Bass Picking

With a little help from my church bass friends here is my solution for muting the strings while playing with a pick. It's a modification of Carol Kaye's technique. I had some old foam laying around the studio so we cut a few pieces and put it under the strings near the bridge. It works quite well.

The Seven Songs

So I tagged myself from a friends Blog Seven Songs I'm really into right now and why.

In no particular order:

1. "The Future" this is by an up and coming rapper "EdGe", I really don't like much rap, but one day I was goofing with a Orchestral meets urban track and Edge said "I could rap to that" I said no, its in three, nobody raps in three. He was right, I'll try to edit with a link to the song.

2. "Crime of the Century" by Supertramp, I've always loved this group since High School when I went to the concert. Today so much music doesn't breath, there has to be a fill in every beat, nothing has time to reflect, Hip-hop and RnB in particular. 12 lines spaced out over 5 beautiful, sparse minutes of instrumentals. I'm teaching my kids to love this music.

3. "Walk Don't Run" by The Ventures, in addition to what I yell at my kids at the pool, its also a pretty cool surf song by the longest lasting surf band. I have several students learning to play it and it never gets old when they come in to work on it. Sure wish we could get that sound, but I'm not spending 3 grand on a Mosrite just to get that sound.

4. "Rescue Us" by My Daughter, another one I'll need to post a link for, a song My daughter and I wrote while on vacation. Cool semi modal stuff, chorus in major, the verses in dorian.

5. "I Will Rise Up" or one of many cool songs by Lyle Lovett, right now its this one. All of Lyle's songs are awesome, this one has really cool BGV's, me and my kids are totally into it, trying to sing all the parts.

6. "Bad Company" by, well, Bad Company, Just bought this CD on a whim, and remembered that I really like this song. Don't know why.

7. "London Calling" by The Clash, The best song from one of the best albums ever record, hadn't listened to it in a while or never, go get it, its a bargain on itunes 20 songs, $10, everyone cool.

Brent

The 3 B's of Rap

The B's of Rap Music

A rant.

Ok about this rap music, first it took me a while to even gain an appreciation for this music, but eventually I came around. Lately however (and by lately I mean the last 6 years) I'm sick of it. Can we rap about something other than the B's (thats B, Bullets, Bling and B....ch's). Amazingly enough I'm not interested in who you shot, what you're wearing or who that is on your arm, and I'm sanitizing this greatly. So, along comes a guy (Lupe Fiasco sp?) raps about skateboarding, Kick, Push and Coast. And everybody is like "Wow, that is out there, a rap song about skateboarding" Like African-Americans can't enjoy skating. Gosh, nobody got shot in the song, no women were sexually abused in this song (maybe an animal was injured, but hey I can't have dinner without harming an animal). My gosh the world is ending. An actual rap song without any B's in it. This is written about in the paper, "it's left field", "Lupe is out there", "man, what was he thinking" Come on, its a song about skating. I have these rap clients, that come in talking about their cool clothes, their MB or BMW, which they don't own, they road the bus to the studio, but they can barely pay for an hour of studio time, then they complain "hey it doesn't sound like the radio" Uh, no, it doesn't, that song probably took 6-10 hours to mix, oh and it was probably mastered also. So, no it doesn't sound like the radio, but maybe you can ship it out as a "mix tape", hey the place I buy gas sells mix tapes. Maybe you can sell your stuff there. So, what I'm saying is write something new and interesting, about skateboarding maybe, or life, or school, or maybe a real love song, or how about music, or your children. No, you just write about the B's. Oh, and while your at it maybe back off the profanity (that's cursing and bad words for those of you that don't know what profanity means). I might buy it. Others might also. Cause it ain't just me that feels this way. I bought The Black-Eyed peas and really they aren't that great, but at least they have something different to say, so I wanted to support that. But maybe you like the B's, maybe you like the profanity, But why must you flame the guys that don't. I've heard you, "that ain't real rap" Hmm, it sounds like rap to me, its just not about killing, shooting and that B***h. Hey, some of it I can let my children listen to. They kinda like rap, but there's like 10 songs I can let them hear. So, come on guys give us something new to listen to.

This rant does not apply to my clients, I love all of your material.

Thanks,
Brent

Music in May

It's slow, so very slow, nobody wants to work in May, everybody "takes a break." June is coming and we have several projects coming up. An interesting alternative acoustic group should be coming in, we have to do the work for the new roll out of Asaph's Children and we've got to get the "Edge of Genius" project done. And promoted, although we are getting help with that. 2 music rags already want to do stories on us, and they haven't even heard the stuff! Most people that listen to it are blown away, a few hate it (so what) a few are noncommittal. It's really different, we've described it as Rap meets Rock, Rock meets Urban, Urban meets Classical

Larry, I miss you

A couple of months ago one of my favorite song writers passed away after a long illness. Larry Norman, the treasure of "Christian Music." Usually when someone I admire passes, I drag out the vinyl, search through the CD's and try to think what life would be without their music. It seems like calling Larry a pioneer is an understatement, the list of people he influenced is like a who's who list. U2, the pixies, every Christian artist. Whether today's CCM artist realizes it, they were influenced by Larry Norman or by someone that was influenced by Larry. Larry wasn't just a great songwriter, he gave people like me hope, by people like me, I mean guitar players, bass players, drummers. Being a rock musician in the late 70's and early 80's meant not having a place to play in church. If you were a Christian believer and wanted to contribute to your church's worship experience, well you didn't drag that electric up to the church and sit in with the organist, you were promised that lightning strikes would soon follow. But, there was Larry, with his guitar and his Rock n Roll, Jesus lyrics, and you just imagined...what if there was a place, a place that loved to worship with Rock n Roll, a place that almost every church is now. I've been asked to leave churches when the guitar came out, now I'm asked to go play churches and they ask for the guitar. So Larry, thanks for bringing the music in your heart and playing it with the band. You were the first and you'll always be the best. So thank you for the pretty story, I won't keep it to myself, I'll play your music for my children, as I tuck them into bed. I'll always "Sing that Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation"

Songs, where are the good ones?

Last week, as I was working on a song with a client that was stacking voice after voice after voice. It occurred to me that, hey wouldn't it be great to have a good song, you know, something that sounded great with just the voice and piano, something that didn't need 30 vocal tracks stacked multiple times to sound good (I don't think it does anyway). What is so special about Norah Jones singing "Sunrise", its not a complicated song, just well produced with the bare minimum of instruments. Its beautiful and simple, its simple and beautiful. What's beautiful about 24 vocal parts, some things can be I guess, but usually I just feel like its hiding a lyrically weak song. With today's technologies you can easily reach 100+ tracks of "music", but when I look back at my "favorite" albums, they were lucky to have 32 tracks. "Sargent Peppers" was recorded on two 4 track machines. It's brilliant, and I'm not even a Beatles lover. The following is a list of songs that I think are some of the best ever written. These are mostly pop/rock or country, jazz would be a completely different list with different criteria. Anyway, go ahead and hurl your insults or suggestions for others.

Kid Charlemagne - Steely Dan

Deacon Blues - Steely Dan

Yours is No Disgrace - Yes

Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2

Bristol Shore - Eric Johnson

Every Little Move She Makes - The Police

The Heart of Worship - Matt Redman

There Not Normal Like Us - Small Potatoes

Ring of Fire -Johnny Cash (June actually wrote it)

I Walk the Line - Johnny Cash

That's all right Momma - Elvis

Icarus Borne on wings of steel - Kansas

While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles

If I Ain't Got You - Alicia Keys

Forget About it - Alison Krauss

The Stranger - Billy Joel

More than a Feeling - Boston

Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria - Brand X

I Exalt Your Name - Sally Keller

Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles

Holy Visitation - Charlie Hall

Leader of the Band - Dan Fogelberg

The Color Song - David Crowder Band

Sweet Mercies - David Ruis

I'm Not Ashamed - Delirious?

Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits

American Pie - Don Mclean

Maxine - Donald Fagan

Last Date - Floyd Cramer

Joe's Garage - Frank Zappa

The Seashores of Old Mexico - George Strait (Merle wrote it)

Wichita Lineman - Glen Cambell

Sweet Child of Mine - Guns N Roses

Fire and Rain - James Taylor

Twentysomething - Jamie Cullum

Looking for God (using a spotlight) - Jeff Johnson (not Jack)

Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce

Slow Song - Joe Jackson

Lights - Journey

Hungry - Kathryn Scott

God Pt. 3 - Larry Norman

The Road to Ensenada -Lyle Lovett

North Dakota - Lyle Lovett

If I Had a Boat - Lyle Lovett

Don't Know Why - Norah Jones

Chase the Sun - O.C. Supertones

Flashlight - Parliment

Graceland - Paul Simon

Golgi Apparatus - Phish

Time - Pink Floyd

Bicycle Race - Queen

Georgia on my Mind - Ray Charles

The Color Green - Rich Mullins

Is That Love - Squeeze

Any Major Dude will Tell You - Steely Dan

Jim Morrison's Grave - Steve Taylor

Crime of the Century - Supertramp

Moondance - Van Morrison

a list in progress

Brent

American Guitars

Ok, so I love small volume guitars, made in the USA. I think US made guitars are the greatest in the world, I basically despise other makes, I can barely play asian made instruments, I guess japanese made are OK, but I just can't bring myself to pay what they're asking for them. So, I have a small number of quality american instruments. It's not that I have anything against these other countries, I love my japanese made electronics, nobody does electronics better, Germany makes the finest cars on earth, but America makes the finest guitars anywhere. Let's see I have a Kubicki X-Factor, a Breedlove acoustic, Several Godins, admittedly only 50% made in america, 50% made in Canada, and a Jerry Jones Guitars "electric sitar", these are replicas of danelectro's from the 60's but are made to an incredible standard. So get rid of those Tak's and Ibanez, run out and buy Breedloves and Taylors and Jet's and Quicksilver's and Nash's or even Tom Andersons or Colling's or Martins, maybe a Guild or even a Dean. Forget about those Fender's and Gibson's for what you're paying for those you could get yourself a really nice custom intrument. I was in GC watching a guy BUY an $8000 dollar vintage Gibson, I wanted to grab him and scream JET, JET, JET, you could have a custom made JET for that price. Ed Roman says JET is the best guitar made today handmade by ONE guy. Go Buy American Guitars.

Akeem aka Hakeem

No music today, this week one of the greats was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Hakeem Olajuwon. Watching him play basketball in Houston, both with UH and the Rockets was one of the most memorable sport times in the history of Houston sports. Watching him play was watching brilliance in action. Of the many times night in and night out. The San Antonio play off series stands out. David Robinson was just announced as MVP and Hakeem went out and spanked David, it was like watching a man beat a kindergartener, I actually felt sorry for David, he's such a nice guy, but Hakeem will always be listed as one of the best. A power forward, playing center with the grace of a guard and foot work better than any NBA player.

We miss you Hakeem, we we always remember you and will tell stories to our kids and grandkids. "You should have seen Hakeem play, he was the best"

There will never be another "big" man like you.

Thinking of the Dream Shake,
Brent

Music and me

So, here's my first post.

I may move some of the one's hosted on my own web-site here later.

What happened to the music I loved. Music isn't the same anymore. Record labels complain and complain, "we don't make any money, everybody steals music instead of paying for it." Here's a news flash for you, the music you're putting out is a giant pile of suck. Almost everything I've bought in the last 5 years has been Indie stuff or musicians that sell enough product without being promoted (Lyle Lovett for example.) Some of the real talented people I've ran into don't have deals, can't get deals or had deals and got really screwed. Indulge me with a few examples. T. Roy Miller and Candace Kunz. Last year while traveling to a camp, we stopped for dinner in a small town. My wife doesn't like fast food and we are never in a hurry to get somewhere, so we looked for a local restaurant. We came upon "The Hen House," after making sure there were no naked women inside, we dragged the 3 kids in and found a nice place with this couple playing music, good music, really good music. This gentleman T. Roy Miller, about 6'4" or so with enormous hands, was doing things to that guitar that scared me, I can list on my hands and toes the number of guitarists that scare me. But it wasn't just how spectacular a player he is, but also the original songs he and Candace were playing. Great songs, about real life, some funny, some serious, some sad, all with guitar work that would make a lot of players take their instruments right out to the dumpster and throw them in. I even considered it. Playing in a restaurant in a small town to 20 people, I bought all their CD's and quietly added T. Roy to my list of most creative players I've ever heard and thought, "hey Nashville need some fresh songs?" A friend told me he heard a group I should listen to, he heard them in a club in Chicago, and was blown away by the playing and singing. So, I picked up both of the Small Potatoes CD's. I was blown away by the guitar work. Blazing folk riffs, straight ahead western swing, serious jazz. The guy can play anything and his multi instrument wife can play and sing just as well. So, LA, Nashville...these guys aren't worth your time? Then again I guess Norah Jones wasn't either.

Take a chance on some people that are creative and original, maybe the CD buying public is smarter than you think.

Till next time,
Brent