Recording Session - May 23
I scooted down to Lexington on Tuesday, May 23 for a quick session before Michael T. goes out of town for a while. We had decided that we needed to lay down more than one tune per session or it would take a couple of years to get this project done.
Michael T. had been listening to the two tunes that I had picked and when I arrived at noon, he said that he thought it better to leave the charting until after the initial track was laid down, as I am not completely consistent in performing the tunes. He had brought along Byron, the young man who had been at the first session, and set him to doing an initial rough chart. Steve Nall was the session engineer.
I thought it best to begin with the re-recording of “Somebody’s Walking On My Grave,” using a click track this time, of course. It went fairly smoothly - the first track took a couple of passes, then Michael suggested that I play just the bass notes. That took a bit of rethinking, as I normally don’t play it that way, but after two or three false starts, I was able to get an acceptable recording. Then we did the scratch vocal, which went down easily, with a second track for the ‘response’ portion of the verses. (I generally sing more reliably than I pick.)
Then we went at “Big Fire In Bardstown,” the tune that Gary Brewer had recorded in 1997 and released. I play that a bit differently than he does and, since it’s a five-verse tune, we omitted a section of solos. That took several passes as well, as I have been playing it in performance for years, but hadn’t really worked on getting it solidly rhythmic.
Michael wanted me to had a bit of hammering-on to a chord change, which I usually just slop in when I’m performing the song. So, of course, I had all manner of trouble getting the timing right. He finally decided to do it himself, which went down in one take. He was in a bit of a hurry, as he had a seminar to teach as soon as we got done.
The vocals went down quickly as well and we were finished at ten til two. Having stated just after noon, the whole session was less than two hours. Steve made a quick, rough mix and burned me a CDR to take and I was on the road by two-ten.
The two tunes will be posted shortly.