A Quick Recording Session (June 16)
Michael T., LIR’s producer, got back to Lexington on June 12 and emailed me, requesting the next opportunity to record. We settled on June 16. I put “Railroad Man” and “Year Of The Comet” on the docket.
In between scheduling a recording, I got in a couple of jam/practices, which helped keep my fingers working. The slightest layoff, I have discovered, results in an immediate, noticeable deterioration of finger strength and dexterity. I had definitely not kept up any regular practice since the first part of June, when my mother-in-law, 87, died. The next ten days became a bit of a blur. Lots of changes but notably, both my spouse’s and my schedule opened up.
On Friday, I drove to Lexington, arriving for an eleven o’clock session. Steve N. was at the board; Byron was there to observe and make charts. I decided that we would do “Year of The Comet” first, since it was one I could do more readily in the style I wanted it in (bluegrass). A simple three-chord tune (dm C G), I generally introduce it as my “End of the World” song. It’s tempo is fairly quick (108 bpm) and it’s easy to follow, so banjo players tend to find it interesting, if they can manage the tuning.
Michael T. took the tune apart (of course), beginning with just laying down a rough guitar/vocal against a click track, then recording a track with just the bass notes, then a track with the chords and finally, back to patch a couple of spots where I missed a lick or two. That takes the most time, since suddenly I find myself playing a tune I know very well in an entirely new way, requiring that I think about it in an entirely different way. Mostly, I discover that my sense of timing is not quite as good as I would like it to be. (Sigh). It’s the intro/pickup notes that are the problem. When counting off (in 4/4), these pickup licks began on the 3 beat, but since I never count off this song, that gave me fits. It took about five tries to get it right. Fortunately, I got the rough vocal first crack.
“Railroad Man,” which is undergoing a retreading to make it into a bluegrass tune, was a bit more difficult, even though it has a very straightforward chord progression and verse/chorus style. The problem was simply a result of speeding it up and playing a straight bass/chord pattern under the vocal line. Finally, though, I got it pretty much it place and a (very) rough vocal to go with it.
Total time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.