OH NO...a BLUES song

[rayc]

The guitarist in a side project wanted to do a blues instrumental but I figured we should make it a blues vocal as well.
Scott plays the lead guitar through out and set up the progression.
BIAB added organ, Rhodes piano & drums.
I wrote some lyrics and stole a melody.
We found a good voice and that person took the melody further as well as adding harmonies etc.
I threw in the rhythm guitars and bass.
It's ALMOST done but I would appreciate your ears...all comments and suggestions welcome.

bluesmodintroB.mp3

This is a remix with the strummed guitars gone.

This mix is the same as skinny except I've dried the vocals a little.


The busier arrangement won the lottery...


Wake up from dreaming,
Where nightmares are nothing new,
Break up from loving ,
When loving has nothing for you.
But recall the pain and go there again
The blues is nothing but history ignored.

You won’t learn from this
You won’t heed my call
You won’t believe me
No, not at all
Until you’ve been here
And walked in my shoes
My shoes, my blues
Until you’ve made the mistakes
That everyone makes
The blues is nothing but history ignored.
The blues is nothing,
But a history in song – every wrong.
The blues is nothing but history ignored.

[JD01]

Fuck-a-duck!! Is that singer just a random you've found in the interweb?

Having a really good singer makes everything sound good, but this is a good mix too.

[rayc]

Fuck-a-duck!! Is that singer just a random you've found in the interweb?
Having a really good singer makes everything sound good, but this is a good mix too.

For the most part Janice is a blue grass singer, (a 63 year old mountain bike riding one). It's the 1st time she's sung on something I've been associated with. She with her partner, does lots of cool 30s, blues n blue grass stuff and occasionally ask me about how to deal with a kick drum or bass tone.
This song needed a good singer as my guide vocal was so bad the guitarist preferred to do it as an instrumental.
Janice is superb isn't she?

[JD01]

Yeah - really excellent.

[Lt. Bob]

nice .... nice tune and nice recording .... guitarist doesn't do a lot for me but does nothing bad and he does have a good clean tone going on.

[Greg_L]

Sounds okay to me. I think the drums could use a bit more punch. They get lost a little under all the stuff. But I guess for this kind of song it's okay and the mix works overall.

[Alison]

Damn, this is good!! well done!

[TripleM]

I really like the clean guitar. Sounds nice and very well played. Singer sounds real good.

Little pop at :38. A lip smack? A smaller one at 1:01.

A bit heavy on the reverb for me.

And at the risk of sounding like an old man yelling at kids to get out of his yard, I thought the low end was too big. It's calling too much attention to itself.

[WhiskeyJack]

Little pop at :38. A lip smack? A smaller one at 1:01.

@rayc Lip smacks need to go.

that woman has an great voice! Really really good stuff. I'm picking up the finger prints of the BiaB here buddy. not sure if there is anything you can to do make it less BiaB-ish with some EQ or anything but it sounds pretty commercial and boxed? not like your last bunch of songs where BiaB was your other player. The drums need a bit of texture i think. That might be all it needs.

Cool tune!!!

[rayc]

@JD01, @Lt. Bob, @Greg_L, @Alison,@TripleM, @WhiskeyJack,
Thanks for your responses...they're helpful.
I've added a new mix that has removed the strummed guitars - Greg's "...all the stuff.." comment had me thinking & I realized I'd used all the tracks I'd played and hadn't experimented with removing any of them. Now it's Me on two accent guitars + bass, Scott C on lead and Janice singing. That leaves BIAB holding a larger number of eggs in the basket with the electric piano, B3 organs & drums. Is it an improvement?
TripleM - reverb on the lead or voclas? They both came "processed" and I used a TINY bit to settle them into the mix.
The pops I will investigate.
Yes, it does sound a bit generic - the gentle lead along with the canned parts do that.
I could dirty the drums a bit but it is a stereo file so may not be ideal.
Thoughts & suggestions please.

[Tadpui]

This is a good mix, Ray. Really nice lead vocal. I feel like the backing vocals could stand to be EQd to be a bit more mellow relative to the lead vocal, but that may just be my own tastes speaking. They sound really nice though. Bass sounds just right. Guitars sound good, although I could use a bit less level on the delay feedbacks on the first solo. I think the delay works as-is on the 2nd solo. Drum parts are good, although pretty compressed.

Nice work, man. This is a great project.

[TripleM]

I mostly heard (what I personally think is) too much reverb on the vocal. But that's me. I always complain about too much reverb.

[rayc]

I mostly heard (what I personally think is) too much reverb on the vocal. But that's me. I always complain about too much reverb.

A drier version above - just for you.

[TripleM]

A drier version above - just for you.

Aw schucks.

I'll try to get to it tonight.

[rayc]

A different mix and master via the soundcloud link. The guitarist preferred a denser mix.