Age Old Blues

[VikingBlues]

Let's have a step back from the high quality uploads in recent posts and get back to amateur-city!

This has it's roots in a song that is astoundingly good - hopefully that'll mean my song won't be recognised as a rip-off as it's astoundingly NOT so good.

I was playing the Hagstrom last night and enjoying the combination of the SH55 pups, the Palmer Overdrive, and the VibroChamp XD on a clean voicing. Just noodling around and ended up playing around in the key of E which I tend to do if I'm just playing the guitar on its own. Then a bit of a lyric sprang to mind and it grew from there.

The recording can be thought of as "Live" in the sense that there's just one take for each part - Guitar (Hagstrom) / Vocal / Slide (PRS SE in Open D).
It is all a bit untidy, but then so is my desk.

You'll notice VB is in moaning mood!

SOUNDCLICK : http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11918901

download/file.php?id=2207

[tytlblues]

Yes VB..... I like it very much!!!Sounds like a couple of old blues guys sitting on the corner......definately somewhere near the cross roads The guitar tones are very nice, and the singing ain't half bad either all in all, a very good recording!

[HalfBlindLefty]

Not so high quality.... get real man you're kiddin' ain't ya ?
Listen to that beautiful guitar sound, nice, gritty.
The singing is far beyond what I could manage
Play it for a couple of weeks and it will be smooth as a baby's bottom

Should I mention I like it ?

[vancouverois]

Good stuff VB and nice singing!
Very nice riffs, SH55 and Palmer sound very good.
Well done!

[Blindboy]

This is cool! Nice gritty blues number. I love your tones here, and the vocal works great. The slide is a crowning touch.

(note to self; touch base on 12bar more often, missing out. )

[BlueDayDo]

Great sound. Love the guitar. Impressive that you got each part in one take. I don't think I could play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in one take.

[VikingBlues]

Wow - you're all very generous in your assessments!

I'm happy to see those comments on the guitar sound. Might not be much down to the player! The SH55 pickups were pricey, but they do have a tonal quality that suits me (and the Hagstrom) well - the Palmer Overdrive is the best value £44 delivered (about 55 euros) I've ever spent on a pedal - and the Fender VibroChamp XD is giving me the best sounds of any amp I've had.

I guess most people find it difficult to like their own recorded singing. I'm finding the Art Tube MP preamp is helping project my voice better. Really ought to practice singing more though - and not only sing when I need a recording! Still - nice to be able to sing at all - after 4 weeks of not even talking much for fear of bringing on coughing attacks. The PG57 I used is billed as an instrument microphone, but I think it does a pretty good job on the vocal (except one point where I exhaled a bit too violently and you can hear the thud on the recording). Must get a PG58 one day.

Play it for a couple of weeks and it will be smooth as a baby's bottom

True - it does seem that the more I listen to a recording of mine the more I start spotting the bits that worked - on the earlier plays I think I tend to only notice all the mistakes - the errors in timing - the unevenness in sounding the notes etc. Partly my fault - just giving myself one take each track. I don't usually get that quality from one take BlueDayDo - just one of those lucky days when it went much better than usual.

The slide is a crowning touch.
(note to self; touch base on 12bar more often, missing out. )

Like my singing I ought to practice slide more too! A bit of slide is useful to ramp up the blueseyness of a recording though.
Nice to hear from you Bb. Been missing your presence round here recently - a lot of my progress since joining 12bar has been down to your advice and hearing your playing. Hope you can manage to visit 12bar a bit more often!

[HalfBlindLefty]

(note to self; touch base on 12bar more often, missing out. )

Shame on you

[Strummer07]

Nice One VB !!!
Sentiments I can well relate to at this moment !! Cough cough !!
Surely this is what the Blues is all about .. stripped back , simple unpretencious rhythm backing, a dash of colour here and there and .... and a bit of emotion spread on the Top !

Tops !

[MichaelRobinson]

VB... This is realy, realy the root of blues. A bit melancolic and to me I hear the suffer in youre voice. Realy realy good. You have nothing to fear about youre performans.

And. Yes it's hard to like ones one performans, I know, but in my ears you do it so well. No analyzing in the world is needed. It's youre hart that counts.

[VikingBlues]

Thank you Strummer, thank you MR - your comments are appreciated.

Forgive the lateness of my respone - I would have replied sooner but have been laid low with gastritis.

[Strummer07]

Jeez ............VB .

Its One end after another !! :-(

[VikingBlues]

Its One end after another !! :-(

It started to make its presence felt around 8 o'clock Wednesday evening. By 3 in the morning I was demented with the stabbing pains in the stomach - demented enough to call NHS24 (for those not in the UK that is a system we have here to talk to a medical person on a phone because doctors no longer do home visits at night) - followed by eldest son taking me the 25 miles to the Royal Infirmary Hospital in Edinburgh for half past four in the morning. Got to within 3 minutes of getting home before I had to get him to stop driving so I could projectile vomit at the roadside. Not the best night of the year so far!

Now down to general griping and discomfort - which is much better but haven't played guitar for 3 days now. Mainly been sleeping or dozing on and off while listening to the Rder Cup Golf on the radio. World Ranking (and day ones result) would suggest the USA have the best chance of a win. OK Europe (Red Bars on Chart below) has a few more at the top end but see how many of the Europe team are bunched way lower down in the rankings. Average World Ranking of US players 12, European players 19 - plus home advantage for USA.

Ryder Cup 2012 World Rankings

RyderCup2012 Rankings.jpg (79.5 KiB) Viewed 10380 times