"GraphJam"

Failblog, that I mentionned a couple of posts ago, has a number of 'sister sites', which recently I've been amusing myself by checking. I especially like a site called GraphJam, most of them on there are really well done. I saw this chart on it today and I think it's genius (other than their slight spelling mistake)...so true, lol...do go check out some of the others on the site...

Sailor Girl

For those of you who still read this, I just wanted to let you know that our latest recording "Sailor Girl" has now gone up on our myspace. Do have a listen and let us know what you think. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I do ! I've been very impatient over the last couple of days to hear how the final mix sounded, but I think it was worth the wait :-)

I love this song. In folk music there are lots of 'broken token' songs, where the song is about a girl sitting on the shore whose husband/boyfriend/lover has gone off to the sea/join the navy etc. So, with the navy now striving for equality, Glyn thought he'd write an equivalent song from a man's point of view, where a wife/girlfriend/lover had gone off to the sea. However this song, unlike many traditional broken token songs, does have a happy ending.

The song itself has evolved so much since Glyn and I first played it together. This particular version came together a couple of weekends ago, and now somehow I've ended up singing lead vocals (!) It does feel strange hearing myself sing lead for one of Glyn's songs, but on the other hand, it does allow him freedom to do some of the harmonies he's so good at doing !

So yes, anyway, I hope you enjoy ! A redone version of Lonely Mountain will also be appearing at some point, and then we have to wait for the next chance we get to do some more recording. I think "Your Father's Son" is next on the list for recording properly, but then that could easily change before the next session. We just have too many songs we want to record ! :-)

Happy Easter !

Music recording

As those of you who have been following my recent frequent changes of facebook status know, we (i.e. The Waterfront Project) are continuing to record tracks for the album and this week has been no exception. This past weekend we had an epic weekend of jamming, rehearsing, going to a session, and some recording. Then later in the week we had an intense evening of recording (probably the latest we've stayed up playing music as yet since the start of The Waterfront Project !)

Music recording can be soooo frustrating though ! I'm not done a lot of multi-track recording before, and as a consequence I underestimate the amount of time it takes to do things and the number of takes you have to do to record each part ! It's so different recording each part separately as opposed to playing live - I'm used to singing and playing guitar together, not having to concentrate on each one separately ! One feels there is an added level of pressure too, when you know you're playing/singing into a microphone and being recorded ! (Or at least, so i feel anyway). It takes so many takes to get each part right - as a musician, you know exactly how you want each part to go, yet so often you can have a take that is perfect apart from a couple of notes (meaning you have to rerecord, whereupon usually you get those notes correct this time, but some other ones seem to go wrong somehow!) Still, having said all of that, I think we got some good work done this week. Glyn is always very patient with me and is very good at trying to get me more relaxed and encouraging me that I can actually do it ! :-) It is fun too of course, as I love playing this music. And despite all the hard work, I feel very priviliged still to be involved, and wouldn't want to have it any other way. So yes, keep watching this space...

Extreme Shepherding

I think this is genius:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090408/video/vod-extreme-shepherding-become-you-tube-f1a0497.html

"Extreme shepherding has become a huge hit on You Tube as Welsh farmers find a new way of keeping themselves amused."