Recording "At Home"

Knee

2012-01-14T17:32:00.001-05:00

Last Monday, January 9, I had surgery on my knee—I tore a ligament playing soccer last year. It healed well enough for me to walk, but I would never have been able to play soccer again, or any sport, like badminton, where you jump side to side. Or leap from a stage, for that matter!

It was day surgery and full anaesthetic, so I was pretty zonked the first day, but better every day since then. Starting to move and put some weight on it, but resting and not in the mood for much—like blogging!

Outtake transcripts - Track #13 - Check, one, two

2012-01-06T22:47:00.002-05:00

It’s the morning of Saturday, May 22, and everything is set up and ready to record my three-part-harmony rumba blues version of Hound Dog. Tannis and Jane are upstairs singing into their microphones as a test while Nik adjusts the volumes in their headphones. Adam and Jesse—always ready—launch into a jam.

Sam: So, uh, are we ready to go, everyone, or . . .

Jane: Woah, check one, two, check one . . .

Tannis: Yep. Yep. Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh.

Jane: Whoa-whoa-wo-woahhh.

Tannis: I may be too loud. I may be too loud, I may be too loud . . .

Jane: Whoooa, they said you were high . . .

Sam: (Laughs)

Tannis: I may be toooo loud. I may be loud. I like it like that. I like it, I like it.

Jane: Not for me. No, no, no. N-no. No. Uhhh-nnn. Ah-h ah-h. Mmm.

Sam: (Laughs) So shall we record one?

Jane and Tannis: Mmm-hmm-mm-mmmm.

Outtake transcripts - Track #6 - Getting Warm

2012-01-05T22:09:00.002-05:00

It’s the morning of Friday, June 21, and we are preparing to record Sinner’s Child. It’s the first of the piano tunes, and more of a challenge to record because Doug Wilde is at the piano in the living room with me singing and playing guitar a few feet away, and Adam on drums nearby in the dining room. The piano is acoustic, and Nik sets up two mics between it and the staircase half-wall in hopes that the drums won’t overpower the piano. I’m sitting in the living room, playing my electric connected by a long cord to my amp around the corner in the bathroom. Jesse’s in the front hallway with his electric bass wired direct into the board in the control room. In the upstairs hallway, looking down at Doug on piano, Laura Bird, Tannis Slimmon, and Jane Lewis are warming up at their microphones. You can hear Adam whacking his snare drum with a brush, and the whirring of James Dean’s camera taking shots. Dennis Gaumond arrives early to sing on the next song and we invite him to hang out in the control room.

Nik: (to Doug as to whether he should have headphones or not) . . . a little voice in the monitors . . .

Doug: I’m okay for now.

Nik: Alright. You can hear pretty much acoustically except for the bass.

Doug: Yeah. Sure.

Tannis (high)Jane (middle), Laura (low): hmmmm-mm-mm . . . whaaaaaat . . .

Sam: Wanna hang out? (to Dennis)

Nik: Welcome to mission control. (to Dennis)

Sam: Nik, do you want us to just run some stuff, or . . . ?

Tannis, Laura, and Jane: What about the . . .

Sam: Okay. Alright. It’s just you and me, Doug.

Doug: Yeah . . .

Sam: So, whenever you wanna start.

Outtake transcripts - Track #1 - Welcome

2012-01-03T21:37:00.003-05:00

Here is the first transcript of the outtakes from AT HOME. Now you won't have to guess who is who! More to come . . .

1. Welcome

It is about 10:30 am, Sam is sitting in front of the microphones at his living room station, warming up his slide licks and vocals. He and Jane are talking about the logistics of the “Next Time” session that is about to start. Nik is in the office control room getting the gear ready to record. Tannis, Katherine, Jesse, and Adam are coming around the corner from snacking in the kitchen, carrying hot mugs of tea and coffee.

Sam: . . . we’re going through. It’s up to them.

Jane: Well, we’re probably gonna have to do a run-through to see the levels, so . . .

Sam: That’s true.

Katherine: Are we upstairs?

Tannis: Yessss!

Sam: . . . positions on the set.

(Sounds of Sam warming up on vocals and resonator, Jesse getting his bass ready by the front door, Adam clicking his sticks at his kit in the dining room, Tannis and Jane walking up the stairs to their microphones.)

Jane: (unintelligible) (She points at her water bottle to see if Sam wants any)

Sam: No, no.

Katherine: (stirring tea in the kitchen) Anyone else for tea? Or anything?

Sam: I’m fine.

Tannis: (settling at her upstairs microphone) There.

Sam: So let me know when you folks are ready, and uh . . .

Jane: (exhales through her nose)

Nik: Anytime in here.

Sam: Okay.

Jane: We’re, I think we’re ready up here. Everybody ready, ready up here?

Tannis: Yup.

Sam: Okay? Alright.

Ready to get at it

2012-01-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

After an intense year, the latter half of December has been a bit of a respite. I thought I'd a take a breather for a few days, but discovered after that my body just didn't want to do anything—for a lot longer than I expected. It needed a holiday, a break, and there was no use pushing the river.

It's been great sleeping in, going at my own pace, hanging out with friends and family, eating good food, reading a book, playing a bit. But after a fun New Year's Eve here with Jane, Katherine Wheatley, and Marianne Girard, making homemade pizza, playing board games, drinking champagne, and laughing our heads off, I feel like getting up and making things happen. Maybe it's the psychological sense of a new year. I don't know. In case case, I'm ready to go!

6th Annual Turton-Lewis Boxing Day Singalong & Jam

2011-12-27T20:41:00.000-05:00

In 1975, this suburban hippy boy got in a truck and moved to Bear River, Nova Scotia as part of a back-to-land commune called Dogsnest Farm. Jesse's mother, Ramona LeBlanc, was from Pictou County and introduced me to down-east culture, including the Boxing Day kitchen party. When we all eventually moved back to Ontario, our daughter Teri carried it on at her home near Peterborough. Ashley Condon, my PEI-raised, Canadian Folk Music Award-nominated niece was living with us six years ago when we decided to continue the tradition here in Guelph.

That's how the Turton-Lewis Boxing Day Singalong & Jam started. We moved out the furniture, prepared the best homemade food, layed out the instruments, spread out the chairs, and invited all and sundry to eat, drink, sing, jam, and be merry through afternoon 'til midnight.

It would start with an easy-going afternoon jam and turn into a mini-Woodstock by about 7:00 pm, when the dining room, living room, hallway and every step of the stairs was shoulder-to-shoulder belting out all our favourite songs. When the house was shaking from the massive harmonies it was like nothing I'd ever felt before. That was what inspired Ashley and I to start our Singalong events with our now-famous songbooks. Something this good could not be kept to ourselves!

It was also this Boxing Day wing-ding that inspired me to record AT HOME. Last night it was a special thrill to sing some of those songs right here where we recorded them—with the whole houseful that inspired the music in the first place! Many thanks to everyone who came and made it the special day that it always is.

Year-end reflections

2011-12-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

For me, Christmas is neither religious or commercial. It is a time when things slow down. Daylight is at its lowest ebb, and things go into hibernation, gathering energy for the coming year.

At this time when I slow down and reflect, the first thing that comes up is a question. Why do I sing?

The first answer? Because it feels good.

I really enjoy the sensation of singing, the sensation of the body vibrating that way.

I like that this reason is independent of goals, success, or the approval of others. I can simply open my mouth and it's done.

Slide technique

2011-12-20T21:28:00.000-05:00

We were playing in Oakville a few weeks ago and a young musician from the opening act came up to me and said, "I'd love to play more slide, but when I do, it just doesn't sound as clean as you." Now this young laddie was pretty good on guitar, so I knew he could do it with a few tips.

I responded with three words, "muting and intonation." Pluck with your fingers and touch down on any string you don't want to ring. Pluck and touch, pluck and touch. It's as much about what isn't ringing as what is. Muting keeps the unwanted notes quiet and that's half the battle.

The other element is intonation—being ruthless about playing the slide right over the fret. You can slide up to or away from the note, but when that main note is plucked it needs to be in tune with the rest of the music. If necessary, shift your head angle or guitar position to check.

Slide 101.

New mini-doc video of "Ain't Gonna"

2011-12-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

Check out this video—produced by Jane—of the recording session for "Ain't Gonna," on Saturday, April 23, 2011.

http://youtu.be/hrk3IJX-9sQ

It's very raw, taken from cameras in position throughout the house. The sound is from the cameras, which is why the volumes shift as the camera views shift. This was a totally acoustic session, so when the image from the dining room drum-and-harp camera is on, you can hardly hear me singing or playing, because the drums are a louder instrument and the camera at that point is close to the drums. After viewing the video have a listen to the recording to hear a balanced mix from all microphones.

Also, make sure you listen carefully—the fun is in the candid commentary between takes!

You can also catch this on the video page of my website -

http://www.samturton.com/video.html

Being a localist

2011-12-14T18:16:00.000-05:00

I have recently learned that "localist" is the word given to those who espouse a lifestyle that attempts to rely on local resources. Aboriginal humans lived sustainably within nature for almost a million years without significant population growth before the first signs of civilization about 12,000 years ago.

This aboriginal lifestyle was a localist lifestyle—everything they needed they got from their immediate territory, or within a repeated migratory pattern. If they traded with other tribes, it was never for essentials.

Once humans began to take more than they needed or live outside their means, they denuded the landscape and had to go further afield to get their needs met, which leads us to today, where we eat greens that are grown thousands of miles away and trucked the distance, burning fossils fuels along the way.

I believe that a return to localism is a must if we are to maintain a livable planet. This is one of the reasons I recorded AT HOME, using musicians and gear from right here in Guelph. And it's also why I spent hours cutting and piling wood today! It all fits together . . .

Badass Bowman

2011-12-13T21:58:00.000-05:00

You like the groove in my tunes? Here's the dude who abides with the beat—Adam "make-it-nasty" Bowman.

Photo by Kate "make-it-purple" Vanderhorst.

What now?

2011-12-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

All of the official CD release shows are done, and the memorial service for Jane's father is completed. It's been an intense time.

The work now continues in many different ways. As much as we would have liked to, we haven't had the time to apply for every folk/roots/blues festival, and send CDs to every radio host and music reviewer. I'm launching into that this week.

I'm connecting and following up with every presenter and venue owner I know to get gigs in 2012, and the calendar is starting to take shape. Respectful persistence pays off.

I'm not a big fan of driving distances—especially in snow storms, so I tend to let January and February slide. I'm having knee surgery on January 9 for a cruciate ligament I tore a year ago playing soccer, so that'll lay me up anyway. I feel fortunate that I also have a deeply meaningful career as a therapist to sustain me when I need some down time.

Winter will also be a good time to focus on new songs, getting Jane's full-length CD into pre-production, and getting to the final draft of a book I've been meaning to write for years now. Never a dull moment!

Penguin Eggs review

2011-12-09T21:57:00.000-05:00

Penguin Eggs Magazine (Canada’s foremost folk/roots publication)

Winter 2011

By Doug Swanson

Sam Turton: At Home

Sam Turton is a lucky man. A gifted singer and songwriter, he was able to draw on his vast network of talented friends and relatives to produce a heartfelt CD called At Home, made, well, at home.

Over three weekends in 2011, Turton and his life partner, Jane Lewis, conscripted the willing at their Guelph, ON, home to participate in this unique project. The house was turned into a compartmentalized recording studio, with the piano, vocals and guitar in the living room, drums and harmonica in the dining room, accordion in the kitchen, bass in the . . . well, you get the idea.

The result is a harmony-laden, soul massaging album that strokes all the comfortable, noble chords in life: peace, love, compassion, and understanding.

Familiar names helping with the project include, among others, Tannis Slimmon, Laura Bird and Katherine Wheatley.

Mapleblues Magazine review

2011-12-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

Mapleblues Magazine: December 2011

John’s Blues Picks by John Valentyn
Sam Turton: At Home (Self)

A roots music road warrior now residing in Guelph, Sam Turton has a strong sense of local living and community-shared music. To that end, he set up his entire home as a recording studio and invited some friends to join in for a “real music” session. In the notes he emphasizes the importance of being at home and among friends there, and to his great credit, he has pulled it off. Recording studios have control rooms where you have, well, control. At home, you don’t have that. Turton has included snippets of dialogue & music between the songs proper and the overall effect is exactly what he was after. We can all give thanks to Nik Tjelios, an expert at location recordings.

Turton describes his music as a ‘roots-blues-gospel gumbo packed with slide guitar and soul-fired harmonies’ and that’s what’s here. All of this effort would not have mattered much if the songs didn’t stand up as well as they do. “Next Time” is billed as a slide blues/gospel barnburner about life in a troubled family—as advertised, a keeper. Ain’t Gonna” is even bluesier, a call to stand up and speak out. “Oh Susanna” gets a very different arrangement and Turton comes across a little like Lyle Lovett, and that’s a compliment. “I’m On My Way’ is a fine performance of a traditional call-and-response gospel tune, a performance very much like one Ken Whiteley would have given. The vocal responses here and elsewhere are by his partner Jane Lewis, Tannis Slimmon, and Katherine Wheatley, and they are indeed soul-fired. Larry Kurtz adds harmonica and the core band consists of Jesse Turton on bass and Adam Bowman on drums. He’s leaving his home quite a bit there days to showcase the album and you can check out a concert near you at www.samturton.com. You may not be at his home but you will get a good show with some excellent songs.

I love this woman

2011-12-03T17:12:00.000-05:00

The incomparable Jane Lewis singing at the Guelph Little Theatre.

Photo by Larry Kryski.

Sad times

2011-12-02T23:47:00.000-05:00

Two days ago Paul Lewis, Jane's father, passed away after a year's struggle with pancreatic cancer. The last two months were a difficult decline for him, which made it a strange time for us, as it was in parallel with the excitement of the CD release and concerts.

One thing I will always remember about Paul was his unique medley of songs on the piano—God Save The Queen, Waltzing Matilda, Oh Canada, Old Man River, Oh Susannah, Camptown Races—all rolled into one meandering piece that hung together as if it had been originally written that way. And it was all tied together with great gospel-style walk-ups and roll-downs.

His favourite traditional song of ours was "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and I think it may be a while before we do that one again. About two weeks ago in hospice, Jane's mother Janet asked him if he wanted to hear some music, perhaps my CD, and he said, "No, not that!" Jane's mother was a bit puzzled and then he said, "Those songs, like 'Sinner's Child,' you can't get them out of your head!"I think that's a great compliment.

In honour of Mr. Recycling (crushed cans for Christmas tree ornaments) and the creator of the "Christmas Pig," (a story for another day) here is a great old photo.

This is the extended Lewis family, circa 1974. That's Paul upper left with the dark-rimmed glasses, Janet below him, Andrew Lewis on her lap and next to Andrew on the floor is a blonde, wavy-haired Jane. Keep smilin', Paul.

Jesse Turton

2011-11-28T21:29:00.000-05:00

My son, Jesse Turton, was born on July 24, 1976. His mom, Ramona, and I were caretaking a farm with no electricity near Port Lorne on the Bay of Fundy. It was the back-to-land hippy era, and I was loving every minute of it. I used to sing to Jesse in the womb, and he has made music since he was born. He is a stellar talent and I'm lucky to have him playing with me. Make sure you check out his uber-cool website from the link!

Talented—and mighty handsome!

Here we are doing a duet for the Guelph CD release show—"I'd Rather Be With You."

Concert Photos #3

2011-11-27T18:35:00.000-05:00

More!

This photo was taken by Simon Bell during the rumba-blues rave-up version of Hound Dog. Friendly smile!

Jeff Bersche as MC. Jeff is an amazing singer in the Great Wooden Trio, and is one of the warmest and funniest guys I've ever met—a natural for the job!

Jude Vadala leading her powerful tune, "Molly," from her recent CD. I got to do a gritty electric slide riff throughout.

Concert Photos #2

2011-11-26T21:38:00.000-05:00

Here are some more shots taken by Bruce Shapka at the Guelph Little Theatre.

We're singing "Yes Indeed." Jane is playing her Zydeco accordion part with the stellar harmony section of Tannis Slimmon, Laura Bird, and Katherine Wheatley.

The stage is getting full for the a capella work song, "Pilin' Line." From left: Adam Bowman, me, Laura Bird, Rich Maynard-Langedijk, Joni NehRita, Tannis Slimmon, Jeff Bersche, Mike Driscoll, Katherine Wheatley, Dennis Gaumond, Stu Peterson, Tricia Brubacher, Jan Vanderhorst, Tannis Maynard-Langedijk, and Guy Stefan. Jane and Jesse are in the back, out of sight!

One of the encore songs—We Want Peace—with the whole gang, and the addition of the lovely, multi-talented Heather MacRae second from right.

Concert photos #1

2011-11-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

I've now moved from crazy busy to just busy, which means I have time to do things like post photos of the shows. Here are some from the concert at the Guelph Little Theatre, taken by Bruce Shapka.

Adam Bowman, Sam Turton, Jesse Turton, Jane Lewis performing "Hard Task."

Adam, Jesse, Sam, Jane, Tannis Slimmon, and Larry Kurtz performing "Ain't Gonna." Barb Bryce did a great job of stage design—with a fireplace, and my 1971 "teapot" painting from over our home fireplace!

Performing the gospel classic, "I'm On My Way," with Jane, Tannis, and Katherine Wheatley doing three-part harmony call-and-response.

More shows!

2011-11-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

Since my last post we've done CD release shows in London and Hamilton, with my other full-band show in Niagara tomorrow evening.

I've been developing a following in London since first appearing at the Home County Festival. I've played some gigs with Catherine McInnes (Home County's artistic director) and super bass-player Steve Clark, and it takes a while for awareness to build. This time was a tipping point, and the room was almost full.

Catherine and Steve opened up with five of Catherine's insightful, piano-based songs, and then Jane and I took the stage. Steve stayed on and Catherine played snare drum and added a third harmony. Previous to the gig I send them some charts, and we rehearsed for an hour and a half in the afternoon before the gig. They are consummate pros and it sounded great!

Last Thursday was my first foray into Hamilton, a community that doesn't know me at all. I booked the great Alfie Smith to open and jam with us (Jane and Tricia Brubacher) because his music complements mine and to see if he could introduce his following to me. I had done all the right things—been on radio the Saturday before, had a poster out in time, got a news release to the Hamilton Spectator for which we got a "Best Pick" for that night.

Not that many people showed up, however, which follows what Alfie said: "Sometimes I've done nothing and the place is packed, and other times done everything and played to no one—I've given up trying to figure it out."

I don't let that stuff bother me anymore, because the people who come are deserving of a good show, and every person who loves the music is valuable. The folks that came were knocked out and bought CDs. Alfie booked me for a gig with him, Tricia's mother offered us a gig at her house concert series, and the venue owners Judith and Ron want us back for an "Art Crawl" and a regular singalong at their Artword Artbar! So things worked out very well indeed.

Tomorrow night I'm taking the five-piece with Jane, Tannis, Jesse, and Adam to Niagara-on-the-Lake to play for my old hometown crowd at the Old Winery Restaurant. Maybe I'll see you there . . .

Juno awards and quality of attention

2011-11-08T23:27:00.000-05:00

I slept most of the afternoon because Jane and I were working until 3:30 last night and up at 8:30 this morning to finish my submission for the Juno awards.

Judgment and competition are detrimental to the growth and freedom necessary for true expression, but here we are in the music world doing just that with awards programs. Why do I bother submitting?

Unfortunately, recognition from awards, reviews, and press affects how people pay attention to music. if an artist has some sort of recognition—or buzz—as they say, people become curious, pay attention to the music, and then are more likely to actually experience what the artist is doing. If the same artist, with the same songs does not have that recognition, the same audience is likely to neglect the performance—in spite of its quality—and miss the whole thing.

It's very much about the modern psyche and the inability of many people to slow down and pay attention. So rather than complain about it, I accept it as part of life at the moment, and work at being more attentive myself, and attend to the aspects of my music that develop human connections and recognition. I believe in the quality of my songs and the human virtues that they stand for, so it's worth it to me that I focus on the consciousness of attention. That's the essence of awareness anyway.

Home town CD Release success!

2011-11-06T00:33:00.000-04:00

Jane and I woke up and got ourselves together. She showered and had her breakfast and coffee. I showered and had my rice milk-yogurt-egg-banana-Greens Plus-blueberry power shake. I was buzzing enough from anticipation that I didn't need coffee.

Jane got to work preparing food for the Green Room at the theatre and for our after-show party back home. Jesse had made hummous, and everything was looking good.

I checked my email and dealt with last minute on-line ticket sales. I posted my last Facebook status update. Then on to ticking items off my list: gathering tools and 2x4s for Pilin' Line percussion; changing the batteries in my Yamaha pick-up; gathering cash for the day's stage, lighting and sound workers; printing out set lists; gathering CDs for prize winners, rehearsing a couple songs with Jane; organizing my guitars and gear; choosing our clothes. Then on to loading the car and finding a place for the teapot painting that would be a focal point for the stage set.

Adam came over, grabbed some drums and loaded Jesse's gear in his car. Off they went for lunch. Jane and I headed to the wonderful neighbourhood café and bakery "With the Grain" and bought some homemade sandwiches to eat at the theatre. They have the most wonderful chalkboard art for their menus and specials, and I just had to compliment the young lady who does them. These people are unsung heroes and we'd all be a bit more happy if we showed our appreciation more directly. Live and love local, I say.

Then off to the Guelph Little Theatre. A great deal of the set for the previous play was still up, so Barb Bryce, my stage specialist, and Jim Hoare, her carpenter/helper took care of that and setting the stage with everything from a fireplace and sofa to plants and lamps, which Jane helped direct. Barb hung my painting over the fireplace and I started to feel AT HOME!

Jane set up food in the Green Room and got that area ready. It's so amazing to have a partner who takes care of everything so well.

Adam, Jesse, Jane, and I set up our gear, and Sal Noguera and his partner Janet set up all the sound gear and monitors. Katherine Wheatley, Tannis Slimmon, and Laura Bird arrived and we did a sound check. There were some tech issues, but we eventually got them sorted out. Then it was off home to get our clothes and a few things and head back.

Back at the theatre, we met Val Morse, Kim Logue, Karma Davis, and Heather MacRae, who were taking care of the lobby set-up, door, and CD sales. Then my old school buddy Steve Lambert arrived and we had a too-short chat before I headed backstage to warm up and be a part of the gang in the Green Room.

People started to arrive and the place started buzzin'. We ended up with 153 people in the place, and even though I knew beforehand that the numbers would be respectable, I was happy to know we were at that threshold where individuals start to feel their community.

When the time came, Jeff Bersche got ready to start the night as our MC. He has the gift of being totally natural, serious, and funny. He was the perfect person to introduce us. And the show rolled out from there.

THE HOMESTEAD BAND - Sam Turton, Adam Bowman, Jesse Turton, Jane Lewis, Tannis Slimmon

1. Next Time

2. Ain't Gonna
Larry Kurtz joins the band on harp

3. Oh Suzanna
Adam sits out while Jane, Tannis and I harmonize

4. Molly
Jude Vadala joins us and leads her tune

5. Sinner’s Child
Jude steps down, Katherine Wheatley and Laura Bird join us

6. Yes Indeed
Laura and Katherine continue and Jane plays accordion

7. Storm Blowin’
Jane leads while Laura and Katherine join Tannis on back-up vocals

8. Hound Dog
Laura and Katherine exit, Larry joins us on harp

9. Just A Little Bit
Up come Joni NehRita, Rich Maynard-Langedijk, Jeff Bersche, Tricia Brubacher, Heather MacRae, Guy Stefan, and Dennis Gaumond for the set finale

INTERMISSION
I've never signed so many CDs! And I had the challenge of remembering people's names, which I have always been terrible at. But I managed fairly well. Everyone was quite excited about the music, the songs and the show as a whole. It really felt like I had come home in a profound way.

SET 2

1. Chapter 11 (T’ai)
Sam solos

2. I’d Rather Be With You
Jesse joins in

3. Hard Task
Adam and Jane join

4. Walk With Me
Tannis joins in

5. I’m On My Way
Katherine steps up and sings with Jane and Tannis

6. When It Comes My Time
Laura joins us and leads her tune, Larry Kurtz comes up on harp

7. Hey Hosanna
Tannis leads her tune, while Laura and Katherine add harmonies

8. Pilin’ Line
Joni, Rich, Jeff, Tricia, Heather, Guy, Dennis, Larry, Tannis Maynard-Langedijk, Mike Driscoll, Jan Vanderhorst, and Stu Peterson join us

9. Right Here
We all stay up and sing the final song

Standing ovation and an encore!

10. We Want Peace
We bring everyone on stage for this one

11. Eyes on the Prize
We finish with a rousing version complete with bass, drum, and guitar solos

I could go on about what each tune was like, but it would take too long! Suffice it to say that it was tremendous show of music and community.

There was happy chatting, congratulations, and hugging in the lobby and Green room. A group tear-down and return to our house for snacks, conversation, and jamming. Katherine picked up pizza, others brought snacks and drinks. Folks took out guitars and we had a very laid back jam.Nik brought his mandolin! And it all came around full circle. The thing that got it all going—singing with friends and family in our house—wrapped it all up. What can I say. Love to you all.

Sound, lighting, and video

2011-11-03T01:14:00.000-04:00

I just finished doing up a stage plot for the Guelph show, and writing up detailed notes for Sal Noguera, the sound man, Brian Pickles the lighting designer, and Brad Mayes, the videographer. It's 1:11 am and I'm beat!

A show like this is a bigger deal than I imagined when I first booked the theatre. The whole damn project is bigger than I imagined! It's taking on a life of its own—I think I'd better get to bed . . .

Last large group vocal rehearsal

2011-11-01T23:10:00.000-04:00

Tonight we filled our house with musical friends for the last large group vocal rehearsal before my hometown CD release concert. In essence I just wanted an opportunity for everyone to get familiar with the group singing songs—Just a Little Bit, Pilin' Line, Right Here, We Want Peace, and a possible encore tune, "Eyes On The Prize," a traditional gospel song recently recorded by Mavis Staples and Ry Cooder.

For this, I was less interested in the particulars and more interested that everyone get a general sense of the structures and just have fun. Little errors that fly by in the moment are part of the character of live performance. In recording you would have to listen to those moments over and over—and that could be annoying—but for a live show with a large group it's about literally setting the stage and letting the enthusiasm pour out. With this gang, that's certainly going to happen!

The final rehearsal with the small vocal group—Jane, Tannis, Katherine, and Laura—is Thursday evening, the night before the show!

Getting ready for the Guelph show

2011-10-29T23:34:00.003-04:00

Guelph is my hometown. I've worked hard for the community though many initiatives, and sharing a project as personal as AT HOME is special and meaningful. It's also special because this gig is significant enough that I will have a full band and a full compliment of singers to perform the songs as they were arranged and recorded.

That in itself requires adjustments. For instance, when I play "Sinner's Child" solo, I play my National resonator, tuned in D, with a capo on the 2nd fret to get it in the key of E. Because there is no band, I have to keep rhythm throughout the song and have to change the solo section so that I maintain chords and play some kind of melody. In the recorded version, the rhythm is carried entirely by the band—a trio of piano, bass, and drums. Because of that support, I only played guitar as an accompanying voice, and didn't even start until the solo, which I did as a single note melody. I played an electric guitar, tuned in E - without a capo - for greater ease along the entire length of the neck.

The only time I have ever played it this way was when we recorded it. And on Friday, I'll have to play it that way live—so I need to practice!

The same goes for Jane. Doug Wilde played piano and composed the parts for the recording. Since I never play with Doug live, Jane has had to learn the parts, but even when we play it as a duo, I'm playing my National to add rhythmic support, so she's not used to carrying the chordal essence of the tune, which she has to learn to do now with the bass and drums—something she never even had to do in the recording!

So this week, we will be at work . . .

Doing radio

2011-10-28T22:41:00.000-04:00

I'm on radio 4 days in a row this week, promoting the CD and release shows. I used to get nervous about being on radio, but it's getting to be second nature, in no small part because the hosts are such music lovers and so welcoming.

Last night I was on Steve Clarke's "Acoustic Planet" on CHES 88.1 FM out of Erin, Ontario, and tonight I was on Doug Gibson's "Songs From The Wood" on CKWR 98.5 FM out of Waterloo. Tomorrow morning at 8:00 am I'll be on Jan Hall's "Royal City Rag" on CFRU 93.3 FM from Guelph, and on Sunday at 8:00 pm, Jan Vanderhorst's "Just Us Folk" show on CKPC AM 1380 from Brantford, Ontario.

Jan Hall has been a supporter for a long time, and some of my favourite radio moments has been doing on-air gags with her and storytellers Sya Van Geest and Brad Woods. Jan would pick a special day, like Canada Day or Hallowe'en and set up the imaginary premise that we were recording live from some strange location, with sound effects and all. Then we would improvise around that.

The premise for the first installment was a live broadcast from the local Wal-Mart store, especially ridiculous because I campaigned so hard against it and would never set foot in one! The sound effects and our improv was so convincing that my partner Jane thought I was there—even though I had told her what we were doing! She though I had tricked her by telling her we were doing a hoax! I was brought up on the magic of radio via British broadcasts such as the Goon Show, and it was a treat to be in the thick of it!

Oh - I should get to bed so I can get to the station on time!

Wednesday is my first official CD Release show!

2011-10-24T23:28:00.000-04:00

I'm looking forward to the first show—a concert in Toronto with Jane and Tannis in support. I'm getting them to lead three songs each (I like being democratic!) so it will be a good variety of music.

There's a jam/song circle afterwards, and I know that Rosemary Phelan and Jason LaPrade will be there, so it will be special!

Wednesday, October 26, 7:30 pm
The Big House on the Hill Concerts
Sam Turton AT HOME CD Release with Jane Lewis and Tannis Slimmon
Tickets $20 / RSVP only
Doors open at 7:00 pm
Contact Lucy Bowers for details and to reserve: 416-690-4862
Percentage of proceeds go to The Children’s Peace Theatre

Blue Skies

2011-10-22T15:22:00.000-04:00

It is deeply meaningful to me that I was approached to play the Blue Skies Festival immediately after releasing AT HOME. If the CD is a small expression of life close to home, family, community, and the earth, Blue Skies is the big expression of it.

I don't really experience Blue Skies as a festival but as a celebration of community. Every summer the natives of the Great Plains would come together in a "gathering of the tribes," that is wonderfully described by Black Elk in the profound book, "Black Elk Speaks." Blue Skies is a modern gathering of the tribes.

For years people had told me how wonderful Blue Skies was, but having been part of the grand gatherings of the back-to-land movement of the 60s, I took it with a grain of salt. But Julia Philips, now the Artistic Director of the festival, kept telling me, "Sam, you gotta go—you belong there." I thought it was a sweet sentiment until the first time I walked over the hill and witnessed the vista of the great meadow and the most organic wood-and-canvas stage I had ever seen in my life. Children were running everywhere, people in multi-coloured clothing were laughing and hugging each other, music was wafting through the trees. I felt the rising of that ancient feeling we all have—coming home—and tears welled up in my eyes.

Home. Right here. I'm welcome. I'm okay as I am. I belong.

That's what I was expressing in the AT HOME recordings when I invited friends and family together to play music—and record it. I can't wait to stand on that magical wooden stage at Blue Skies, lift my eyes to the community sitting on that great meadow bowl and start singing together. I'm also looking forward to leaping into Magoo's arms!

Many thanks to Julia Philips for having open ears to my music so many years ago. We're gonna bring it home!

The CD is in my hands!

2011-10-21T22:44:00.000-04:00

It's been a whirlwind. After my last post Jane and I went to Niagara Falls for the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals (OCFF) conference, and I ended up having to drive from there to Mississauga to get my final CD shipment! I was hosting a panel on Private Showcases at 5:30 pm Friday and got back to the Falls with 15 minutes to spare!

The CDs look great—you never know in the digital world of printing—and everything sounds super. I've received a lot of positive feedback and got booked with the whole band to play the main stage at the Blue Skies Festival in Eastern Ontario next August! It's the beginning of a wave that started with the wee idea of recording in my living room!

Life is a wonderful mystery . . .

Gig poster for Guelph!

2011-10-13T12:30:00.000-04:00

Here's the new poster for the Guelph CD release show -

NEW SITE - CDs FOR SALE!

2011-10-08T22:18:00.000-04:00

It's been a hell of a lot of work, but Jane has masterminded the reinvention of my decrepit website, and it's now ready to roll!

You can order CDs on line, order tickets to the soft-seat-theatre Guelph release show, listen to clips of all the songs, look at video and photos of the AT HOME experience (many more to come), read info about me that isn't from the last century—wow, I feel like I just awoke from a trance!

To check out the site click on any of the links at the top . . .

Radio CD Release!

2011-10-06T23:31:00.000-04:00

This evening Jane and I were on CIUT-FM 89.5, Steve Fruitman's Back to the Sugar Camp radio show for the first public release of my new songs!

Steve is one of those rare, mythic, life-sustaining creatures—the true-blue, 1000% real music lover. Every cell in his body seems to vibrate with enthusiasm for the stories and sounds of "real music," that is, music made for music first, not money first.

And Steve is not only a living library of real and rarified music, he seems to know every story ever known about every track and everyone who played on it—including anyone who happened to be walking by as it was being recorded! Without special beings like Steve, underground music would be so far underground that it would have broken through the other side of the planet and be lost somewhere near Uranus.

Steve started out by playing "Next Time," which is a perfect opener —

My Mama died too early

And my Daddy lived too long

Then Jane and I sang "Hard Task," which he has affectionately dubbed the F-song because of these lyrics —

It's three o'clock in the mornin'

And baby's got a rattling cough

That selfish fuck left his young bride

She shoulda knocked his fool head clean off

Steve has no qualms about playing songs with profanity and relished the opportunity!

He also played "Chapter 11 (T'ai)" my meditative slide instrumental, and my rumba blues version of "Hound Dog," with Jane and Tannis on harmony. Jane and I also sang the blues song, "Ain't Gonna" live. I was having a great time (still walking slowwwwly) and felt in fine form. Can't wait to play some more.

Thanks, Steve!

Slow down, you move too fast . . .

2011-10-06T00:41:00.000-04:00

In the big rush to get all the artwork done for deadline—plus all the other stuff too numerous to mention—it has been a familiar sight to see me hunkered over my computer and suddenly leap up and whip around the house to get this or that. Have you ever seen those little red squirrels that seem intrinsically on edge or chronically pissed off? The ones that seem like an unholy cross between a chipmunk and a squirrel? The ones that Norman Liota calls a squipmunk? Anyway, at my most intense, I believe I act like one of them. Maybe I was one in a former life.

Anyhow, the other day I leapt up from my desk, hyper-extended my leg and pulled a little muscle/tendon/ligament thingy on the inside of my right knee. It was a sharp twinge that I had never felt before. Not nice. I rubbed it and carried on, figuring it would sort itself out. But it didn't. If I'm not very careful when I walk, it re-injures itself—a real piss-off, because I have a lot to do and I just want to plow forward. But I can't.

As I got ready for a gig this evening, I was thinking, "What's the message?" Then I noticed that the only way I could deal with this thing is to walk normally, but very slowly. Very, verrry slowwww motion. Of course, the bloody message is, "SLOW DOWN!" I hurt it moving too fast, and the only way it will heal is if I slow down. And there is no bargaining with this thing.

So there you have it. I have to accept that what will get done will get done and what won't, won't. Slow down, Sammy, s l o w d o w n . . .

CD manufacturing weirdness

2011-10-05T00:24:00.000-04:00

Expect the unexpected.

The CD manufacturing is plugging along, Jane and I are working on song clips for my soon-to-be-updated website, and she looks at the CD-R master case label and says, "Did you notice that the apostrophes in the songs are all computer gobbledegook? Is that a reflection of what is in the display codes for the CD?" I say, "No, I doubt that, it's just a label for the proofing master."

Then, drawing from my years as a graphic designer and the ethic "never assume anything," I decided to write to the mastering folks at Silverbirch and ask the stupid question.

Apparently it wasn't a stupid question. They hadn't noticed the glitch when they copied the song titles from my Word file, and I hadn't thought the copy label was indicative of what was in the digital file. So all hell broke loose and a new master had to be done, approved and rushed forward! I wanted the CDs for the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals conference October 14-16, and it looks like they might not make it.

As they say, shit happens. Lesson learned. Do what you can and move on!

Living local

2011-09-30T19:45:00.000-04:00

The AT HOME project is an extension of our lifestyle, which is to keep things simple, hands-on, and close to home. It's good for mind, body, heart, creativity, livelihood, family, community, and planet. Music is just a part of this life. Here's the food part -

In addition to our backyard "kitchen" garden, Jesse, Jane and I have a 2000 square foot community garden plot just north of town at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre. Ignatius is run by some very hip people who also have a huge organic CSA. My "Not There" CD was released to raise funds to keep Wal-Mart from encroaching on this land.

In the photo above you see Jesse picking away. The leaves in the bottom right corner are from the parsnip patch; he's in the chili pepper patch; behind him is the onion patch, and further to the left are the cabbages under row covers. The structure to the upper left supported 64 tomato plants (already harvested), and at the far side are eggplants, broccoli (finished), sweet peppers, carrots and potatoes.

Here is our winter squash and beet harvest with the parsnip patch behind them. We got 72 squash and a good pile of beets that I'll keep in tubs of moist sand in our garage food storage area.

The CD is being manufactured, Jane and I are redoing my website—and we're all eating well!

The back

2011-09-27T13:38:00.000-04:00

Here's a peek at the back of the CD package, with the song listings. The tracks with lower case letters in orange are outtake sections, the ones with caps are the songs. It's a fascinating ride over 20 tracks!

It's off!

2011-09-26T20:13:00.000-04:00

The At Home CD is off to manufacturing! It's been a long haul, but as I did a final listen to the master in a soundproof space at Silverbirch Productions in Toronto, I had a big smile on my face and I was grooving in the chair.

Here's a rough jpg of the front cover -

This was a scene shot by Jane from the second recording day. Nik is setting up the mics, and Adam is hangin'. The mirror is there for Tannis and Jane to see my cues from upstairs. The curtain was closed across the window to dampen sound reflection. Very cozy.

Mixing and mastering crunch

2011-09-23T11:02:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted for a while because I've been in the vicegrip hold of final mixing and mastering. Deadlines - gotta hate 'em, gotta have 'em.

This CD is more work than many because of all the extra material on it, amounting to 20 tracks—15 songs, 4 segue sections and one 9-minute outtake track.

Anyway, gotta run—Nik is here for an adjustment session on the master!

Here's the new video!

2011-09-02T15:42:00.000-04:00

Enjoy!

New video

2011-09-01T00:02:00.000-04:00

Jane worked most of the day on a new video. She took still shots from the very first recording day—when she was documenting the destruction and revival of our house—and added music from the sessions. One was an out-take jam from Hound Dog and another was an instrumental from Just A Little Bit. It's a blast watching Adam setting up the kit with his drumming as the soundtrack!

When Jane sets her mind to something she always does an amazing job, and the final version is excellent, and may end up on the extra features—who knows!

Song order

2011-08-31T00:07:00.000-04:00

Having grown up musically when record albums were considered art, the order of songs is important to me. I remember June 1, 1967, the world release of Sergeant Pepper's. My buddy Steve Lambert and I rushed to the record shop, got a copy and went home and listened reverently. As the songs unfolded, one to the next without spaces, it felt like entering a mystical trance or an exotic journey. The order was significant—and still is—as the Beatles introduced the listener to people, stories, feelings, and ideas about life and society.

I approached the song order for "At Home" with the same idea. I did an initial list that made sense theoretically. Then Jane and I hooked up my laptop to the stereo and proceeded to listen—and feel—the transitions of one song into another.

It was amazing how things I thought would work simply didn't. The transition was either too much of a stylistic leap, too abrupt a sonic shift—or too much the same. Sometimes we would notice a discordant feeling because the new song was in a slightly different key.

We attended to stylistic movement, tempo shifts, mood changes, and subject matter. There are very quiet, sensitive songs and also very light-hearted, raucous songs. We discovered that rather than bounce between these moods, we had to have the courage to stick with an atmosphere for a number of songs in a row and give the listener time to fully experience that.

It took us about four hours to get something that felt right. By that time our brains were so tired we had to leave it to the next day!

Yesterday we had a final listen and approved the order. I burned a CD with that order and listened to it in the car today (Tuesday), as I drove to Toronto to pick up Jesse at the airport. He just came back from two weeks with his musical cousins Virgil Muir in Halifax and Ashley Condon in PEI.

As I listened to the rough mixes of the songs in order, I started to feel happier and happier. It's working, and I can't wait to share that journey with you.

Final mixes

2011-08-29T23:21:00.000-04:00

Nik and I have been very busy, but we're now digging into the final mixes for the CD. Yesterday he send me an mp3 of "Ain't Gonna" via an FTP site and I downloaded it—technology can be a wonderful thing! I recall horror stories from the "good old days," of reel-to-reel tapes being ruined or lost, but that's not a worry here—as long as the files are backed up!

I listened to the track on two different stereo systems via speakers, and additionally through three different sets of headphones. Every sound reproduction device will translate the sound differently, and a variety of sources allows the producer to make the best general conclusions, given that every person who buys the CD will be listening on a different system.

Right away, it was the best "first final mix" I'd ever heard, in that it came very close to my recommendations and personal tastes. Besides a few tweaks, it won't take much time to finish it, which bodes well moving forward into the rest of the songs.

The blues harp playing of Larry Kurtz features prominently in "Ain't Gonna," so here are a couple photos from those sessions.

Out-takes #2

2011-08-28T21:43:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we recorded out-take banter to use as segues between songs, to capture the flavour of the "At Home" sessions.

As I listened to out-takes from the sessions, I was struck by how light-hearted we were—even doing deep and heavy songs! It certainly allowed for a release and a balancing of the mood, and at times I was laughing out loud as I listened. Then it started to dawn on me that it might not be a good idea to place a humorous out-take in a section between two serious songs.

This is going to be an interesting challenge!

Hound Dog

2011-08-24T00:36:00.000-04:00

One of the co-writers of "Hound Dog," Jerry Leiber, died yesterday, which is awakening a new interest in the song. I've been playing a slide guitar blues rumba version of that song since Christine Bougie and I started a duo in the late 90s. It's so much fun, that last fall Jane suggested I include it in the "At Home" sessions. Now people are going to think that I just put it out as a tribute to Jerry Leiber!

Nonetheless, it might not be a bad idea to release a video on youtube. Yeah . . . that's the idea, yeah . . .

photo shoot!

2011-08-23T00:01:00.000-04:00

Jane shot a ton of photos today, which means we definitely got about three keepers! Here are a few you won't see on posters (well, one is pleasant enough . . . )

Jane thought that standing in front of my living wall of pole beans would be cool, but it's a little too "Farmer Sam."

"What dumb pose do I take next? Oooops!"

See, I can look friendly . . .

"I can play Pinball Wizard on the National . . . "

"I saw ya!" At the end of what Who song did Pete Townshend say this—to who, and why? First correct answer gets a free CD.

The feet of my photographer sweetie.

Promo!

2011-08-21T23:34:00.000-04:00

Producing a CD is one thing, and making sure people hear it is another. That's the promotional side, and like most artists, I'd rather not have to deal with it.

The good thing, however, is that I have a fine arts degree and was a professional graphic artist from 1978 to 2000. Jane is a professional writer, designer, and a damn fine photographer. We can do quite a bit of the promo ourselves, but it takes time.

Jane, James Dean, and Kate Vanderhorst took quite a few shots during recording, but promo/poster stuff is of a different nature, and now it's time to get it done. We spent part of today (until it got dark and rainy) shooting. I'm not very photogenic, so Jane shoots a lot and we choose a few! We'll finish tomorrow, but here's an out take from today -

We have this big antique hutch that looks very Tibetan painted yellow, red, and green, so I put on my favourite hat and a red shirt and sat in front of it on the wooden floor. Jane moved around, told me what to do and made me laugh. This one is from a series with a dark setting, so I removed the colour, balanced it in black and white, and then put a golden colour back in. Not bad for a start.

Getting the lyrics right

2011-08-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you've read lyrics while listening to a song and noticed that they were different. That's because the artist made a change from the original version either during the recording or while performing it—and someone forgot to edit the changes.

I prefer to write songs and perform them live first so that the songs have a chance to grow into their final forms before being recorded. On "At Home," the only song I haven't performed live is the instrumental, "Chapter 11 (T'ai)". "Just A Little Bit" was performed twice before I recorded it, after which it went through a considerable rewrite before recording—so I hope it sticks!

Many of the song lyrics did change slightly during the performance period, often because certain words would just pop out because they were naturally easier to sing, and I would leave them that way. In "Hard Task," I wrote:

The flames in the furnace are belching

The steam will burn the flesh off your bones

But when I sang it, this is what would come out:

Flames in the furnace are belching

The steam'll take the flesh off your bones

Even though lyrically I preferred "burn" to "take," "take" rolled off the toungue easier, so I left it.

When those natural changes happen I usually don't remember to return to my original lyric file and update it. So if I were to record the songs and then copy and paste the lyrics into my CD booklet, you would read things like "burn" when I'm singing "take."

To make sure the final printed version is correct, I copied the original lyrics to my CD production file, opened it, and read the lyrics as I listened to the final recorded version, correcting whenever I saw a change. It was tedious, but important, because when a song is first recorded, that's the definitive version.

Sometimes singers will make accidental changes while recording and decide to keep them. In "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da," McCartney did not intend to sing,

Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face
And in the evening she's a singer with the band

but all The Beatles loved the weird switch, and the rest is musical history.

promo, oh promo

2011-08-17T23:18:00.000-04:00

It's one thing to record music and a whole other thing to promote it. Thank goodness Jane and I have professional backgrounds in writing and graphic arts. At least we can create and do the work—but then we have to find the time!

This evening we started the big meeting to completely organize all aspects of everything we have to do between now and Christmas. Needless to say, the meeting will continue tomorrow!

Outtakes, banter and bloopers

2011-08-11T00:26:00.000-04:00

We love bloopers because we get to see the human, fallible side of performers and performance. I've always liked hearing the unscripted sounds of musicians captured before and after polished takes, like Ringo screaming, "I've got blisters on my fingers!" at the end of "Helter Skelter." Here are a few more -

The Beatles: Taxman. The intro captures the sounds of the studio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWAl5V-SiKQ

Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan's 115th Dream. Dylan starts, the band forgets to come in and he cracks up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puqiuLWB6LA

Humble Pie: Thirty Days in the Hole. This starts with some of the vocal rehearsal - it's my favourite part of the whole song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdXjm8pZMws

Howlin' Wolf: The Red Rooster, from the album "London Howlin' Wolf Sessions" with Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and Stevie Winwood. This is one of my favourites, and starts as a long outtake where we hear Clapton and the others encouraging Wolf to play acoustic on the track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnktcJ3h6wU&feature=related

The "At Home," project is as much about the experience of playing together as the finished songs themselves, and I wanted to capture that in as many ways as I could, from the in-house sound of the recording to candid photos and film. I also asked Nik to record what we were doing before and after the takes themselves, so that some of those natural moments could be used on the final CD.

Now I have to listen through hundreds of outtakes. Wish me luck!

"Oh Jesus" Part 2

2011-08-02T21:54:00.000-04:00

In "Next Time," the chorus reads:

Oh Jesus, next time make it easy
Give me a cold, cold heart of stone
Or Mama, next time
Don't you leave me
On my own

"Oh Jesus," can be felt both as an exasperated curse and an actual ironic request for Christ to grant reincarnation! I refer to "Jesus" to emphasize just how dire and intense the experience is. The magnitude of this reference also acts as a contrast to the truth of the matter, which is that much of my suffering would have been avoided if my mother had been able to stay with me and do what a mother is intended to do. I believe that when our needs are fully met as infants and children, no religious "heroes" are needed.

The second reference to Jesus is in the song "Sinner's Child," where I focus on the suffering and shame experienced by the children of criminals and any violent or antisocial individuals. One of the most damaging aspects is that these children usually have no support and no choice but to hold their suffering in silence.

When Judas turned on Jesus
Were his orphans meek and mild?

To emphasize my point I needed a major historic criminal—and you can't get much bigger than the man who betrayed the "son of God"! Can you imagine, within a Christian culture, being the son or daughter of Judas? What would a child do with all of that shame, hurt, and anger? Would they be able to be meek and mild like the baby Jesus was supposed to be? What happens to these children? Does anyone notice? Does anyone care?

The song, "Hard Task," is a lament to the exhausting and painful aspects of modern life. In the first verse we see a single mother, in the second, a factory worker, and the third, a man about to commit suicide. The third verse reads:

Fifty years is just too long
For nothing good to come down
A lonely ledge on the tenth floor
Is Jesus gonna catch him when he hits the ground?

It's bad enough that people are driven to suicide by the alienating apsects of modern life, but even worse when they are conditioned into thinking that a saviour is there to usher them into a better "life." It's sad to me that instead of applying efforts and funds to making modern life better, billions of hours and dollars are spent on building and maintaining the illusions of saviours and heavenly states. What more powerful cultural icon could emphasize this sad contrast than Jesus?

To sum up, when writing about the contradictions and challenges of modern life—within a blues-gospel musical environment—there are few images as powerful as Jesus of Nazareth.

Oh Jesus! Part 1

2011-07-25T19:33:00.000-04:00

During the recordings, Laura Bird said, "You sing about Jesus a lot," to which I replied, "I do?" Then I realized for the first time, that in the fifteen songs we recorded, there actually are references to "The Nazz" in three songs!

I was brought up in a laissez-faire United church family, but with a Christian fundamentalist battleaxe of a paternal grandmother. She was a fire-and-brimstone type, and once I was old enough to think about these things, formal God-as-an-entity Christianity didn't make any sense to me, and that was that. From that point I explored the mystical practices of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, aboriginal spirituality, and deep feeling therapy (yes, it does shift consciousness!) and have arrived at a multifaceted perspective/way-of-being. Regarding religions, I tend to agree with Joseph Campbell, who states that religious explanations of the universe, or myths, are just different ways of attempting to explain what is, in fact, beyond words or rational explanations. Just like different languages have different words for the same item, religions are just different explanations for the same thing.

So even though I am not a Christian, I believe that Jesus is the most iconic figure in our culture. If I want to touch on major existential issues and not be pedantic, I need powerful "trigger" words that create similar associations for my audience. Explanations are too long. Other iconic figures like the Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Black Elk, are still too obscure to most western minds. And when you're playing roots, blues, and gospel music, talking about the Buddha just doesn't cut it!

Wee tour and holiday!

2011-07-14T00:54:00.000-04:00

Jane and I are headed up to Haliburton today to be on CANOE FM 100.9 with host Kris Kadwell. His show is called, "Paddling Beyond the Main Stream," and we'll be featured with live and recorded songs. On Friday we'll head to South River to play The Café. On Saturday we'll go to Bracebridge to play the Griffin Gastropub. On Sunday we're headed back to South River to join Jane's family for a few days housesitting a home-on-the-lake for a family friend. A needed break.

Since internet is iffy up there, I may not post on this blog until we get back in a week.

Until then, here are a few more Kate Vanderhorst shots of the vocalists for "Just a Little Bit." There were three groups of three vocalists, and each group had one simple harmonized part that overlapped the others. Simple but complicated!

This group had the phrase, "Just a little." From left, Dennis Gaumond, Jane Lewis, and Guy Stefan standing in our upstairs bedroom.

This group had the phrase, "Hmmm, just a little bit." That's Rich Langedijk, Jeff Bersche, and Joni NehRita in the upstairs hallway. Rich is joking with the group in the bedroom.

This group had the phrase, "Little bit." That's Tannis Slimmon, Heather MacRae, and Tricia Brubacher in Jane's upstairs office at the end of the hall.

Appreciation of Nik

2011-07-12T22:08:00.000-04:00

The "At Home" project would not be possible without the experience, talent, musical sensitivity—and good nature—of Nik Tjelios, the master engineer. Kate Vanderhorst took a few shots of Nik at work.

When we discussed recording my work song, "Pilin' Line," Nik suggested that we do it outside, because he loves natural acoustics. Here he is setting up mics in our back yard.

Nik is also a talented musician with a keen ear. Here he is checking the sound of singing and clapping. The stump was there as a "found" percussion instrument.

Setting up my lead vocal mic.

Sound control central—my wee office.

Nik emerging from the back door to give pointers to the group. Tannis Slimmon with headphones. Jane filming every bloody thing with her little recorder. Tricia Brubacher taking note. Heather MacRae and Tannis Maynard-Langedijk taking a break on the deck.

The big red mic—and me hauling a pail of my grandad's tools for percussion.

The challenge of singing tired

2011-07-10T22:41:00.000-04:00

Holy Hannah. I finally got to the critical listening of the gospel tune "I'm On My Way," recorded late on May 21 when we discovered we had extra time.

On the first takes my voice was tired and shaky, and I started thinking this one might not make it. I felt bummed because the band was really rocking and the singers (Jane, Tannis and Katherine) were nailing their parts.

Then as I started listening to the second-last take, like a dog who hears a distant whistle, my head turned to the side as I heard some decent lines! I'm too tired to continue this evening, but I think I might just have pulled this one out of the bag!

Editing?

2011-07-09T22:41:00.001-04:00

My reasons for this project are:

1) to document my musical life as it really is—in live performance, and in informal jams at home with family and friends.

2) to record my latest songs in a way that will best capture the energy, organic cohesion, joy, and human character of those performances.

3) to extend the "live locally" lifestyle to my music by recording within the unrefined sonic character of my home.

These were virtuous reasons, but could I pull it off? In this less-than-ideal environment—with Jesse in the hallway and Tannis on a squeaky floor upstairs—could the band and singers manage to perform entire songs without any significant glitches? In the days when artists had no other option, there are stories of sessions going into thirty or forty takes, and I couldn't imagine us all having the stamina for that. And historically, the bands that could knock off final versions quickly—like the early Beatles—had often been playing together every night for years.

When I approached Nik Tjelios about engineering the project, he listened and made a fascinating reply. He basically said that the intention of the project, as he heard it, was to capture the essence of performance, and that intelligent, limited editing, using state-of-the-art technology would not only preserve that, but could enhance it. I was intrigued. Why toss an entirely good track, he said, just because someone bumps a microphone in the last four measures? If we fly in a section of another entirely live track, how does that compromise the project? I was looking to avoid the sterile effect of multiple overdubbing, and what he was suggesting maintained that.

And what about unexpected moments of live magic? What if, on one otherwise mediocre track, there is an exception musical moment? Why should it be relegated to oblivion when, as a truly genuine, live, full-band expression, it can be incorporated in the final take?

After our meeting, I mulled over these options and realized that not only did his suggestions fit within the parameters of the project, they would enhance it by allowing us to play for fun—like we usually do—and not succumb to the tension and mediocrity of playing for the "no error" track.

When we finally did record, we always played for the ideal take but would stop when we intuitively knew we "had" it, without analyzing every detail. The least number of takes was the instrumental, "Chapter Eleven" with two. The most was "Next Time," with fourteen.

Post recording, we are following the ethic of only using live performance edits when they have artistic merit within the intention of the project. And what I'm hearing so far sounds fantastic!

Even more photos from Saturday, June 25 sessions

2011-07-06T19:34:00.001-04:00

After Pilin' Line was done, Kate insisted on getting some shots of the homesteaders.

The background is a wild section of yard behind our workshop space where we keep our compost bins and woodpiles. The wood behind us is from the maple tree that fell on our house.

Yes, we were Siamese twins in a past life . . .

I absolutely adore this woman. I wouldn't be where I'm at without Jane's steady love, support, and inspiration.

That's my boy! Oh yeah, and the peeker dude is my other drummer boy. Nice Juno swag watch.

Dennis, Jane, and Guy, in discussion about the vocal complexities of "Just A Little Bit." Their part was, "Just a little," "Just a little," "Just a little," "Just a little," "Just a little" . . .

All photos by Kate Vanderhorst.

More photos from Saturday, June 25 sessions

2011-07-04T22:43:00.001-04:00

There was the singing. And then there was the backwoods percussion session.

That's me emerging from our "mini back 40, " with an old stump that just might make a resonant thumping sound . . .

This one is even better!

From the left: Tannis Slimmon dropping a cedar 4x4 on another cedar 4x4; Mike Driscoll hitting a rock with one of my grandfather's old ball peen hammers; Jan Vanderhorst thumping a stump with a hammer; Dennis Gaumond thumping a bigger stump (very nice low tone, you guys!); Jeff Bersche whacking a small anvil on a stump with another ball peen hammer; Guy Stefan hitting a metal wedge with an old wooden maul; Rich Langedijk bonking a cedar 4x4 with another hammer. It may look funny, but it sounded great!

Tricia filming as I give complex instructions. Nice garden in the foreground, eh?

Jeff and Guy deep into the groove. I told them it was a work song!

All photos by Kate Vanderhorst.

Photos from Saturday, June 25 sessions

2011-07-03T23:19:00.000-04:00

We started our last day of recording with "Pilin' Line," my call-and-response work song. Nik was determined to record it in our backyard, even though it was cloudy and threatened rain. Here are some shots from that morning session, taken by Kate Vanderhorst.

I'm set up at a mic with headphones, singing lead. The group is in three groups each around a mic, with an overall area mic in the centre. The group, from left to right: Jeff Bersche, Tricia Brubacher, Laura Bird, Jan Vanderhorst, Stu Peterson, Dennis Gaumond, Tannis Slimmon, Mike Driscoll, Rich Langedijk, Guy Stefan, Tannis Maynard-Langedijk, Jesse Turton.

Stomping, clapping and shouting!

Rich, Guy, Tannis, and Jesse: "Hard work on the pilin' line!"

After a successful take, Jesse picks salad for lunch.

Janet Lewis is not only highly intelligent, wise, loving, and lovely, she is a master in the kitchen! Lunch for the work gang is ready.

More photos from Friday, June 24 sessions

2011-06-30T15:17:00.000-04:00

Jane and I sitting on our stairs practicing "Right Here" with the vocal group.

My Fender 30 amp was once again stationed in the bathroom, so this is me sitting on the toilet (not using it!) setting the tone before recording "Sinner's Child."

Doug Wilde at the piano. Make sure you watch the Canada Day show from Ottawa—the musical production, composition, and arrangement is Doug's!

Jane testing her mic upstairs for "We Want Peace."

Tannis "I-can't-stop-smiling" Slimmon ready to blast away the ending of "We Want Peace."

Dennis Gaumond getting ready to record "Right Here" with us. That's the attitude!

Nik Tjelios, the master of a million wires, mics, and headphones taking a lunch break on our deck. "I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!"

Rich Langedijk, gravelly lead singer, basking in the challenge of singing a lower fifth harmony.

Apparently, Tannis' smiling is contagious! No, the fenced area behind her is not for containing unruly drummers, it's a net for peas to grow up.

All photos by James Dean.

More session photos

2011-06-29T13:36:00.001-04:00

Here are some photos from Friday, June 24.

Just a few of the many headphones we used last weekend.

In the 70s, I took the body of that guitar, and wired it to a makeshift turntable on an old washing machine motor. I got it spinning and poured paint on it!

Heather MacRae (now a Doctor of Naturopathy, so get in line!), brought her home made spring rolls and other goodies. She's the inspiration for the song "Right Here," which I wrote for her wedding. Great singer, too.

Jesse reacting to Adam's ignerrit groove.

Tannis Slimmon, Guelph's Queen of Smiles.

Tricia Brubacher getting ready for video duty (and vocal duty the next day).

Adam Bowman reacting to Jesse's stoopit bass riffs.

Doug Wilde loading up lunch—fresh greens from the garden, cous-cous salad, hummous, veggies, edamame, spring rolls, and-I-can't-remember-what-else.

The last recording day

2011-06-25T20:35:00.002-04:00

We had 20 people here today! Roll the credits . . .

Jeff Bersche: vocals, tiny anvil whacking
Laura Bird: vocals-on-the-go
Adam Bowman: stupid drums and ignorant percussion
Tricia Brubacher: vocals two steps back and video
Mike Driscoll: hopped-up vocals and rock smacking
Dennis Gaumond: vocals and stump thumping
Rich Langedijk: vocals and tie-dye-influenced post-hitting
Jane Lewis: maitre d', vocals, video, cuteness
Janet Lewis: maitre d' cuisine, ginger cookie goddess, the adult in the house
Heather MacRae: Naturopathic Dr. of Cuisine, vocals
Tannis Maynard-Langedijk: vocals, muffled guffaws
Joni NehRita: D9 vocal coolness
Stu Peterson: vocals with significant "Huh!"
Tannis Slmmon: vocals, 4" x 4" dropping, joyously colourful outfit
Guy Stefan: vocals and maul-on-wedge syncopation
Nik Tjelios: maitre d'ingenieur
Jesse Turton: maitre d' grunté, bass
Sam Turton: maitre d' funkée poulet, vocals, guitar
Kate Vanderhorst: Maitre d' photographie
Jan Vanderhorst: vocals and second stump, video

Jane's mom Janet arrived first and the kitchen moved into full gear. Nik arrived next and started setting up to record "Pilin' Line" outside in the back yard. The weather cooperated, and we succeeded in recording it and the final song, "Just A Little Bit."

Woo Hooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Exhausted and happy. Here's a still from the raw video—more to come in the following days.

Group from left: Jeff Bersche, Tricia Brubacher, Laura Bird, Jan Vanderhorst, Stu Peterson, Dennis Gaumond, Tannis Slimmon, Mike Driscoll, Rich Langedijk, Guy Stefan, Tannis Maynard-Langedijk, Jesse Turton. Front: Sam Turton, Kate Vanderhorst.

The second last recording session

2011-06-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

The house was full today! We banged off three songs, and had photographer James Dean from Toronto documenting the day, along with Tricia Brubacher and Heather MacRae shooting video. Here are a few shots from the festivities.

This is Jane shooting James shooting Tricia shooting Jane with Jesse on bass and Doug at the keys.

Doug running through "Sinner's Child," and Nik conferring with Adam.

Sam conferring with Adam on an aspect of "We Want Peace."

Jeff Bersche in a jovial mood prior to screaming his lungs out on "We Want Peace."

Laura Bird singing "we want love . . . "

The happy hosts.

The whole crew (minus Tricia, and James taking the shot) on our deck. Standing left: Rich Lagedijk. Standing right: Adam Bowman. Back row from left: Jeff Bersche, Doug Wilde, Dennis Gaumond, Jesse Turton, Heather MacRae. Sitting on the bench from left: Tannis Slimmon, Jane Lewis. Sitting on the deck from left: Sam Turton, Laura Bird, Nik Tjelios.

The final set-up day

2011-06-23T21:29:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is piano day. I have the instrument on three songs and Doug Wilde is coming from Toronto to lay those down with us on Friday. I booked Paul Wall from Kitchener to do the tuning ages ago, and the poor thing has been shifting sharp—along with all the guitars—because of the damp weather. It’s a beautifully constructed early 40s Nordheimer apartment upright.

Yesterday we closed up the house and turned on the central air (which we rarely use) and a dehumidifier to gently bring the humidity down before the tuning. Right now the humidity outdoors is at 94% and we managed to bring it down to 60% by this morning. The ideal for pianos is 50-60%.

Pall arrived at 9:30 am and got to work. Within an hour he had it sounding great and suggested we hold the humidity at 60% through the recording. Yes sir!

Then I got to work clearing out the house and Jane prepared food. I cleaned up the back deck, rehearsed a bit and had a nap. Energy conservation is key. Jane never stopped in the kitchen, so I hope she gets a good sleep tonight!

I rooted around our garage for work song-type items for rhythm on “Pilin’ Line.” I pulled out some sledge hammers, axes, crowbars, old ball-peen hammers of my grandfather’s—even a little anvil! The boys are gonna have fun on Saturday morning!

tonight . . .

The gear.

The veggie curry, with the last potatoes from our 2010 garden.

Big group vocal rehearsal

2011-06-23T01:30:00.000-04:00

This post was prepared before midnight on Wednesday, June 22, but I couldn't post it because another violent thunderstorm knocked the power out!

This Friday and Saturday are the final recording days, and we saved the most complex songs for last. On Friday we start with three back-up singers and by Saturday afternoon we’ll have nine. Tonight was the vocal rehearsal for this bigger group, which included Jane Lewis, Tannis Slimmon, Laura Bird, Guy Stefan, Dennis Gaumond, Rich Langedijk, Jeff Bersche, Joni NehRita, Tricia Brubacher, and Heather MacRae.

Everyone had checked out their support materials and was ready to go. Tannis, Laura, Jane and I met early and went over “Sinner’s Child,” then Tannis headed off to an evening class.

Dennis, Jeff, and Rich arrived and together with Jane and Laura, we worked on “We Want Peace,” and “Right Here.”

Then Joni, Tricia, and Heather arrived, Laura headed back to Orangeville and we tackled the toughest song of the bunch—“Just A Little Bit.” This one has three groups of three singers each who do very simple but rhythmically complex, interlocking parts. We slowly eased into it by checking each person’s individual parts, each group together, then various sections of the song. Finally we were able to tackle the song as a whole.

As expected, it will likely be the most challenging to do live, but we will persevere! By the time we left, it was coming together, and everyone left knowing the song much better, with two days more to practice!

Clockwise from bottom left: Heather MacRae, Tricia Brubacher, Joni NehRita, Jeff Bersche, Rich Langedijk, Sam Turton, Dennis Gaumond, Guy Stefan, and Jane Lewis.

A letter to our neighbours

2011-06-20T23:41:00.001-04:00

Jane and I created a letter to twenty-four of our “within earshot” neighbours to ask their cooperation with this weekend’s recording. I delivered them by hand today. Check it out:

We’re your neighbours at 238 Kathleen Street, three doors up from the corner of Kathleen and Division.

This is a musical household, and you may have heard music from workshops and rehearsals emanating from our property in the past.

This Friday and Saturday—June 24 and 25—we’re doing a live recording here at our house.

We're writing to ask, if at all possible, you could get any outdoor machine-driven chores taken care of either before or after those two days. (Or before 10 a.m. on the 24th & 25th).

Our concern is that loud engine sounds, such as lawn mowers, weed whackers, and chain saws will bleed through and force us to stop. We’re even hoping to record a song with just voices right out in our back yard!

Your help would be much appreciated.

If you’re curious about the project, check out the blog at

http://samturtonmusic.blogspot.com

Thank you in advance!

Sam and Jane.

Harmony changes and guitar work

2011-06-19T23:59:00.000-04:00

When Doug added some gospel piano changes to the arrangement of “Right Here,” he suggested a linking diminished chord in the chorus that I realized might change the vocal harmonies. Today I viewed the rehearsal video and checked the harmony parts against it, expecting that I’d have to send the singers a corrected file.

As it turns out, the upper third harmony does indeed need to change - by one note in one location! It’s so obvious that I don’t the singers will have difficulty with it. One more thing I can cross off my list!

I spent some time solidifying the slide intro and solo in “We Want Peace,” which I keep forgetting and changing! As it turned out, I ended up with something even better.

In “Sinner’s Child,” I don’t start playing until the solo, which is feeling really good, though I have altered some positional aspects of it that make the parts really resonate. At the latest band rehearsal, Doug told me it sounded like George Harrison, which is quite a compliment. George didn’t play it from a blues perspective but as a melodic voice like a violin. When Paul, George, and Ringo recorded Lennon’s “Free As A Bird” song, Harrison performed one of the most moving slide solos of his career over a stunning modulated chord sequence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqHjXF1gUWU&feature=related

Ah, The Beatles. They woke me up to music in 1964 when I was 13, and I still adore their stuff.

Watching video

2011-06-16T23:07:00.000-04:00

Today I checked out the footage of our rehearsal. It was very helpful, given that it isn’t easy for me to listen to all the instruments while I’m playing and singing. That’s where having an independent producer would be handy. That, of course, isn’t an option, because I would never give up full creative control anyway!

It's interesting how perceptions vary. Reviewing the video, some things came across just like the initial experience, while other sections that appeared solid need work—and parts that I thought needed work sounded great. So much for objective reality!

Final band rehearsal

2011-06-15T22:34:00.000-04:00

Today Doug drove from Toronto to rehearse here with Jesse, Adam, and I to put the final touches on the songs. Adam brought his little kit, Jesse and I played through our little amps, and Doug played our lovely little upright piano.

We started with “We Want Peace,” and mostly focused on dynamics—when to hold back, when to build, when to let loose. After about a half hour, we had it where it needed to be.

“Sinner’s Child,” was next, and it has a very specific arrangement of accented shots and rhythmic pushes that the rhythm section (Adam, Jesse, and Doug) had to get together on. I don’t even play until the instrumental solo, and even after that what I do is colour rather than rhythm. I’m very fortunate that Jesse and Adam are like one musical brain, and that Doug is so talented that he can sink right into it. They sounded great together.

Even though it was just a rehearsal and there were no extra singers to liven things up, I felt that the band was holding back a little up to that point. I called for one more run-through and urged them to give it more urgency in key sections, and they nailed it.

Doug and I then focused on the first verse, which he and I do alone, so Jesse and Adam went out to the deck to get some sun. We’ve got a nest of baby cardinals in a bush close by and their cheeping adds to the great atmosphere.

Sinner’s Child starts with one piano chord and the vocal, “A cop got shot in Woodstock.” Like the opening scene in a movie, the piano has to leave space for the unfolding story, yet build the mood. We worked on subtle fills that Doug could do before the rest of the band comes in.

Then Doug and I ran through “Right Here.” This has a very gospel piano intro that slows down considerably before the singing starts. We don’t want to do this with a click track so that the music can ebb and flow between the vocals and piano, but I was feeling rhythmically lost, so I found the ideal tempo on the metronome, got settled with it in my system, and stood where Doug could see me so that I could swing my hand in time. He played the intro, I found my time and we moved ahead in a much more cohesive way. Nik will probably set all the singers up in the living room so we can see each other to follow cues. We might not even need headphones. It should be interesting!

Doug was done and went off to our workshop space to give Jane a lesson in gospel and New Orleans-style piano while Adam, Jesse and I worked on one more tune.

“Just A Little Bit” started as a blues/gospel shuffle, but has evolved way beyond that and I wanted Adam to develop a drum groove to suit. It took discussion, trial and error, but we got something that swayed and rolled with tasty intensity. Jesse plays upright bass and I essentially play a tambura-like drone on my resonator. It’s going to be big!

So it was a wrap—we’re ready for next Friday.

Fresh veggies

2011-06-14T22:23:00.000-04:00

A week Friday, our house will contain an engineer, a drummer, a bass player, a pianist, a guitar player and six singers—and they will all get hungry. We will be serving a number of healthy selections, including greens from our backyard garden.

I mulched today with wood chips from trees that had fallen in that freak thunderstorm a week ago, and then picked our first full salad.

Bottom left, chard; far left: kale; at the back, poles for beans just sprouting; back centre, garlic; centre, various types of lettuce; far right, more greens; centre front, green onions (still a bit thin and difficult to see).

The Swiss Chard is looking good!

Right Here

2011-06-13T22:56:00.001-04:00

The third song Doug Wilde will play on is “Right Here,” an anthem to the power of the moment that I wrote as a wedding gift to our dear friend (and newly graduated naturopathic doctor!) Heather MacRae.

I had wanted to write a song for Heather, but didn’t want to force it. Weeks passed, and as the wedding approached, nothing was coming to me, so I put it out of my mind. After lunch on the day of the wedding, I was washing dishes and suddenly the song came to me. I wiped plates and scribbled words, and when the dishes were done, so was the song. Jane and I practiced it while we drove to the festivities and sang it to Heather and Chris that afternoon.

I didn’t expect to play it again, but being a very singalongable little tune, I pulled it out at a few jams and people really loved it. To make the message more universal, I changed the word “you” to “we,” and now it’s a regular part of my repertoire.

I usually play it as a type of secular hymn, with a very sparse guitar accompaniment, and often Jane and Jesse will add piano and upright bass. I have always imagined that it might have a more black gospel feel, but wasn’t sure how to accomplish this.

At our arrangement meeting, I asked Doug to see if he could play in that style, and Holy Hannah! He blew me away with what he created. It was what I had been feeling but hadn’t been able to realize. The southern piano style made me sing more soulfully, and it was so powerful that I decided to nix the bass and guitar and let the song stand on its own with just piano and vocals.

Even though “At Home” follows the ethic of minimalist instrumentation, it is also shaping up as a recording with significant sonic variation, and the arrangement of “Right Here” will be a big part of that.

Right Here

We travelled long

We travelled far

To be right here

Where we are

Reach out a hand

No need to fear

‘Cause all we need

Is right here

All we need, all we need

All we need is right here

All we need, all we need

All we need is right here

The night was dark

But the day is bright

Together we

Can lift our eyes

To all we love

And we hold dear

‘Cause all we need

Is right here

All we need, all we need

All we need is right here

All we need, all we need

All we need is right here

All we need, all we need

All we need is right here

Piano arrangements, part 2

2011-06-12T21:41:00.001-04:00

I am very fortunate to have DougWilde playing with us on this recording. There are three songs he’ll be joining us for: “We Want Peace,” “Sinner’s Child,” and “Right Here.” Jane usually plays on these, but Doug’s knowledge of multiple styles—including the gospel/soul zone that these songs pull from—is something both Jane and I wanted his expertise on.

Doug got the charts and rough mp3 recordings in advance, and we needed to work out the particulars of the piano arrangements in person. “We Want Peace” is quite straightforward, and Doug holds down the main chordal accompaniment while I play lightly on my Yamaha and take a slide lead. “Sinner’s Child,” relies more heavily on piano—I don’t even play until the solo. Sometimes you need a break from guitars, guitars, guitars!

At one point, we called Jesse over to play his bass lines so Doug could be sure that his piano bass would not conflict. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and to top it off, I got Doug to tell Jane and Jesse about his involvement with the big Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa. Doug is working to coordinate, compose, and arrange the musical program, which is a mind-boggling feat. The opening musical extravaganza involves drummers, dancers, acrobats, a string quartet, singers, bands—and a perfectly timed flyover by the Snowbirds! The recently married royals Will and Kate will be there, with performances by many artists, including Great Big Sea, Dehli 2 Dublin, and Sam Roberts. Wow!

Doug acting out the Canada Day wing-ding!

Working out parts while the Mac laptop records. My electric slide guitar is a late-60s Teisco Gengakki Telecaster copy that I painted psychedelic back in 1978. I keep it tuned to open E with the action high. All the gritty stuff on Jude Vadala's CD was played on this one.

Doug playing some ultra-cool shit.

Woo hoo!

That's our little videocam capturing the arrangement of "Sinner's Child."

piano arrangement

2011-06-12T00:02:00.000-04:00

Jesse and I just had a session working on piano arrangements for three songs with Doug Wilde, keyboardist extraordinaire.

A tree fell “At Home”

2011-06-08T22:50:00.000-04:00

Last night the forecast was clear (Ha!). At 1:00 am we were woken by lightning and the sudden onrush of a violent thunderstorm. As I was closing the window in my front office downstairs (our recording control room) I saw the huge trees by our house whipping back and forth like blades of grass. I hollered to Jane to get out of the upstairs bedroom, and seconds later there was a huge crack and one of the huge trunks gave way and fell towards the house.

I jumped out of my office and the thing crashed on the house and the power went out. I went upstairs to see if it had broken through the ceiling and window, but all I could see was the bedroom window with foliage across it. It was impossible to tell how bad the damage was, and with the possibility of a live electric cable in the wild rain, it wasn’t safe to go outside.

After having emergency services determine that our hydro lines were intact and there was no leakage, we managed to get some sleep. We awoke to the scene below.

Here’s the amazing part. Besides a slightly bent eaves trough and about six shingles that needed patching, there was no damage! The section had miraculously landed at such an angle that it just missed the power lines, and hit the roof with the weight distributed across a number of points. The tree removal team said we were extremely lucky—that’s an understatement!

So the “At Home” recording project will continue . . .

That's our bedroom up there! The room below all the branches is the control room.

Preproduction for “Just A Little Bit”

2011-06-07T16:43:00.000-04:00

“Just a Little Bit” is a song I started writing over a year ago and performed in Guelph for the Haiti Benefit in February 2010. Since then I had changed the words and a fair bit of the arrangement—but only in my head! Last week I finally hammered it into shape and did a rough demo.

This song has a lively drum groove, upright bass, a guitar drone and a worksong-type chant that was inspired by old field recordings. It culminates in an overlapping series of vocals with ten singers. It’ll be quite a challenge to record live.

First I wrote out the chart for Adam and Jesse. Then I created a digital drum track as a sample groove, laid down the guitar with lots of tremolo (like Pops Staples), and started singing vocal tracks, one after another—including falsetto versions of the female tracks. The Bee Gees I ain’t, but it had to be done! Then I got Jane to listen to the vocal arrangement.

After making some changes, she sat down and sang the five different female vocal parts. Then I had Jesse lay down a rough upright bass line. With all the parts done, I was able to do a rough mix and an mp3 I could send to everyone.

Then came the tedious part. I created a separate lyric sheet for each singer, with their part in bold italic and the notes in brackets. Then I created a separate mp3 for each part by going to the main mix, making that part louder than the rest, and creating another mp3. I sent this off to each singer. Now they can easily study their part and be prepared for rehearsal. Rehearsals with ten singer-friends is like herding cats, so the more prepared we are, the better it will be. When the big recording “party” arrives, it’ll be about having fun.

Busy

2011-06-06T09:58:00.000-04:00

Wow, it’s been so busy, I keep forgetting to write even though it’s on my list and I keep telling myself to do it!

It’s big garden time. The 2000 sq. ft. community garden plot we have at the Ignatius Centre just north of town is finally ready to be worked on after an intensely wet spring. Everyone is weeks behind, but what can you do?

Yesterday I was able to get out there (it was still muddy after the thunderstorms on Saturday) and I measured the plot. Then I came home and organized the map. We’ll have potatoes, corn, tomatoes, squash, cabbage, broccoli, rutabaga, turnip, onions, carrots, hot peppers, sweet peppers, basil, beets, parsnips, zucchini, and cucumbers!

Today Jesse and I will be going out there with Mike Cathcart’s truck (thanks, Mike!) and hauling poles and gear for the tomato structures we use, as well as rakes and other tools to get the plot ready for transplanting and planting.

Later I’ll do some more listening to the rough mixes of the recorded takes. Concentration required . . .

Remembering the blues

2011-06-02T15:54:00.000-04:00

Nothing on the recording front today. I’m playing the Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival Gala after-party tonight, so I rustled up a whole evening of bluesy tunes, including my originals that fit the bill.

It would seem a simple gig, since I play a very blues-related style and was a blues lead guitarist for years. But I rarely sang the stuff, so I just don’t know the words. Today I pulled together a binder of lyrics and will resign myself to reading the stuff!

I'm a Hoochie Coochie what?

Recording Saturday, May 21

2011-06-01T18:56:00.000-04:00

My original plan was to do two songs each day, with those requiring a set-up change to amplified guitar scheduled for the second day. I had imagined the amp being so loud that we’d have to take a chunk of time to test out placement throughout the house. Nik took one look at the amp and said, “That’d be good in the downstairs bathroom,” and the problem was solved!

So we managed to get three songs on the first day, which left “Walk With Me” for Saturday. We started off the day slow as Nik came early and got things warmed up and ready to rock. Katherine, Tannis, Jesse, and Adam arrived, the coffee flowed, and the breakfast treats got nibbled.

Jane practiced the series of drone chords for her accordion part. Katherine, Tannis and I went over the vocal parts, which were of the non-parallel variety Jane and I enjoy. Adam hovered over us pretending to be part of the vocal group! Jesse laid back as is his way.

Nik mid’d the National both acoustically and from the amp, as I wanted some ”rumble,” and a wailing sound for the slide solo. When we were ready, the takes began.

The intense vocal finale of this one took some work, but we finished it without too much trouble. It was time for a lunch break—and then what? I decided to whip off another song, so I chose “I’m On My Way,” a traditional gospel tune that Jane and I play live.

This song, with the call-and-response, “I’m on my way to freedom land,” was a standard during the civil rights marches of the 60s. When it comes to gospel music, I prefer the freedom and inspirational songs of African-American gospel, and this is a great one.

We do this as a fast shuffle, and I played my Garrison acoustic through the amp with a rich tremolo, the way Pops Staples used to when he would do it. It’s a cheap guitar, but it sounds great amplified!

Since I had not prepared to do this song, we had to work out the arrangement right there and then. It took a while for the ladies to sort out their parts, and just as we were ready to record, our next-door neighbour started mowing his lawn! Even with the windows closed, the mower rumble was leaking through the mics.

It’s been a cold, wet, spring, and it was sunny day with rain forecast for Sunday. Our neighbour clearly wanted to get the long grass cut before the next rain, so I couldn’t blame him. Nik—who loves to work—happily carried on with other engineering duties while the rest of us hung out on the back porch, ate, drank, and made merry.

When the mower was at the far reaches of the yard, we did a test and decided it was safe to resume. For our final sessions later in June I intend to ask all our neighbours to schedule excessive noise on other days!

“I’m On My Way” was fun to record, but without prior rehearsal, it did take longer than expected. Jesse, Adam, and I got a kick out of what was happening at the end of every take. The final sounds would tail off, and when everything was clear, Katherine, Tannis, and Jane would burst into an animated discussion about who was supposed to go up, down, extend, or clip a line shorter! I don’t think they ever finalized what they were doing—but it sounded great!

And then it was homemade pizza time!

Waking up . . .

More waking up . . .

Joking about waking up . . .

Tannis, Katherine, and I going over the vocal parts for "Walk With Me," while Jane scrutinizes.

"What? What? There's no falsetto vocal part for me? Frankie Valli's my main man!"

Hound Dog

2011-05-31T23:43:00.000-04:00

The original recording of Hound Dog was by Big Mama Thornton and it was definitely a blues. For years I’ve played it as a good-time blues rumba, and on Friday, after we finished “Yes Indeed,” we had time for another, so we took a crack at Hound Dog.

For this one I play my old Yamaha acoustic through a Fender 30 amp that Nik stuck in the bathroom! The Yamaha is in a dedicated high G tuning (G on the top and bottom) and it really bites when I dig in.

I’m not a fan of rock blues, so in order to keep this from descending into a loud wank-fest, I had Jesse play upright acoustic bass on it to keep the whole thing woody. Nik also mic’d the guitar acoustically to have that sound available in the mix.

Adam played drums with towels on the drumheads and clothespins on the cymbals for that down-in-the-gutter trashcan sound.

Another unusual thing about this arrangement is that it’s gospel-style three-part harmony throughout, with Tannis and Jane swooping along with me. This was really fun to lay down—the perfect antidote for an intense recording day.

Jesse on upright—the wood is good.

We plugged that old amp in and let the tubes heat up for a while to get some nice, crunchy, old-school distortion. Cozy on the ‘loo, too!

Yes Indeed instrumentation

2011-05-30T23:36:00.000-04:00

The ethic of “At Home” simplicity carries over to the arrangements. I believe that a good song can even stand with just the vocal.

It was a revelation to me when I heard classic gospel by the Staples Singers that kicked ass with just four vocalists, one electric guitar, and sometimes a drummer with brushes. When I got the Beatles remastered set, it amazed me how simple some of their arrangements were. The haunting song, “Julia,” is just Lennon's vocal and guitar. Even “Fool On The Hill,” only has lead vocal, piano, 12-string acoustic guitar, two recorders, two harmonicas, and a hi-hat cymbal.

I also find that when you leave sonic space, the listener can actually hear the cool things that each player is doing. I think too many performers and producers don’t have the courage to let the song and basic performance stand on its own. They feel compelled to fill it up with a wall of homogenous sound. How many times have you listened to an artist live—especially roots and folk musicians—bought the CD and felt let down when the recording didn’t really sound or feel like what you experienced? It’s often too smooth, too perfect, too produced. In contrast, I want “At Home” to be honest, and that means if my music is simple, the recording is going to be simple.

“Yes Indeed” has one acoustic guitar, one little accordion, drums/percussion, bass, lead vocal, and three harmony vocals. To me that’s lots! The little Zydeco bands I’ve seen in New Orleans can fill a whole room with that line-up, so our arrangement is following trusted tradition.

Adam laying down the freight train groove while Jane plays those fantastic Cajun licks. Note to self—it's time to put handles on our kitchen cupboards.

It's a smilin' groove, for sure. The back of my head is my best side.

Adam is definitely loving the huge sound Nik has captured. "This is your big hit, man!"

Yes Indeed vocals

2011-05-29T23:48:00.000-04:00

For “Yes Indeed,” I invited the stellar talents of Katherine Wheatley, Laura Bird, and Tannis Slimmon for the harmony vocals. Talented singer-songwriters in their own right, I am honoured to have them as both friends and musical compatriots.

Katherine, Laura, and Tannis checking their parts. Adam is mesmerized by Katherine's mastery of harmonic theory. The thought balloon over his head reads, "Damn. I thought that was the extension of the multi-polyphonic thirteen suspended over the modulated mixolydian flat five!"

Getting the blend while trying to ignore the pungent aroma emanating from the covered crock on the window box that's full of fermenting sauerkraut. I kid you not!

Wait until you hear their harmonies. Katherine is pumping her fist, thinking, "Yes! Adam almost fell on his ass when I hit that ghost flat seven!"

More preproduction

2011-05-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

It’s five to twelve and I just realized I haven’t posted today! I’ve been working like crazy on the final vocal arrangements for the songs we’ll record at the end of June. At first it seemed easy—just do the parts the way we’ve always done them. And then I get ideas . . .

Yes Indeed

2011-05-27T18:40:00.000-04:00

The next song we recorded on Friday was “Yes Indeed,” a piece that formed while I was driving from my daughter’s farm in Campbellford. Since I’ve been little I have been able to hear music in my head, as if it’s a radio receiver. I just tune into that “station” and the thing plays—from who knows where! So I let the music roll around and around until it was fairly complete.

I prefer writing the basics of a song without an instrument. I connect to the melody and basic phrases, and afterwards set the rest of the lyrics to it, sometimes with Jane’s poetic input.

With “Yes Indeed,” the entire song had formed by the time I got home and picked up a guitar. The main theme was the chorus—“love, love, love is what we need now, yes indeed,” along with a chugging zydeco backing that I heard very clearly.

I had a sense of the lines as frames in a kaleidoscopic documentary. Each image was a flash of a person having some kind of challenge that genuine love and attention would heal. To me, love is a word that indicates deep connection. When we feel connected in this way, it’s not possible to abuse or neglect ourselves, others, or the world at large. I believe that most personal and societal suffering can be tracked to the original abuse or neglect of the people behaving in this way. If their original needs had been cared for—which is what connected, loving caretakers do—most of this suffering could have been avoided. And even after the fact, environments of genuine love, understanding, and caring would help the issues resolve.

Yes indeed!

Yes Indeed
© 2007 Sam Turton

For the baby in the belly
Junkie in the alley
Farmer on a combine
Daddy in a coal mine
Mama on the highway
Teenage runaway
Daughter of a drunkard
Beggar on the boulevard

I say love, love
Love is what we need now
Yes indeed
Love, love
Love is what we need now
Yes indeed

For the urchin on the curbstone
Grandma all alone
Toddler by the TV
Schoolyard misery
Armchair romeo
Sister with the rosary
And the dancer with the left feet

I say love, love
Love is what we need now
Yes indeed
Love, love
Love is what we need now
Yes indeed

For the orphan in a war zone
Stranger in the unknown
A Muslim in Texas
The vet with the flashbacks
Native on main street
Alcoholic MD
Family on a flood plain
Refugee freight train

I say love, love
Love is what we need now
Yes indeed
Love, love
Love is what we need now
Yes indeed

Jane preparing to lead the zydeco train. Love, love, love . . .

Recording Next Time

2011-05-27T00:11:00.000-04:00

“Next Time” is the type of full-belt song that could easily be played by the Rolling Stones. My idea was to do it without amplification and prove that you can still rock it out with acoustic instruments!

Adam was on drums, Jesse on upright bass, I was on National resonator, Jane on duet vocal, with Tannis and Katherine on harmonies for the big ending. Adam was in the dining room, I was in the living room, Jesse in the front hallway and Jane, Tannis and Katherine were in the upstairs hall.

As always, it takes a few passes to get warmed up and in the groove, and everything was rolling like my arrangement. At one point, the girls began suggesting adjustments to the vocal dynamics, and started singing the ending with more punch. Then they considered building their part from a more staccato, “next time!” at the beginning, to a longer, “next t-i-i-i-ime!” in the finale. We did a hell of a lot of takes, but it was worth it! Sometimes you can’t know these things until you’re in it.

Adam "thwacking" with his bundles. "Drumsticks? I don' need no stinkin' drumsticks!"

Jesse thumpin' on the upright. "Amp? I don' need no stinkin' amp!"

Me getting nasty with the slide. "Happy songs? I don' need no stinkin' happy songs!"

Jane happily singing a miserable song while air knitting. "Needles? I don' need no stinkin' needles!"

Tannis singing "next time" a million times while Katherine does her best Joe Cocker impression. "Help from my friends? I don' need no stinkin' help from my friends!"

Next Time

2011-05-25T21:42:00.000-04:00

On Friday, the first song we recorded was “Next Time,” a reflection on my family. The tough gospel/blues arrangement automatically implies a rough, abusive situation, when in fact, our family troubles were more about neglect and serious dysfunction. You don’t have get hit to get hurt. Hmmm—that sounds like another song!

My father was a full-blown narcissist. This disorder has a way of undermining a family without anyone overtly noticing it. The wounding he carried from his family wreaked serious emotional damage on the rest of us.

My Mom was an embattled sweetheart. Her art was my creative inspiration, but she was held down by my father. She was also emotionally fragile and had a breakdown when I was three months old, and had to leave for a period. Abandonment feelings? You bet!

My response to all of this was to be the good boy—the hardworking one who brightened up the family darkness. When I perform or take on projects now, I have to be sure that it’s for me and not for those old reasons. It took a lot of personal work to release that burden.

The phrase, “My mama died too early and my daddy lived too long,” simply appeared to me one day. I knew I had a blues song!

I’m not a Christian, but I often refer to Jesus because that character has such powerful, iconic meaning in our culture. In this song, “Oh Jesus” can be felt as both a curse and a call. I also think it’s amusing that I’m calling on Jesus to have me reincarnated!

The graveyard image is from the burial of my father’s ashes. There were only four of us, like the lines of a song, the corners of a box, the seasons of the year—the Cemetery director, the gravedigger, Jane, and me. I felt I couldn’t just hand over the urn and leave. I had to watch the gravedigger put it in the ground, fill the hole, and pack it down with his boot. It reminded me of Dylan’s “Masters of War” -

And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Then I felt that something had finished. Some chain of pain had been broken for good. But no longer having parents can be a strange mixture of relief, loss, and strange spaciousness.

I’m on an empty road tonight

Next Time

My mama died too early

My daddy lived too long

My mama got some things right

My daddy got ‘em wrong

Oh Jesus, next time make it easy

Give me a cold, cold heart of stone

Or Mama, next time

Don’t you leave me on my own

My mama had her demons

And Daddy made it hell

And none of us escaped it

As far as I can tell

Oh Jesus, next time make it easy

Give me a cold, cold heart of stone

Or Mama, next time

Don’t you leave me on my own

Dig the grave and fill it

Pack the dirt down tight

Lock the gate behind me

I’m on an empty road tonight

Oh Jesus, next time make it easy

Give me a cold, cold heart of stone

Or Mama, next time

Don’t you leave me on my own

The next time - Mama, I need ya to stay

The next time - Daddy, don’t block my way

The next time - Mama, please turn around

The next time - Daddy, don’t drag me down

The next time - Mama, don’t die so soon

The next time - Daddy, don’t be a fool

The next time - Mama, take me by the hand

The next time - Daddy, gotta be a man

The next time

I completed that painting in 1972. My mother loved her cup of tea, and I did this one for her. When she died, I had the pot and cup carved into the gravestone.

Photos from Friday

2011-05-24T20:47:00.001-04:00

I’m crazy busy doing more preproduction recordings for the final songs, so I can’t get to reporting on the last sessions yet. But here are some shots, taken by our good friend, singer, and imminent naturopath, Heather MacRae.

Yummies! Fruit, homemade cookies and brownies, roasted almonds, organic nachos and salsa, cucumber, broccoli, carrots, and celery. Out of the frame: potato-leek soup, homemade bread, and hummous.

Jesse, Jane, and Adam in the Eat & Record Kitchen!

Apparently my chart has blown Adam's mind. The one, white, fingerless glove is not an attempt to mimic Michael Jackson, or Donald Duck—it's to keep my sweaty hands from sticking to the bridge cover of my National. And the bare feet are not an attempt to mimic McCartney on Abbey Road, either.

Katherine in our upstairs hallway vocal "booth." We're running through a part.

Tannis enjoying the scent of Spring microphone. Jane is setting up the video tripod in front of her home office.

Jane with her giant coffee mug—an Iris Dorton creation! No, I'm not looking down a manhole. That's a cool little sound baffle (not yet in proper position), and I'm staring at my tuner. The blinding light is from the Mothership hovering over our front window—they like my slide playing.

Accordion is cool

2011-05-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

In the last sessions, Jane played accordion on two songs. One was “Yes Indeed,” a Zydeco-influenced number where the accordion is featured, and the other was “Walk With Me,” where she played meditative chordal drones.

Nik decided that the kitchen was the best place to do it!

That’s one cute accordion player!

Whew . . .

2011-05-21T21:11:00.000-04:00

Another great recording day—will tell the story tomorrow after I get some sleep.

Here’s another of Jane’s photographic masterpieces. Since bathrooms and showers are good for vocals, apparently they’re also good for amplified slide guitar!

Three more songs down

2011-05-20T23:20:00.002-04:00

Holy Hannah—what a day. A whole lot of great music, great suggestions, great tweaks, and a whole lot of takes! I’m happy, but too tired to post any . . . more . . . now . . .

The day before

2011-05-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

We are ridiculously ready. The house is clean, the food is made, and my office organized the way Nik needs it. Adam dropped by and set up his drums with a different bass head. It has a hole in it for a more focused sound, since the next songs are a bit more dynamic.

Nik spent the day swinging by the homes of all our great musical friends, acquiring necessary gear. He just dropped by and set a bunch of it up.

I ran through the tunes once for good measure, and cleaned my strings. I’ll be using my National Estralita Deluxe resonator for “Next Time,” and "Walk With Me,” my Garrison G20 for “Yes Indeed,” and my Yamaha FG-300 for “Hound Dog.”

In retrospect, I realize that I carried a certain level of nervousness last time that I’m not feeling now. Last time I was facing quite a few unknowns. Now the whole process seems familiar and the nervousness has been replaced by an expectant internal hum. It’s a good feeling.

The day before the day before

2011-05-18T18:26:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow we set up the house for the next round of recording. Nik emailed his schedule and Adam dropped by after a gig with Jesse and confirmed his arrival with drums, percussion items, mics, headphones, and who knows what else!

Jane and her mom Janet were busy preparing food today—potato leek soup, sushi rolls (smoked salmon and veggie), hummous, hardboiled eggs, toasted almonds, fruit and nut mix, biscotti, Jane’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and Janet’s famous ginger snaps. I have been told by the boss (guess who) to keep my hands off!

I feel very settled with the songs and ran through them a few times today—I don’t want to overdo it. My fingers were starting to feel a little worn last night, so I need to take it easy.

We’re ready!

Critical listening, recording, and practice

2011-05-16T22:20:00.000-04:00

There is a level of critical listening that many musicians only “turn on” when they are in the studio control room listening to a playback. They take note of the areas that need improvement, go back in the studio and try again. This is much easier if you’re laying down one track at a time—there isn’t the pressure of making other musicians play their parts again while you get it right.

If you’re recording live off the floor like we’re doing, the ideal is for all players to peak at around the same time, which is more likely if everyone is well rehearsed and can get to that point fairly quickly. For me, that means applying the studio level of critical listening to my personal rehearsals.

I take each song and follow the same pattern: warm up vocally; sing and play to the preproduction track a few times; stop and take note of certain areas that need work; replay the song again with that in mind; record my vocal and guitar on an empty track; listen and assess; replay; repeat.

Today I spent about four to five hours doing this. Recording myself raw was an objective reality check that had a synergistic benefit. I would hear the weaknesses transform, and feel satisfaction that intrinsically moved me to better performance. It was an upward spiral that came from compassionately applying high-level critical listening in advance of the recording. I have the sense that this will allow me to be even more relaxed and open when we roll on Friday.

Practice tracks

2011-05-15T23:56:00.000-04:00

Practicing with a metronome or click is very helpful in laying down a solid groove and getting things tight in the studio. Sometimes playing along with a drum track or loop works even better for many players, as the groove is more natural sounding.

To practice playing guitar with the Zydeco rhythm of “Yes Indeed,” I felt it would be better to play with a drum track, but when I originally created the track for the song, I did it at a tempo slightly slower than we play it at now. To correct that, I made a copy of the Garageband file, removed the guitar and vocal tracks, left the digital drum track, changed the tempo numeric, and the program automatically made the adjustment to the drums. Now I had something I could sing and play to.

Jane also wanted a rhythm track to practice accordion to, but with basic instrumentation and lead vocal. I created an empty digital track for bass and manually created a simple bass line. Then I created another blank track, sat at the computer with my guitar and sang the song. Viola! Jane had a rough track at the right tempo that she could use for her own rehearsal.

Modern technology is not always at odds with traditional roots music!

More practice

2011-05-14T23:11:00.000-04:00

Today I set myself up with my favourite chair, my guitars, a mic, a music stand, lyrics, my laptop, a metronome, and headphones. It was time to do some structured practice for next week’s recording.

I created an environment similar to the one I’ll be in when I’m recording and began to run through the four tunes. I practice with headphones on, listening to either the preproduction recordings or a metronome. When playing with the recordings, I mute the lead vocal and guitar tracks.

I play rhythm differently with or without a drummer. Since I usually play solo, or with Jane on keyboards, I lay down the groove in a very physical, percussive way. With a drummer, however, not only is that unnecessary, it could clutter Adam’s groove. Today I worked at playing without filling that percussive role. It takes some getting used to!

The song that surprised me the most was Next Time, which I though I had mastered. As I played with the metronome, I realized how much I push the time in certain transitions where the energy increases. It was good to practice getting fired up and not speeding up!

More tomorrow.

The garden of music

2011-05-13T17:27:00.000-04:00

The “At Home” recording project is about recognizing that what we have right here is what is. We can allow ourselves to get lost in thoughts of the illusory “out there,” of shoulds and maybes, or we can just be with this moment.

When this perspective is expressed as a perceptual/spiritual view, it could be called Zen, Taoism, or some other mysticism. When it’s expressed as a lifestyle, it’s called living locally. When I express it as an art form, I call it singing at home, and recording “At Home.” These are just different facets of one way of life.

So today, “At Home” was about gardening.

The last few days Jesse and I have been working on our family kitchen garden. Between it and our 2000 sq. ft. community garden at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre, we grow as much of our own food as possible. We’ve been turning the soil, sifting, and adding compost. Yesterday evening Jesse was in his house next door rehearsing with Rich Burnett, and Geordie Gordon while I happily raked away outside. Music and gardening—can’t beat it.

Today I had intended to focus on music because the forecast called for rain. When I saw that the sky was fairly clear this morning, I shifted over to gardening.

I like to grow plants fairly close together in beds with walking paths between, which is more space efficient and creates an environment where my plants ouch each other and crowd out the weeds. So I started shaping the beds in hopes that I could plant the chard, onions, and various lettuce varieties I have growing in trays.

Jesse had his music playing in a constant rotation of great styles: R&B, Funk, Reggae, African, Jazz, Country, Folk, and Classical. Jane had the new Paul Simon CD playing in our house, so as I worked away and went in and out for odds and ends, it was a world of music. Such is our wee home community.

I managed to get all the plants in, and put a row cover over the chard, which saves them from leaf miner moths. In the next couple weeks, I’ll be transplanting kale, and planting peas, carrots, beans, and a variety of greens.

Whew! Time to take a shower and get ready for our singalong gig tonight!

Accordion arrangement

2011-05-13T17:23:00.000-04:00

I intended to post this last night, but the site was down!

On two of the songs to be recorded next week, Jane will be playing accordion. “Yes Indeed,” is a Zydeco-style song in which the accordion is featured, and “Walk With Me,” is a chant-like composition in which the accordion plays drone chords, not unlike a harmonium or a shruti box.

Jane already has parts worked out for our live shows, but I wanted to have another listen to make sure they are the ideal lines for the recorded versions. This evening we got together and focused on that.

Jane pulled out her brand new red pearl, two octave Hohner accordion! We got it on Friday, before the Paul Simon show from Musical Instruments of Canada, an accordion specialty shop on Eglinton. It’s a one-floor walk-up shop run by Rudy De Florio, a real sweetheart of a guy. The walls were covered in vintage photos and the racks were filled with accordions of all sizes and styles. The instruments Jane has at home are older and inconsistent in tone and tuning, so she decided to bite the bullet (what does that mean?) and buy a new one. We are not disappointed.

I opened up the Garageband preproduction recording of “Yes Indeed,” and created a new track for the accordion part. I popped headphones on Jane, set the levels and let her play. Tomorrow I’ll give a critical listen and see if there are any changes I’d like to make.

Then we moved on to “Walk With Me,” and after an initial listen, I asked her to shift her fingering inversion to play lower drones. On the older accordion, this part sounded a bit light and warbly, but on the Hohner, the part was perfect. We tightened up the ending and called it a night. Jesse dropped by and Jane showed him what the 48 side buttons do—they play bass, octave bass, major chords, minor chords, dominant seventh and diminished chords! Realizing that the big accordions have 120 buttons as well as 41 keys, I’m beginning to develop a greater appreciation for the great accordion players—like Walter Ostanek, who is a real character and a St. Catharines native like us.

Vocal rehearsal

2011-05-11T23:04:00.000-04:00

Next Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21, we’ll be recording the next four songs for the album. I prefer that the performers know their parts in advance so that during the sessions, all attention and energy can be devoted to the performance—and having fun. To assist with preparation, I sent out lyrics, charts, preproduction mp3s, and for each singer, special mp3s with their vocal part louder in the mix.

Regardless of all that preparation, I still prefer to have quick rehearsals to listen, solve problems, and get feedback. So today we had a vocal rehearsal with Jane, Tannis Slimmon, and Katherine Wheatley. Laura Bird will be singing on one song, but I saw no need for her to travel from Orangeville just for that. She’ll be more than fine on the day.

After pouring tea and sharing the latest personal and community news, we got to work on the first song, “Next Time.” It’s an acoustic roots-blues rocker with Jane singing on the chorus and Tannis and Katherine joining in on the rave-up ending. We sat in a circle in the empty living room, with my laptop at the ready.

We quickly listened to the parts from the preproduction recording and ran through the ending. Once we were solid, Jane asked if I wanted some ad-libbing, and I agreed we should try it out. After one pass, Katherine noticed inconsistencies and suggested structuring the variations. They analyzed the section and came up with a vocal arrangement that was more interesting that what I had written. That’s why I like to be open to the stellar brains of my colleagues!

We moved on to the Zydeco tune, “Yes Indeed,” that has a continuous call-and-response vocal arrangement. Jane’s accordion is the main instrumental voice on this one, so I’m giving the harmony vocal duties to Laura, Katherine, and Tannis. For this rehearsal, however, Jane filled in Laura’s part.

We went through the same steps as the last song, and when we came to the final double chorus, Katherine “heard” something—that they should all rise up as my lead vocal intensifies. She suggested that they all flip their harmonies up—third to fifth, fifth to upper melody, upper melody to upper third. We tried it and voila—it worked! Thanks, Katherine.

We moved on to “Walk With Me,” where Jane will be laying down an eastern-sounding accordion drone. When we play as a duo, Jane sings with me, but for this arrangement we developed a three-part vocal, with Tannis singing an octave above me with variations, and Katherine singing a fifth with variations. This creates a vocal sound that is intense and mysterious.

The last of the four songs to cover for next week was my rumba blues version of “Hound Dog” that Tannis sings with Jane and I. We quickly decided that we knew it well enough—the job was done!