"Those Beer-Soaked Blues"

[Metaltyme]

Here's the beginnings of a song my father-in-law wanted to get off the ground (he had a 3 or 4 chord progression and a lyrical theme). He's never sang anything before, and he's not much of an axe-slinger (carpentry accident somewhat mangled a couple fingers on his frettin' hand). I came up with all the guitar parts aside from the main one (heard in the beginning and througout), which influenced the rest.

Anyway, for fun (and for a little grillin' and some beer-drinkin'), he came over to my home studio (before I moved to my new house that I'm still unpacking at, as we speak), and this is what we ended up with...so far. It's all pretty much on-the fly writing/recording, so the arrangement is very tentative. The mix is the result of a quick mixdown after it was getting too late to record stuff in my apartment.

My father-in-law played the acoustic guitar heard on the left side of the stereo field. I played the acoustic guitar on the right and the lead stuff, which is dead center. The lead vocals were sang by my father-in-law. The two chick voices are his two oldest daughters that wanted to jump in on the song. I sing a couple parts near the end (first time singin' anything really, so bear with it ).

There's an organ solo I played in there too with the trusty ole' PCR 500 triggering one of Cakewalk Dimension Pro's organ synth/samples. I played the drums on a YDD-60, and then hand-edited the velocities and expressions in a MIDI sequencer. The Avatar sample-set from Superior Drummer 2.0 was used for the drums. Oh, and the bass was hand-programmed with MIDI and then ran through Trilogy Bass Module (I can't wait for Trilian to come out!).

We plan on getting together later this week to try and finish things up (as far as the rest of the vocals/lyrics go), then I will spend further time on the mix, as well as the arrangement. I'm also plannin' to extend what we end up with later in the week with some electric guitar sections and a whoppin' electric guitar solo at the end (freebird style)...should be fun. Also, I'm brand new at recording vocals, so this has been a bit of a first try for me on those. I'd like to know what people think so far, if possible.

Thanks!

[rockerdude]

midi beer soaked blues......The acousic guitar is very revealing,I like it.
Sounds like you guys had fun making this.Nice!

[Metaltyme]

Sounds like you guys had fun making this.Nice!

Oh yeah, we had a good time! BBQ...Beer...Jammin'...what could be better!?

[fullcrib]

nothin better than cookin on the grill, drinkin beer and recordin some music....consider yourself lucky you have something in common with your father in law... I really like it man...lotsa potential...bring that imitation Hammond B3 out somemore....very cool work in progress.....

[Metaltyme]

midi beer soaked blues

that imitation Hammond B3

Yeah...practically the whole song is 'fake,' haha.

[Metaltyme]

bring that imitation Hammond B3 out somemore

I'll try it and see how that sounds.

Thanks for the comments so far guys!

[garww]

I'm just downloading this now at a whopping 4Kb/s. One thing about blues is that it's so much FUN !!

[garww]

I was smiling the whole time. Good time !! I would use a much simpler drum - use some ride.

[Bournio]

Yeah, I like it all. But it seems very very busy(don't shoot me, I'm a delta kinda guy) Maybe cutting down on the drums a lot. With all the guitars and the voices it gets full, still defined between the parts, but still busy

[Vanan]

Yea I thought it was kinda busy around 2:30 ish, til the end. Guitar strumming and chorus girls being out of sync was kinda distracting.

Then again, who gives a damn. It's bloody Beer Soaked Blues. Lovin it.