This Month’s Song
I wrote this song about my sister’s funeral. She died in 1991 of a rare lung disease at the age of 35. I was 33 at the time and had been living with her for a few years during her long and brutal sickness. I’ve written about it before, but in prose, not in song. Her death was a huge transitional moment for me, and during the few years right after that, I tidied up my lifestyle, got serious about making a living, and finally got married at the age of 36.
The song is transitional, too. After Debi died, in the midst of its after-effects, I put music aside for a while. Oh, I got my harmonica into a jam session once in a while, but that was about it. I put my guitar in a case under the bed and didn’t even touch it for a couple years. And, when I did start playing again, I didn’t write any new songs for years. This song was the first one.
You could also say it’s my humble nod to the great tradition of blues songs about death and dying and people getting buried. Classics like: Death Blues by Lightnin’ Hopkins; Death Letter Blues by Son House; and Dark Was the Night, Cold was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson.
As always, thanks for listening, and let me know what you think.
Performance & Production
It’s a straight 12-bar blues in G, one voice, two guitars, one harmonica, and a little digital percussion groove. Not too much to say about that. Just trying to keep it simple and on the raw side.
I guess the most interesting thing about the arrangement is that I played the basic guitar on the Taylor T5z, recorded straight to the computer like an electric. Then I layered another slightly different pattern on the Taylor American Dream acoustic guitar but I used a capo on the third fret and played with E chord shapes to add a higher frequency to the sound. I used two small condenser AKGs to x/y mic the guitar, then panned the two signals all the way right and left to widen the mix. That’s a fairly common guitar trick, but also fairly new to me.
See, I am learning something!
Gear & Software
(Tech shit)
Guitars: Taylor T5z, Taylor American Dream AD11e Grand Theater
Harmonica: Seydel Session Steel in key of C
Plug-ins: Waves CLA Vocals; Waves Abbey Road Studio 3
Educational Resources: Colin Cross, TheBandGuide.com; Joe Gilder, HomeStudioCorner.com
Hardware: MacBook Air 2020, with AOC 27-inch auxiliary monitor.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones
Beyerdynamic DT900 ProX Open-back Headphones
PreSonus E5 Studio Monitors
PreSonus M7 Cardioid Condenser Microphone
AKG P170 Small Condenser Microphones (2)
Absolutely beautiful. Sounds like a song that's been around forever, along with those great inspirations you mentioned. Gorgeous work, my friend. Soulful and honest and real.