Recording Session 5-Rumors Jam 5/21/17

At Hoarder House Of Hits-Anamosa IA

Songs:

Logic And Lies  (Smith/Redding/Strobie/Daniels)

Let It Go (Smith/Redding) 

The Promise Flower (Smith)

Producer: Terry Bainbridge and R. Smith

Recording: Martin Daniels/R. Smith

With Geoff Redding and Mel Strobie

I worked on Logic And Lies all night trying to find the right melody to go with it and half the time I'd forget how it went.  Thankfully I had the chord progression written down.  I think I'm finally getting out of my depressionary state of mind and Logic And Lies (the song) really came together and I only had to do a couple takes before the overdubbing process came to be.   Let It Go, is basically a blues guitar riff  and I was trying to fit some lyrics to make the song work.  The Promise Flower might be the best of the bunch.  It's hard to tell somebody of the way you feel about them without repercussions, I know I have gone through the emotional roller coaster, the highest of the highs and then way down below, I don't recommend this to anybody.  Certainly, the jams of the past couple weekends were the best and most inspired and here's hoping I can continue to do that.  But it was a good thing I managed to record Let It Go and The Promise Flower, I have forgotten the melody already. 

Rumors Jam:

With:
Terry McDowell (Birthday Boy)

Karl Hudson-Guitar

Rick Clay-Guitar and Vocal on Dreams I'll Never See Again

Layne Goldsberry-Bass and Vocal on Rock And Roll All Night

Songs:

Dreams I'll Never See

Rocky Mountain Way (rejected)

Living After Midnight (attempted)

Rock And Roll All Night

A capacity crowd of musicians jammed into Rumors to celebrate Terry McDowell's birthday (on Tuesday) and I certainly didn't think I was going to play at all.  Buddy wasn't too pleased with the songs he had to do.  The highlight was jamming with Rick Clay on Dreams although this time out the version was a bit more rougher (Layne never played it before) but we managed to pull it together.  A couple of false starts with Rocky Mountain Way (Karl didn't feel like singing it) or Living After Midnight (Karie Skogman decided not to sing it) so we ended up bashing away on Rock And Roll All Night., the KISS song that everybody plays (my first time I do believe).  Not as rough as Dreams but it did rock and roll hard though.  But I had a tough act to follow.  Troy Mitchell, one of the best hard rock drummer played before me and he laid down some nasty bad ass beats to Hair Of The Dog.  I later chatted with him and he said that Bruce Stanley's Mom passed away last week, she was in pretty bad health even before Bruce's passing but thankfully she's meeting up with her son on the great beyond.

NOTES:  Greg Mein and his wife Brenda usually does a set that includes Heard It In A Love Song and The Weight, the latter song I really would love to do on my own but their version is very close to how the Band plays it, and I've jammed with them a bit at Checkers sometimes on that song.  Needless the say the drummer backing them up didn't know how to play those songs, After my little  song list of bashing the hell out of Terry's Drums (somehow his Rock Crash had a couple of cracks in it judging from the reflection of light off the cymbal) I chatted briefly with Greg and Brenda after they complemented on my drumming and they said they would like me to drum with them next time they do the Rumors Jam.  I told them I'd be very happy to help them out next time they played at Rumors. 

I also got a kick out of Terry after my set, he made a comment that I played some wild drums and I never took off my jacket either.  I had to laugh on that, but I do admit, that place was like a sauna and I was working up a sweat.   But some of my classic performances on drums was when I was wearing a sweat shirt or jacket.  I also think I did get carried away, I bruised a knuckle on one of the drum tuners, which still hurts as I type this out. 

Nevertheless, this did get me out of my depressionary state and I'm sure everybody is happy about that too.


It was two years ago, that I finally did a jam of sorts.  I managed to chat up with Rod Albaugh at work and played his guitar and did a couple of songs with him.  It was my first jam with anybody since the demise of I/O in 2009.

And life hasn't been the same since then.


Recording Session 6  5/22/17

Producer: Terry Bainbridge/R.Smith
Recording: R.Smith

Mystery Girl (Smith/Redding)

Richard Thompson was the inspiration of this song to which Geoff and I traded lyrics and worked them up from scratch within the hour.  The melody was thought up for about three months and the only song that I could sing this to was Lee Dorsey's Ya Ya.  The funny thing about recording in this day and age is how quickly these songs come to be, it used to be we would toy around it and waste 10 or 15 takes and still couldn't get the feeling of the song right.  This is why I practice guitar late in the night downstairs, to tinker with the arrangement and when the next day comes and my brother's at work I can record them.  Most of the songs I haven't done more than two or three takes at best.  Once you start laboring on them after 10 or 15 takes then it becomes work and not much fun.  I can say since Forthcoming Trains, I have managed to continue to work on songs before committing them to tape.  I really do want more originals than covers, otherwise I may have to do a Wapsipinicon Dreamers Volume 2 but I'm thinking more of a title called Scratchy Records and have some local musicians come in and help out.   If that's the case, then I may have to book a studio in advance.  Julie Gordon has expressed a desire to work on a song or two, but I would rather have her do something original, although we did save an in progress version of Gold Dust Woman.  We could do a complete version at her place (since Buddy Aschbrenner says he can record anything we do, the dude keeps deleting his Facebook page so I can't get a hold of him) but I do have a couple original ideals that she might put to good use.  She's quite busy with The Mad Dogs, Dreams Of Arcadia and now Bart And Jewelz but if the stars align just right we'll work on something.