MUSIC: My new covers album, The Songwriter Who Went Under Cover is now out. It is a benefit for the Huntington’s Disease Clinic at UConn where Kathy goes. It is available on Loudr.fm and at iTunes but will soon be available at Amazon and many other outlets.
As I mentioned in a previous blurb, I think of myself as a songwriter and guitarist. But as I started looking through my computer I found all this stuff that I didn’t write. Just kidding. I learn a lot when I record a song. Sometimes it is a recording technique which is still new to me. Or unusual guitar progressions. Or trying to render a song that was written for somebody with a normal vocal range. It is especially true when the song isn’t my own, a classic so to speak. These tunes are from a variety of writers. Some are old but some are by my musical friends on SoundCloud.
Bidin’ My Time is a lesser known song by George and Ira Gershwin, 1930. The first version I heard was so short that I really thought the Gershwins WERE really biding their time while they came up with a better song. But the more I started trying to play it in my folky sort of way, I appreciated the song structure more. My version has my friend Sam Reynolds adding a guitar break and doing most of the production. I performed everything else.
Whistle While You Work is from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the Disney classic. Music and Lyrics by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey, 1937. I started this a long time ago but I was pretty bad as Snow White. John Hollingum, who lives in England, added some mandolin although he has no recollection of playing on this track I have emails to prove it. Then Steph Casey, came to rescue the track with her vocals from New Zealand. Sam Reynolds advised me on the mix from Pittsburgh. I played guitars and sang and provided the midi bass and drums.
Green, Green, Rocky Road. I’ve played one version or another of this song since I was a probably 12 years old. My sister, Barbara probably taught it to me. It was the first song I learned in drop-D tuning. Dave Van Ronk had the most popular version but it has just been revived courtesy of the film “Inside Llewyn Davis.” This version was copyrighted in 1961 by Len Chandler and Robert Kaufman and appeared in Sing Out! Magazine. The notes say the song was collected from the children of Lilly Chapel School in York, Alabama and is found in “Negro Songs From Alabama” by Harold Courlander. But I have to pay to license it anyway. I played everything on this one including autoharp and mandolin. The autoharp has had a missing string for a decade or so.
Help Me Rhonda is actually an outtake recorded for my old CD in 1996 or so. So if my voice sounds younger, it is. This was transferred from a cassette mix tape and features Jeff Pevar (of CPR, David Crosby’s band), Chris Hayes on accordion and Richard Downs on tuba. it is the only track on here that has no connection with my SoundCloud friends. My original plan back in the day was to have the Nields sing the harmonies on it but I never got around to asking and there was the whole licensing issue that baffled me then.
My Girl. The 1964 hit for the Temptations was by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White. In addition to guitar and voice I added faux uke, faux tuba and steel drums.
Oh Babe, What Would You Say. My SoundCloud friend, Jeff Slarve put me up to this challenge by sending me a YouTube clip. I remembered the song from my college days and seeing him on Johnny Carson. I remembered not liking it at the time. Norman “Hurricane” Smith engineered a number of Beatles tracks and then did this hit song at the age of 49. It’s been covered by Liza Minelli and Mama Cass and many others. Frasier even sang it on Cheers, I think. I tried to slow-folk it. I sang and played two guitar tracks and all the midi instruments on my midi guitar.
Hold on Tight. This is a ballad by my friend Fred McCoy who is also our lawyer. I used to get together with him and another friend, Chuck Thompson, most Wednesday nights to play guitar before Kathy’s health got worse. My friend Marty Lucas provided piano and other keyboards and Corrine Lucas sang the wonderful harmonies. Sam Reynolds did the production and added some steel guitar loops.
Wait, Slade (Her name is Susan), and Kangaroo are all by a great punk pop band on SoundCloud called bentcousin who are not cousins. But they are twins. Pat and Amelia Innit emailed me demos from England that were actually pretty wonderful by themselves.
One of the things that made this release possible was the new music site called Loudr.fm which takes the songs and distributes them to places like itunes, Amazon, Google and Spotify. But what they do differently is that they also get permission licenses to let me do a version of the songs by the Beach Boys or the Temptations. Let’s face it. Everyone does covers. YouTube would not exist without cover music. But it isn’t legal. And Loudr makes it easier at least. They will deduct the fee from each download that sells. So while there might not be as much money to donate to UConn at least the money won’t go to legal funds.