what is going on in your musical life

Playing music is the light of my life tbh 💕

That's great, I've been on a real journey with my technique this year (right hand, which is my weak hand even though it's my lead hand usually). The good thing is your body will always tell you when something is forced or unsustainable.

What's been really good lately is that I took a small practice pad to the office since wfm is over, a little Evans RealFeel one with much less bounce than my home pad. Because I don't want to annoy anyone too much or be obnoxious, I'm playing verrrrry quietly. And I know if I can get everything feeling relaxed and fast AND very quiet, well, that's that shit.

xp <3

I went to my first ever bluegrass jam yesterday on the UWS in manhattan - it was very sweet, disproportionately over 60 crowd, all levels. Nice bunch of people, much more enjoyable than playing blues rock with neighborhood dads. I'm totally ready at this point in my life for the kind of jams where you just show up with an acoustic instrument and play, no amps, no pedals, no dialing in settings, no feedback or noise issues, no ear pain, no awkwardness over what to play because there's a common repertoire of tunes.

Felt surprisingly comfortable playing breaks - I've been shedding the stuff, and coming from a jazz background helps me pick it up more quickly.

So, I had always wanted to host a house show and I finally said fuck it and did. My backyard has a kind of natural amphitheater overlooking the patio (terraces with retaining walls) and somehow in two weeks I managed to get an incredible bluegrass band to play, got a PA and lighting together and got a ton of people to show up. It was really fun and I want to do it again.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTvkPc_sJWS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Oh man that's great. Outdoor shows are so energizing--have only been to a few this summer, but I played one a few weeks ago and it was astoundingly gratifying and lovely

Holy shazbot...I got a single recorded wit a new group in the Ville. Ole' Earl just needs to finish getting his mix together and get it Mr. Saff to finish it before sending it off into the world, but depending on schedule, probably will be out in October or so.

tryna make a prog house classic. please enjoy my cringe-y spoken-word ramblings, idk if anybody will hear this elsewhere, probably not: https://soundcloud.com/808mixtapes/reiko/s-wfo0zuTcgZU

I enjoyed it! Seemed to be right in the groove.

davey I idk how things work in the proper house world, but that's very well done and def sounds like something that should be getting played out, you should send it around.

I've been sending tracks to one of my fave DJs for awhile now, and finally got one signed! He had really good explicit feedback too, which is so hard to find.

feedback can be super scarce... anyway, thanks, you two! and congrats to you, Jordan, all y'all in the thread who have been finishing work and getting stuff signed ٩( ᐛ )و

I now have about 25 bluegrass fiddle tunes that I can play on guitar, and I'm getting pretty decent at pickin'
https://www.instagram.com/thefriendsofcoal/

Meanwhile, I had an interesting family music discovery, i.e. that the Chicago Museum of History has a whole trove of photographs of my grandmother and her folk duo as well as (!) studio recordings of them. Until a couple weeks ago I had no idea such recordings had been made and had only seen one photo of her duo. More in these posts (the photo in the first link is the only one I had seen before):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUB2gMzs4ca/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUG7W5AsOv7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH9HTvl33f/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

That is some cool.

I'm in touch with people at the museum and it sounds like they will give me a digital copy of the recordings at some point - they are still trying to determine the best way to do it I guess. Will def post when I get them.

I recently found out my great-grandfather was co-composer of the song “Love Sends a Little Gift of Roses,” which I *googles* see had versions by John McCormack, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey & the Andrews Sisters *phew* and many lesser luminaries. It doesn’t appear to have done much for the family coffers, tho, and it certainly isn’t opening any doors for me in the Biz.

I guess I’ll be on the lookout for copies in the 78 bins for curiosity’s sake.

Stoked to hear your grandmother’s recordings! That’s a pretty exciting thing. And with an Ink Spot — man, that’s rubbing elbows with royalty!

I was honored to be asked to contibute vocals to a couple tracks on my good friend's new djent prog/metal album coming out next year. Not my usual style, but we've worked together before (I was in my last band with him).

I'm finding I am hitting more of a wall than ususal. Ive done about 3 completely different takes/melody ideas so far and none of them feel right. I'm not usually this perfectionist but its also been a long time since I last did any vox with real practice.

Is it common to do a load of diff versions before one comes up with one they like? Should I just send all of em to him and let him pick? haha why is this so hard.

Oh also I am learning I have NO IDEA how to mix/produce vocals. Ive just been applying a light EQ with dropped middle freq (read somewhere thats how R Guthrie does Fraser), very light big room reverb and delay, and it is ok but.... a bit too sibilant/trebly esp when listening on worse speakers. Ugh I have no idea what im doing.

Hi Trayce,

Yes, IME it's pretty normal for a lead vocal part to go thru at least a few iterations before a final version is chosen. And that's just part of the writing process, before you're even concerned with particulars of the recording and mixing.

If sibilance is a problem, then you probably need a de-esser in the vocal channel, and perhaps another before the reverb (assuming the reverb is on its own aux channel).

I could go on and on about vocal production, but will instead refer you to the professionals. This is a lot of info but it has served me well:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/how-make-your-vocals-twice-good-part-1
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/how-make-your-vocals-twice-good-part-2
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/how-engineers-get-vocals-sit-right-mix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iUxRE-mdfk

Stoked to hear your grandmother’s recordings! That’s a pretty exciting thing. And with an Ink Spot — man, that’s rubbing elbows with royalty!

― "The Pus/Worm" by The Smiths (hardcore dilettante), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 04:16 (eight hours ago) link

Me too! Although tbc, it would probably be an exaggeration to call George "an Ink Spot." I was told he played guitar with them, not sure if he recorded with them or just performed with them. I haven't found much associating his name with the group. He does have a credit on a Sam Cooke recording though, and on a couple of gospel records.

Thanks for those tips/vids Davey!

We are going into Studio A at Hyde St Studios in a couple weeks for a full week to record a new LP. Taking the week off. Can’t WAIT!

whoa, that sounds exciting! a full week!

of course, days 1-5 of that week will be the excess of the recording musician, the coke binge, sleeping with everyone, the fight over the phone with the suits. but days 6-7, you gotta lock it down

lol yeah more like they are going to spend like 2 days feverishly dialing in a drum sound before I even get to play a note.

my first ever release came out today on Wave Machine's launch compilation.

https://www.beatport.com/release/launch-compilation/3514421

(issa bootleg so get it while it's hot, heh.)

Sounds fucking great! Bought.

thank you!! that's much appreciated :) :)

Congrats! Is this where I admit I've never bought anything off Beatport?

Beatport is my backup when something isn't on Bandcamp

Bandcamp is more my jam, too. i think this release is exclusive on that platform for another week or so, then goes out to a wider distribution

(hurrr, by that platform I mean Beatport)

It was kind of doing my head in to follow up the track I mentioned above, since it fell together really naturally and trying to make similar tracks felt forced. Turns out the label wants to just put it out as a single, which is probably for the best since I'm hitting a wall, but a single feels weird to me, I'd love a b-side at least.

Also they encouraged me to flesh out some of the parts with some harmonies, which I ended up really loving, but they want to go back to the original stripped-down version for the release, lol. This is based on club testing so I trust them, but I'll miss those harmonies.

this is a problem I've run into as well, I made stuff that I really liked, but didn't really know how it all came together. When I've tried to follow a more structured process, it doesn't grab or excite me the same way.

Right? It's mysterious how some ideas/sounds/techniques will provide enough juice for an album, or two tracks, and others are just one-offs. Or none-offs.

But recently I've been talking with writer friends who start to lose it during the editing process because they hate having their words changed or cut down. And I usually say that's the bargain, work with somebody else for their platform, or put it out yourself exactly as you want it for (probably) a much smaller audience. And secretly I almost always thinking the edited version is an improvement, as painful as it is. So, I guess I should listen to my own advice!

I hosted my first bluegrass jam today (open to anyone, all levels) -- got a bunch of people through meetup and through local bluegrass circles. My favorite thing about it was that the people who showed up easily ranged from in their 30s to 70s, and there are very few intergenerational activities in modern america.

Very cool, man alive.

Yeah, that’s rad.

Meanwhile, I had an interesting family music discovery, i.e. that the Chicago Museum of History has a whole trove of photographs of my grandmother and her folk duo as well as (!) studio recordings of them. Until a couple weeks ago I had no idea such recordings had been made and had only seen one photo of her duo. More in these posts (the photo in the first link is the only one I had seen before):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUB2gMzs4ca/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUG7W5AsOv7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH9HTvl33f/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, September 28, 2021 11:22 AM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Update, I got access to the recordings!!!

A little preview here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVPOE5TjjVY/

More, please.

That’s very rad. Would fit right into the Folkways catalogue.

Love it! Amazing.

Xp I actually have this pipe dream of having it released along with some of the awesome photographs. Not really sure where to start on making that happen.

How many songs are there?

It's a little bit tricky to sort out - the files I got are a handful of varying lengths, each with multiple songs, some seem to repeat and I haven't figured out whether there are multiple takes of the same song or it's just they spliced the same tracks together differently on different tapes (just haven't had time to sit down and figure it out). I think there are at least 9-10 different songs. It sounds like they were planning to release it and I don't know why they never did -- included in the files is a clip from a radio show that their "manager" (also the photographer) DJ'd and in it he says something about how he's going to play a "pre-release tape" of the duo.

Album-length is easier than if it were just a couple of songs, for sure. Rare/unearthed stuff always has some cachet. I would think there’d be labels interested, especially as the music could be accompanied by photos & some good liner notes. The folk revival isn’t exactly the sexiest thing going at the moment, but it’s not the least sexy either.

What you’d want to do is gather the available documentation, then put together a short pitch plus a somewhat longer, more detailed proposal for if the pitch sparks interest.

As well, you’ll want to research which labels might be interested, and rank them by the criteria that matter to you — might be prestige, quality of product & attention to detail, distribution reach, whether they seem like decent folk, or any number of other qualities. Then start door knocking starting with your top choice and working towards the bottom. Many labels have submission guidelines posted on their website — read and obey! If they don’t, you can ask through their general contact. Many probably won’t accept unsolicited submissions, but you might have luck squeaking through anyway if you ask some genuine questions about how to get a proposal considered & have good reasons why the label would be interested (i.e. why the project is a good fit for the label instead of why the label is a good fit for the project). Some will just have a closed-door policy unless you’re going through an agent, although this is less likely to be an issue with reissue/archivally focused labels than with those focusing on active artists.

Honestly, Smithsonian Folkways might be a great fit for this. Their prestige and their commitment to perpetual access to the catalogue make them a very appealing choice by my lights, although the bar to entry might be high. (If you’re considering approaching them, lmk and I’ll see if I can get you a name or 2 on the inside; I know some folks who’re involved with them.) Asch was right there from the beginning to the end of this era & released tons of similar stuff, so it seems to me that this project would only enrich one of the core collections in their catalogue.

As a last resort, you could release it yourself, either physically or just digitally on bandcamp or even SoundCloud, although that’d be a labour of love.

Awesome, that's great advice. I also think Folkways would be the best fit out of the labels I know, especially because it has a historical and civil rights angle (politically conscious integrated duo that sang at MLK rallies and such) and also I think the sound fits and I think they would do it justice with a nice release that includes good prints of the photos and some good liner notes. And I don't know that it quite has the "cool factor" that some reissue labels might want (as you say, folk revival isn't the sexiest thing).

I would happily also release it myself through a kickstarter/bandcamp, I just don't have the time to put in. I don't ever expect this to make any money, but I feel like a decent label could give this the release it deserves.

you might want to look into Dust to Digital too if folkways isn't responsive
not only do they have an awesome instagram account, their thing is releasing old recordings and they make beautiful packages
https://dust-digital.com/

That’s a good idea. Thanks.

man alive, have you thought of adding your voice/playing into the mix with those pieces? Seems like an interesting approach to have a multi-generational recording, maybe their work by itself and a bonus EP of you as a quartet.

also would provide a narrative hook for press and attention that might help get it sold.

(please send me 1% of your royalties when you do this)

I sang a concert with live in-person choruses for the first time this weekend since 2019. Last night was a concert with a group called Musica Sacra where we did the Durufle Requiem, tonight was with my church gig where we did a piece commissioned for our music director’s 20th anniversary. I am exhausted but also super happy; I really, really missed this.

That's awesome! It's hard to go without singing in public for that long, glad you got to do it again