.

Momma and I are outta here shortly, grabbing some chow to start our night on the town then heading to the concert. May even end up walking the strip downtown Nash after the concert. Venue is “Marathon Music Works” here in Nashville, never been to a concert there but the place looks pretty interesting, think it only seats 1500.

#65

A later lyric from the song: “Well the coal company came with the world’s largest shovel…” That song especially stuck as a kid describing that shovel becase when we were going through there we were headed West towards Paducah. Somewhere after Muhlenburg (maybe 1 hour west), we could often see a huge stripping shovel (it was really really really big). It was miles south of the road, but it was so big we could see it clearly. I hadn’t thought of that for years. Thanks for bringing back some memories!

#66

Well, mama made up a pitcher of something in the blender that tastes more like dessert than a cocktail, so I’m already feeling better about life.

— Begin quote from ____

Yep Mike I was humming Prine’s “Paradise” all the way to Ohio.

— End quote

I feel like that song was almost written for me. I grew up in Indiana, but my grandparents lived on the Green River upstream from Paradise (where the Green River Reservoir is now). Grandpa didn’t lose his farm to coal mining but through eminent domain when the Corp of Engineers took all but 12 acres of his tobacco farm to build the reservoir. I’ve got lots of fond memories of traveling down there with my parents. It seemed like such a wild place with all the hills and creeks.

Wish I could sing the darn song better though. I have a hard time with most any John Prine song.

#67

Hey Shawn, Thanks to you as well for the endorsement. It’s great to have so many people willing to help. The coolest thing about it is, most of us have never met. I returned the favor by the way. Hope everyone’s not disappointed after all the help when they hear my break.

I have one that’s recorded & ready. I don’t know if I want to keep it or not. I may try another one after hearing it on Kompoz. I kept it pretty simple & stuck with the melody, that’s what everyone else seemd to be doing. I tried a jazzy version, but I don’t think it’ll fit in well.

Thanks again,

J.W.

#68

Jeff added a tasty mandolin break. It has great playing and that’s a sweet toned mando (no doubt part of it is due to the player as well). Nice arrangement/composition/whatever you wanna call it. He had a stereo recording, but due to technical issues, only one track was usable. Even so, it sounds pretty great to me. JW, I am not saying you need to re-record (what you have sounds great), but if you do record another take, a little more gain on the input would be good.

I did take some time to tweak the various break tracks with compression and EQ. If anyone doesn’t like the tone of what I did on something, feel free to let me know. There is no reverb at this point. I know my guitar break sounds like it, but that’s just my ringy guitar :smiley: I’ll probably play with some different mic positions to see what I can do.

Shawn, if you do record some more, you might want to ease off the gain a smidge. I can’t hear it, but looking at the track it appears to be clipped a bit on the peaks.

I extended the track to make room for some more breaks. I’ll reiterate, if anyone is lurking and wants to throw their break into the ring… bring it! The more the merrier.

If anyone(s) wants to run a B flat break (or two) we could go through a little transition and crank up to a different key for the end (just to change it up a bit). Also if anyone has any requests for stops, breakdowns or other rhythm variances for their breaks, just pipe in.

It’s getting better in a hurry! Thanks to everyone for the playing and keep it coming. As far as rhythm, if anyone wants to claim something (any instrument), feel free. If more than one person wants to do a particular rhythm piece, we’ll either use both or split it up. Ozzie has laptop issues, but he may jump in if he can get things squared away.

One last thing… I am viewing the various breaks as individual chunks. Depending on what we end up with, I might re-arrange them. For example, banjo might be first, guitar last. Feel free to record tags for the end and I can splice and dice them when we figure out where the end is. JW had an ending termolo strum and I pulled down the volume for the time being.

#69

Nice mando work, j.w. I really like the tone of your mandolin, and as Mike said, it’s a tasty arrangement.

The mix is much more refined now, too. Dropping Shawn’s banjo back into the mix balanced things out quite a bit. Seems to me like j.w.'s mando is a little hidden though.

#70

Yes the mando is a bit subdued, but it was getting close. My ears were getting tired and I decided to call it a night (I didn’t even record some noodles as I had hoped - wa wa wahhhh). I pushed the mando slider all the way to the top. I could bring it up via other means (gain on the eq, compressor, dropping other things back) but my ears were getting tired and I didn’t want to mess up the sweetness of the tone.

BTW, your dobro was super easy to put in there… it naturally has the right about of “stick out” for a lead part. I could nudge it up or down and think, “that sounds good.”

#71

I’ve noticed that I always seem to mix new tracks a little too far up front because I want to hear every note the new track is adding, so that’s probably partly why the mando sounded a little low to me.

When it comes to my playing, I’ve learned that I’m not the most objective person to be giving feedback, but it seems to me that the dobro may be the most up front of all the breaks, now.

I see we’ve got ozi back from his walkabout or wherever he’s been hiding! A bass track will really help pull things together. Some extra rhythm tracks will also help with the continuity of the mix. Seems kind of segmented now, with each instrument dropping in for a break and then disappearing.

#72

I agree with you Larry… the mando needs to be relatively louder. One thing I thought of that might be cool during JW’s verse is to do a little swing chord guitar progression and drop the volume of the rhythm tracks. Unfortunately, I am not a western swing player, but I suspect I could figure something out. I think it’s difficult to do something different on the rhythm of various things as an internet collaborative project, but I guess the best way might be to post it on Kompoz. If I come up with something, I’ll post the idea. At this point, I figure we are just collecting parts. There’s no reason we can’t have multiple mixes/arrangements from various people.

#73

Some western swing might be cool. I’m always playing around with chord substitutions, but I never seem to come up with practical applications that work for me. Your idea got me playing around with the JTTW chords this evening. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.

#74

Yep Larry - got tired of the diet of witchetty grubs and wallaby tail so I’ve come back into the fold :slight_smile:
I have to do a bunch of domestic stuff to keep her who must be obeyed happy but will try to get onto the bass asap.

#75

It just feels right with Ozzie back around!

In my first “swing” at alternate chords, I was far from getting it lined out. I might be able to get something put together, but life has recently gotten quite busy. I suspect it might not happen, but I am going to try some more. The sad thing is that once I get them figured out, I’ll have to play it a bunch to get used to it. I can move a G6 around, but what I had in mind will have quite a few unfamiliar shapes.

#76

You’re trying to walk the melody line through the different chord substitutions, right? That’s what I was trying to figure out the other night anyway. I know a bunch of jazz grips because of the Berklee books I’m working through, but I don’t always know the correct name or why a chord works or how to figure out what chord should come next. It’s good practice for me to try to figure out stuff like that on my own, though.

#77

Perhaps what you are saying is what I was trying to do :slight_smile: In essence, I was trying to find alt chords to move with essentially a walking bass line with changes on 1 and 3 of each measure. I have heard swing guys do that kind of thing. I am probably trying to bite off more than I can do at this point, but it’s worth a shot.

#78

I think we’re talking about essentially the same thing only I was trying (unsuccessfully) to switch chords every beat.

#79

That would be some fancy playing! Somewhere in the process of trying to figure out how to do what I had in mind, I lost the original concept from my head. In other words I could hear it, but couldn’t play it… I got busy trying to figure out chords and then I couldn’t hear it anymore. It will come back or it won’t. It may not have been usable anyway.

#80

I’ve now listened to the track through decent speakers and it sounds great! Can’t wait to make the time to lay the bass line down, it’s starting to run round in my head already.
One question - are the two open verses for vocals, or waiting for more instrumental. If the first I assume you’ll remix with the vocals earlier in the arrangement, correct?