Recording to an 8-track reel to real machine when everyone had time, I had laid down a number of things performed on this unique sounding harmony tenor. The top of it was split. One of the ladder braces under the front arch top under the strings was not just broken- it was gone. The string tension was loosely goosey and the action was low and it needed to be played sweetly. It was touchy. I loved it. If I played it with my right hand over the top of the fret board, when I did what would just be a rest on another stringed instrument the strings laid down on the fret board making a click. We mic’d it super close.
I had distributed the recording of the tenor guitar part and me singing to some musician friends in a here’s-what-i’m-working-on kind of way. Fiddlers had been in, old friends to work on songs as they got built. It was a good recording process- good strong, well rehearsed basic tracks and then additional things if there were players who could or it was something somebody heard in their head. Good work was happening. My buddy Matt Skinner came in first and had a banjo part and a solo, I think in one take. The single note over the top was one of those late nights ideas. Andrew Brockman added a couple more keyboard notes. Ryan Bernemann who played bass late in the Shame Train days came in and played upright bass. We brought Justin LaDuc in to play drums on another newer track (Smith) maybe more than a year after I sent out the tenor guitar thing in a here’s-what-i’m-up-to kind of way and it came up conversationally in the session. I was like, you wanna take a pass at it? And he was like, sure.
Fuggin’ one take. Nails it. The mix was uneventfully easy. It's just performances. For a long time it was my favorite peice I'd been a part of making.
Some of the lyrics were improvised over the tenor guitar part. Some were figured out before hand.
Abandon
When you're taken with abandon, and you're far away from home, and you ain't got no companion. Wherever you lay down is home. When the sky is your direction but your feet won't leave the ground. There ain't no lie in self deception, and what you're standing on is sound.
There’s always drifting sand between you and what you wanna be. They tell you you ain't goin’ no where, and all your time is free. You can stay right here and fight your petty ears forever. Me, I’m walkin’ out the door. And with me it’s always better late than never, better left than never more.
Repeat first verse.
fin
And as always if you like that song and think it would be cool to pay for it, you can buy it on Bandcamp as part of the album Donkey Island, OR as a single.
Here's the link.
It's track five.
