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Jr.
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 7:12pm
If any of you have read my Ron The Bassist page,
you know that one of my primary influences in songwriting and recording was a fiddle player named Jr.
He was a true gentleman and a superior musician who just happened to love my songs.
In 1988, I wrote this tune and as payment for helping my brother assemble his recording studio, Mark let me record three demos in his new studio.
The first tune I recorded was this one I call Down Home in the Hills
I did all of the vocals, the bass, and wrote the drum program on an Alesis HR-16
I recorded that in two one hour sessions.
My friend Larry came down and recorded rhythm guitar and banjo in a day.
this is where the demo gets its story
My brother's engineer Jerry ran the board for the entire demo
they were used to recording dance stuff and this down tempo country stuff was causing some yawns
when we finished with Larry's banjo Jerry asked me if I was ready to mix.
No, I said, I'm bringing in one more guy.
Two weeks later, I found my friend Jr. and asked him if he would play on my demo.
I'd be happy to he said.
When Jr. showed up, he brought with him the experience of recording in the finest studios in Nashville and the rest of the world.
So as they were setting up to record him he asked us to play the track for him.
Jerry wheeled over a coupe of gobo room separators to isolate the mic
Jr. looked up and said, those are some mighty nice gazeebos you got there.
Jerry looked up and said, these are gobos
Oh Jr. said, we always call 'em gazeebos
and Jerry said, no they're gobos
Jr. looked at me and winked.
After hearing the track played through, Jr. said to me, those aren't just lyrics, that's poetry. Rare to find a songwriter that can do that.
best compliment I've ever recieved about my music.
ever
Anyway he came in and laid these fiddle tracks in two takes, one for the lead and second for the harmony and did them both in one take.
He blew all of us away (including my world class producer brother) and stepped up this demo quite a bit.
A few years later he was killed while changing a tire on an interstate berm.
I wept when I heard about it.
I wept again when I found this demo.
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 1:50am
#2
I'm still astounded with your voice and songwriting ability, OFC
Great track, and Jr kicked some serious azz, a tribute to you both.
I've d/l it and it's on the Ipod for my traveling listening.
Thanks for sharing!
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 12:50pm
#3
Wow. Thanks for sharing that. Sad, but good story.
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 2:07pm
#4
That's an amazing story and a great song. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 5:03pm
#5
silverSurfer;167070 wrote:
I'm still astounded with your voice and songwriting ability, OFC
Great track, and Jr kicked some serious azz, a tribute to you both.
I've d/l it and it's on the Ipod for my traveling listening.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the props
The thing about Jr. was that he was very humble and soft spoken.
Yeah he chided Jerry a little, but there was a payoff in the end.
Jr. was what we around here call a sh!tknower.
Meaning he knows his sh!t.
Jr. was in Mark's studio for about 45 minutes.
About 20 of it was spent setting up and recording his tracks.
The rest he was in the control booth.
They were using a brand new DoD board with some SSL mic amps and Jr. made a comment about how nice the gear was.
Jerry ventured a question about the board and jr. knew the answer, so Jerry and Mark picked Jr's brain for the next few minutes.
Jr. had engineered and produced thousands of recordings for hundreds of artists, and he really knew gear.
Jerry told me later that he learned more about running the board in ten minutes with Jr. than he did from reading the manual and talking wiith the factory rep during installation.
Juniors performance in the session was a jaw dropper.
His loss was crusher for me.
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 8:42pm
#6
Fellas, now, THAT's country.
Jr. kicked it.
Man, I can hear that done as just straight up bluegrass, too.
Nice job, OFC. Nice job.
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 9:17pm
#7
down home.... love it. that boy could saw the fiddle. Another nice gem from the OFC!! modulation and everything- nice work old timer!!
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 9:27pm
#8
Great song and story.
Sorry for your loss.
Sounds like Jr. was a good man.
LowDown:cool:
Sorry to hear about the loss, but you can always listen to this song to be reminded of him.
And for what it's worth, it's a kick ass demo. I really dig your voice, and lyrics.
www.myspace.com/djsannen
Well the times, they are a-changin'.