First Record At Sixty

After all the base guitar tracks and scratch vocals had been done, it was time to begin adding the remaining instrumentation. Producer Michael T. and I had discussed which bass player I would use and I had said that my friend Steve R. would do just fine. On November 15, he and I rode down to Lexington for the session.

As often happens, the bass guitar he brought had a ground fault, resulting in a nasty hum in the signal. Michael T. got a bass the studio kept around and gave that to him to play but the hum remained. The students and engineer chased the hum for a bit, finally running it down and resolving it.

This is a very common problem with instruments and gear used to perform out: hauling instruments and gear around results in repeated beatings, so that even the best instruments and gear frequently develop similar problems, which are a bit hard to hear in a noisy bar. They’re not hard to hear in a studio and can ruin a session, not to mention the recording. A professional engineer should not allow you to use an instrument with a ground fault, even when the studio has software that will remove that particular noise, because it will also remove any desired signal in that frequency range as well. Before going to the studio, check any instrument you plan to use for hum: plug it into a clean amplification system and listen using headphones, if at all possible.

If you are up in years (as I am), be sure that all the loud music you listened to over the years hasn’t damaged your hearing. A hearing test is simple and not expensive and the odds are you will find some hearing loss in the upper registers. Contrary to the belief of many classical players, performing in orchestras can most definitely result in hearing loss, particularly for players sitting in front of the brass section. If you are still young and have all your hearing, it is a most excellent idea to purchase a pair of custom made earplugs. These are molded to fit your ear canal and reduce the overall decibel level without cutting out particular features. They are great for talking in noisy bars, too, because you wear them, you can hear just fine, while others around you are shouting and straining to hear.

Back to the session: Steve R. and the drummer, Eric W., got straight to work and laid down the tracks for six tunes over the course of about seven hours, with a one-hour lunch break. Eric, who plays in a band with Michael T., was very fast to pick up a tune, so that retakes where quite limited. Steve R. knew most of the songs and was also very fast at working out the bass parts. There was a bit of fixing up here and there along the way but the whole session went along very quickly.

Of course, having a drummer work on a tune can reveal flaws in the structure of a song. One of my earliest tunes, called “I Can Sing a Country Song,” turned out to have several measures of different length. (Blush) I blamed it on my ignorance at the time of writing, when I just wrote what I heard in my head. Eric charted the errant measures and adjusted his drumming accordingly and the whole thing sounded perfectly fine. Score one for a ‘real’ music education.

Eric also added congas to several tunes (Producer Michael is a Caribbean music lover), which added excellent flavor to the tunes, particularly to a G-minor blues tune called “I Got My Doubts About You, Boy,” which is a song about a musician I used to know. Michael got into the tune and dug up several percussion instruments to add, so that by the time we were done, that tune had really stood up. Steve R. said that before this session, he hadn’t really cared for the tune, but afterwards, he really liked it.

We wrapped up the session by about 5:30 p.m. and Steve and I headed back to Louisville, in the dark and in the rain, not my favorite weather for driving. Even though I didn’t ‘do’ anything during this session, I was worn out from pacing around and bagged it early.

After a rather harrowing week last month involving seven inches of rain in two or three hours that resulted in a flooded basement and a compromised computer requiring a new motherboard, the opportunity to ride to Lexington and talk about how to proceed on the project was a tremendous relief. It was also fairly short and to the point.

Lexington School of Recording Arts Producer Michael T. had already been listening and had some thoughts. He was mostly interested first in how I wanted to arrange the bluegrass tunes and which ones were to be considered bluegrass. My preferences in bluegrass run to newgrass first and Monroe grass later, but I’m okay with a straightforward guitar/bass/banjo/mandolin configuration, with perhaps a bit of fiddle here and there, mostly because session fiddlers are hard to find, even in Kentucky. Michael asked about Dobro, but I told him I didn’t have access to any Dobro players. As for fiddlers, I had a couple in mind and we agreed that I would see if I could get in touch with either of them and find out if they were interested in the work.

The rest of the tunes are a mixed bag: some country, some Americana, a couple of Caribbean -flavored tunes. Michael said that there were some good session players that they had access to, particularly a guitarist that LIR owner Wil F. was very high on. I said I was agreeable, since I was interested in getting the thing done.

Back in Louisville, I talked with a couple of players who expressed an interest and willingness to do the sessions. As always, the problem is the difference between session players and pickers: session players can walk in, grab the charts and lay down very excellent tracks very rapidly. Pickers cannot, most of the time, though many of them think they can.

Unsolicited advice here: always go with session musicians if they are available, even if you have players in a band. The session players will save you money and time and then you can insist that your band members learn those parts. Really.

Looking on down the road, the opportunity to do an acoustic Americana television show is coming to fruition rapidly, with all the ad spots taken. Several of us involved will meet with the station manager/technical director to work out the production issues and infomercial questions, then set a kickoff date. The first taping, or a least a test taping, will happen on November 16 at Gerstle’s Place in St. Matthews.

What’s most interesting about this whole process is the number of peripheral things in play, including the TV show, the ad hoc house band and parts of the marketing component. It puts me in mind of a lot of the spiritual/new age stuff of the Sixties: visualize what you want to make it happen. I think I’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

There’s been a long stretch between postings, due mostly to the end-of-summer busy season - lots of things going on, mostly work-related. However, I managed to schedule a final trip on September 13 to record the basic guitar tracks and vocals for the last three songs for the project: “Love On A Dime,” “I Got My Doubts About You, Boy” and “I Can Sing A Country Song.” All three songs are old, written in the late Seventies, but they stand up pretty well anyway.

As it happens, I can’t seem to ever stop tweaking them, though. “Country Song” has a guitar lick/riff that is a challenge for a weak guitarist (me) to play consistently, particularly while singing, even though I had been working on it for some weeks in advance. It took a number of passes to get it down perfectly. Fortunately, Steve could cut ‘n’ paste it into the several places it needed to be, (Bless Pro Tools), thus saving his and my sanity as well as my fingers.

The vocals went down quickly and, in just under three hours, we were finished. Steve burned me a copy of the tracks, including the drum machine tracks, we unloaded the copies of the paper I brought and I headed back to Louisville.

I assembled all twelve tunes and burned several CDs to give to musicians who I thought might be interested/available to appear on the record, including bassist Steve R. and his wife, Debbie, who’s a pretty good singer. (Steve last recorded on his daughter Jenny’s CD in Nashville.) They were both downtown at the Wednesday jam that night at the BBC on Theatre Square, an event that happened to be one of the livelier ones of recent weeks. We played until past 11 p.m., with lots of sing-a-long songs plus original stuff in the mix. Our friend Diana, who teaches flamenco dancing, showed up after a long absence and did a bit of samba/flamenco dancing with castenets, though she begged off anything too strenuous, as she had been rehearsing since 4:30 in the afternoon and was tired.

The effort to start shooting a TV show at the jam got several boosts, too. Paul C., Diana’s husband, said that he had some friends who did TV production who were interested in helping with that project as well as an original rock show at another club. Brian W., whose father hosted a children’s TV show in Columbus, Ohio in the 60s and 70s, said he would use his networking friends to sell all the advertising we needed, since the budget we have for this project is ridiculously cheap, and Danny R. seems to be close to nailing down the cooperation of the owners of the bar. Brian, of course, is interested in promoting his music - as we all are - and Danny wants to be the host. The rest of the crew seems to be cautiously attracted to the idea of being on television. At any rate, it should be useful in selling CDs once my project is done.

The jam session at the BBC on Theatre Square has been suffering from the summertime blues; fewer folks in the room. The Kentucky State Fair has also begun, which generally drags down attendance at lots of events. Nonetheless, last night (August 16), we wound up picking from 7:30 p.m. until 11:10 p.m or so. I noticed that the bar had an announcement about the jam written quite large on an upper portion of the front glass; clearly, it’s time to arrange for some renumeration for this gig.

This was also my third night in a row of getting out and playing. Tuesday, I went over to the Air Devils Inn for their “Wide Open Stage,” where I ran into a few friends, though only one of the musical variety. Such is the music business: there is a steady stream of new players coming along all the time. I had to mike the guitar, as my Taylor’s pickup has developed a ground fault, with a resultant nasty hum if amplified. I don’t know if I can stand to be parted with it for the several weeks it will take the local repair folks to get around to fixing it. I might have to do a little (careful) exploratoration myself. Whoo.

In any case, I found myself taking a couple of long naps over the last two days. Must be getting … old.

Update:

I continued right along this week: on Friday, I went to a friend’s show and wound up sitting in with him for a while. Then on Saturday, I attended a Pickin’ Party at another friend’s house that kept me out until close to midnight. Needless to say, on Sunday, I did some serious napping.

Gigging, while fun, is hard work and more so due to the late nights. Most folks who were out and about until all hours find that to be much harder to do once past age sixty. If you are recording a project and plan to gig to promote it, you had best recondition yourself to staying up late - and getting up late.

Rolled down to Lexington on Friday, August 11 to record a couple of more tunes. Michael T. was busy and handed his task off to Bryon and Steve. I discovered that the hum in my Taylor pickup was more than a bad battery; there’s something else. I played a Takamine they had in the studio instead and did well enough, even though it was not as comfortable to play as my own instrument.

I laid down guitar tracks for “White Horses” and “There Aren’t Any Chains,” two tunes that have somewhat more complex guitar parts than many of the others. They are definitely not bluegrass.

Althogether, it was a quick session, though I confess to missing Michael T.’s ear for errors: a couple slipped through and may need to be fixed yet.

Overall, I’m getting somewhat more used to the process and, for the two tunes I did, I had previously worked out separate parts for primarily rhythm and something for a more instrumental feel. We’ll see what’s left in the mix, down the line.

I finally went down to Diana Dinicola’s Flamenco studio for a two-hour introduction to Flamenco dancing. No need to detail the session; suffice it to say that I’ve signed up for a seven-week series of beginner’s classes. I think that taking these lessons will be very useful re: timing. Some Flamenco songs (and dances) have a twelve-count: 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2. Essentially a blending of 3/4 and 2/4 counts. Not your ordinary time signature in popular music.

On the recording side, I’m scheduled to head down to Lexington after a long break (vacations and the like) on Friday, August 11. Report to follow.

I continue to work on gathering up players to be part of Tingo. Michael T., Brian W. , Steve and Debbie R. and I played a inside show at Alameda Restuarant, which turned out to be a mistake: we’d have been better off outside, even with the heart. The resturant is all hard walls and odd interior shapes, with the result that it was nearly impossible to hear. In addition, the place was packed and the yakking was at full volume. Still, we soldiered on and ate well at the end.

The morning weather for July 7 was positively springlike - 59 degrees at 6 a.m. The drive to Lexington was, accordingly, splendid and smooth. Michael T. and Byron were waiting in Studio A when I got there (early). I had decided that it was time to get away from bluegrass for a bit and see how recording some other styles would go. The choices to record were “Madman On the Corner” and “Slave’s Day Off,” a new tune that I had been rehearsing quite a bit, just to learn to play it in public. “Madman,’ a tune I wrote back in 1981, has a Caribbean/Latin feel. As it turned out, it also has quite the Buffett feel, too.

“Madman” went down quite quickly, using the same double acoustic guitar tracks. After that was done, Michael T. remarked that he had mentioned to me that he had a Buffett cover band and that they had received requests for a CD when they play. He was, he said, looking for songs and he liked “Madman” and wanted to cut it. Naturally, I said ‘yes’ and we briefly discussed the mechanics, to wit, a license. He asked what my publishing company was; I told him that I handled my own publishing through ASCAP, which satisfied him. He said they would burn 1,000 copies, so I’d pick up $80, which would cover the cost of registering the PA and, perhaps, buy me some dinner out.

After that bit of business, we laid down the guitar tracks for “Slave’s Day Off,” which also went rapidly, though the battery in my Taylor’s picking was causing a bit of a hum. Fortunately, they had the software needed to take that kind of hum out of the tracks.

I sang the scratch vocal tracks for both songs and that was the session: one-and-a-half hours, with time to chat. I got my two CDs and headed home.

Going to Lexington this Friday morning for a session. It’s time to stop with the bluegrass and try my hand at a couple of not-remotely bluegrass tunes, including, I think, the new “Slave’s Day Off” tune. Look for more posting later today.

Most amateur songwriters have one fear (or hope) in common: that somebody is going to steal their songs and make a ton of money with them. The fact that most legitimate infringement cases involve songs that have already been hits doesn’t seem to matter - writers fear the theft of their work; the ghost of E. P. Christy haunts them.

E. P. Christy created on of the most successful minstrel shows, Christy’s Original Virginia Minstrels, in the mid-Nineteenth Century in America. He was also known as the man who made Stephen Foster really famous, having made a deal at one point to be the exclusive outlet for Foster’s tunes. He also bought the right to be known as the author of Foster’s “Old Folks At Home,” (better known as the “S’wanee River”), which Foster forever after regretted.

Even though Foster benefited from the connection to Christy’s Minstrels, the ‘folk wisdom’ about the arrangement was that Christy stole Foster’s tunes, particularly “Old Folks At Home.” As the law at the time essentially allowed whomever got to a courthouse and registered a song first to own the song - as well as allowing a writer to sell his authorship, something that is not now legal - songwriters rightfully feared that dishonorable people would snatch their work and register it.

Throughout the 19th Century and well into the 20th, infringement was a serious problem, despite the changes in copyright law in 1909, which was the first to directly address the question of ownership of composed music. Musicians generally only made money through performance, unless they made deals with book and sheet music publishers as composers. (For a timeline about copyright law in the U.S., go to www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/timeline.html)

Throughout most of the 20th Century, certain record companies and publishers made a practice of defrauding composers, particularly African-Americans, usually through deceitful contracts, though occasionally through outright theft. With the 1976 revision, however, it became much easier - if any legal action can ever be considered ‘easy’ - to take an action for infringement, as the copyright protection was extended to the moment that the song was first put into permanent form: the pen was lifted from the page, the ‘Stop’ button was pressed on the recording device. The writer could take an action for infringement even if the song was not registered with the Copyright Office at the time of the infringement, although registration was required to file the action.

[It is necessary to note here that the above and what follows does not constitute legal advice; I am not a lawyer, either, and not qualified to offer legal advice. I can say that the best rule of thumb to follow as a writer is to document, document, document. Put your copyright notice (Copyright 2006 by John Doe or © 2006 by John Doe) on every copy of your song, whether that is only the lyrics or a demo recording. ]

There have been additional revisions to the Copyright Law since 1976, mostly to extend the length of ownership of copyright. (That one is also to the benefit of the corporations who own various intellectual properties such as the Disney Corporation’s ownership of Mickey Mouse.)

Registration of copyright with the Library of Congress Copyright Office is not required until the song is “published,” i.e., put into fixed form for sale, as in a CD or sheet music (rare though that is). The songwriter can enter the song into contests, ‘pitch’ it to publishers and artists and/or perform the song in public without fear of losing the rights to the song - or the right to sue the heck out of someone who might actually try to steal your song.

So banish the ghost of E. P. Christy and get to writing.

Wednesday’s jam took an entirely new turn: electric. When I arrived at the BBC, a country band, complete with drum kit, was setting up. A query to Dan indicated that he knew the group was coming and that he had told them it was an acoustic jam. Fat chance. By the time things got rolling, the house PA had been set up (necessary, unfortunately), so the evening turned into a relatively sloppy amplified jam, with only two mics and four instrument inputs.

The country band was four guys, including an excellent African-American blues drummer (a pro) who had previously worked with Mark Stein and the Steamrollers and Ricky Mason’s Saints. He also claimed to have played with Pinetop Perkins as a very young man. He was a tasteful, rock-solid drummer. The other three were from the South End (self-described). Dan had them go first, of course, so we all sat out until they had done a few tunes. After they knocked down, the PA was still up and, as is usual with amplification, distorted the jam into a series of pretty ragged performance, since some of the instruments were unamplified and others over-amplified. Forget the harmonies. However, Steve’s wife Debbie got into it and was wailing. Clearly, the lure of the stage is working on her.

A bit later in the evening, a rock guitarist showed up, toting his own little amp. He sat in for a while, though the music was mostly not in his style. Fortunately, he was constrained in his playing and didn’t walk on anybody.

I’ve been figuring on this turn of events for a while, if for no other reason than we are certain to begin drawing additional players and fans (I hope, that is.), so the need for volume to be heard will be an increasing demand. It’ll shape the event into something more like an unpaid gig than a jam session and at some point, the matter of getting something from the bar besides a check for our beer will crop up. We’ll see how it goes.