Post by michael on Oct 29, 2005 15:30:26 GMT -5
This is the third installment of background stories concerning my songs from "Surface Tension" . I have a long-standing promise to friends and fans to share these details. With this forum I can make it happen.
Please note that these details are mostly pulled from the diary I kept during those days. Here, I will include some details about the recording process, participating musicians, guitar gear used and word for word excerpts from my diary. At the bottom of these pages will be pertinent links.
I will post the diary in it's entirety sometime in the future.
The Willow
Traditional, arranged by Michael Earhart
Origin of the tune:
“The Willow” is loosely based on a traditional Celtic tune entitled “The Willow Tree”. I first heard this song on a $2 CD of Celtic tunes, performed on harp. I love finding odd, inexpensive CDs.
I was really taken with the melody and learning it was no big deal, but finding an interesting way of playing it on guitar was difficult. I managed to find the lyrics on the Internet once, but I can't seem to locate that website now. The lyrics are as mournful as the tune is. No one pulls on the heartstrings like the Irish.
In the studio:
We used up every single available track on the console with this one! About 6 tracks were used for guitars alone. Brandon and Alan were brought in again for this tune, with Brandon going first. He brought in every odd hand drum and strange percussion instrument he owned for this tune, plus he used the studio drum kit. The strange grinding sound at the beginning and end of the tune sounds like an ox-cart pulled across an uneven road. In actuality it’s Brandon with a large Styrofoam cup of iced tea, being stirred with a drumstick. We had paused for some refreshment and were listening to the playback on the monitors while he stirred sugar into his tea. We both looked up at the same time and came to the same conclusion that it sounded really neat! We quickly set up a microphone in the studio and captured his “performance”. I have vivid memories of Brandon trying not to laugh out loud while tape was rolling. Brandon Bumpas on iced tea, give him a hand ladies and gentlemen!
Alan’s chore on this tune was to play keyboards. He did a fine job with the piano parts, the synth pads and the church bells.
The real key to this song working for me is Eleanor Bissell, my vocalist. My only instruction to her was to improvise her part. When she arrived at the studio we cued up and rolled tape. Then we backed up and did it again, keeping her previous performance on a separate track. And then again. And so forth. I had her do 5 different takes, with the idea that Nick and I would piece together a single performance from the 5 she gave us. On a whim, I asked Nick to play all of the parts at the same time. Suddenly the studio was filled with sound of angels crying. It was so beautiful. Without singing a word, she imparted a sense of great heartbreak and sadness, which was what I was looking for. So instead of just one performance we kept all 5, washing them in reverb.
On a side note, my original intent was to have a female vocalist and a male vocalist, with neither person hearing the other’s ideas. Since the song is about two lovers separated by death I didn’t want a typical call-and-response thing, but rather two souls in pain at the same time.
My male vocalist was Neil Schnell, and he was eager to participate. It was a great idea, if I do say so myself, but it never happened. We ran out of available track space for this tune.
Guitar talk:
All acoustic guitars are the 414CE, tuned Db-Ab-Db-Gb-Ab-Eb, low to high. The Ebow on the intro to the tune was performed on my Parker Fly Deluxe directly into the mixing console.
August 13, 2001:
Today I recorded ‘The Willow Tree’ basic tracks. We cut the session short at 4 hours 15 minutes, and it took all of that to get my parts down for the tune.
It was slow going (again), mostly because it was just yesterday (Sunday) that I figured out how to play the darn thing. I had been looking for a proper tuning on the guitar to achieve the Celtic harp-like drones I heard in the song, and I finally settled on DADGAE, and then spent the rest of that day finding the easiest fingerings that sounded best.
Once in the studio I had the basic arrangement down minus the middle section that deviates from the melody line. That came together after lunch, mostly on the spot. Again, the Taylor is featured prominently throughout this song, but I also pulled out the Parker Fly for the Ebow at the intro of the song. Piecing this song together took about 11 of the 24 tracks!
There are lots of empty spaces throughout this recording to allow for percussion fills, and I’m taking a copy of this, with click, to Brandon tonight at his gig. He was not able to make it today, so we are shooting for Wednesday. I’m going to get Alan to listen to this, because I’d like him to play keys on it. There is also a place (in the middle) that I hear for a solo female vocal line, just oohs and ahhs mostly, so I need to either find a singer or a synthesizer with a vocalizer, like the Roland M-30 I have at the shop.
I’m very pleased with the outcome of this song. Anthony said it is definitely pretty, but so sad! He’s right about it. I think it just might turn out to be the best track on the CD…
August 14, 2001:
I spoke to Eleanor, my sister-in-law about the vocal line of ‘Willow Tree’, and she is going to attempt it. Alan is still going to play keys on the tune.
I took the CD copy of ‘Willow Tree’ to Brandon tonight. He and Velvet Love Box are playing at Birraporettis.
August 19, 2001:
Today is Sunday, and Kay and I went to visit Eleanor about the vocal I need on ‘Willow Tree’. We listened to the piece together and discussed how we might introduce the part in the song.
August 22, 2001:
Eleanor arrived on time, but I was 5 minutes late. We set her up in the vocal room, and rolled ‘Willow Tree’. We did 5 takes in all, keeping each one. Each individual performance was pretty good, just a little polish needed. But when we combined all 5 tracks at the same time, wow! I got chills listening to it.
August 25, 2001:
Fishman came through. My new pickup arrived this morning, and the installation went pretty smooth. I spent some time this afternoon going over Alan’s ‘Willow’ keyboard part with him.
September 10, 2001:
We spent the first 1 and ½ hours moving tracks around on ‘Fire Ant’ and ‘Willow’, because Brandon isn’t finished adding percussion, and I need more vocal tracks for Neil.
We moved all of Eleanor’s vocals to two-track stereo, after touching up a few notes with the Eventide. We did the same for Alan’s keys on ‘Willow’, and Nick made CD copies for me of both performances only, no other instruments. I need to see about sequencing Eleanor’s lines for live performance. That would be cool! If I can find a sequencer with a footswitch play/stop feature I’m there.
We then laid down basic keeper tracks for ‘Resurface’, and I had my first ‘first takes’, which really boosted my confidence. I’m pleased overall with my performance, though I can hear where the song needs some modifications. It shouldn’t prove to be too difficult.
We worked right up to 7:00 p.m. and a little after, too with a food break at 4:00.
September 13, 2001:
I played the keyboard only track from ‘Willow’ for Alan and he pointed out a bad edit on the track. If we can’t repair it we’ll have to re-record it.
October 1, 2001:
Kay’s birthday!
I finally put the finishing guitar touches on ‘Resurface’. Yay! I also managed to get the erased rhythm guitar on ‘Fire Ant’ re-recorded. Yay! Brandon arrived today at 3:30, with his brand new djembe and triangle (he just bought them), as well as his udu, congas and assorted shakers and things. He added triangle and vibra slap to ‘Fire Ant’ and it is now officially finished! Yeeha!
Next up on the percussion session was ‘Willow Tree’. While Brandon was unloading and setting up his gear in the studio I had Nick play back the ‘Willow’ tape, while I went across the street to J. Gilligan’s to get soft drinks for everyone.
So, we’re all in the control room listening, and Brandon is stirring a huge amount of sugar into his iced tea, ok? We are discussing possible percussion sounds for the song at this point when it occurs to both Brandon and myself that the sound of the ice in the Styrofoam cup sounds pretty awesome. So, we put him in front of a microphone in the room and put the sound on the song. We could not find a larger straw so Brandon used one of his drumsticks! At one point I look up into the room and Brandon is shaking with laughter. But we got it, and it sounds so cool.
He also added shakers, udu and the djembe to the tune, and when it came time for the drum kit to enter into the picture Brandon draped a metal chain across the 21” cymbal, to create some really nice sounding sustain. All in all, it was a lot of fun today. Most of the time it’s hard work.
October 29, 2001:
Brandon arrived at 3:30, and we started tracking at 4:00, changing some of the percussion on ‘Willow Tree’, namely the snare drum cadence at the end of the tune. I asked Brandon to try locking in on the acoustic guitar dynamics, and he did a great job. I also asked him to add cymbal swells at two places, which turned out nice.
To purchase "Surface Tension" (featuring "The Willow"): www.cdbaby.com/cd/earhart
To discover the E-Bow: www.ebow.com/ebow/flash/index.htm
Parker Guitars: www.parkerguitars.com/
Taylor Guitars: www.taylorguitars.com/
Whats an udu?: www.udu.com/
Whats a djembe?: www.rhythmweb.com/djembe/
Please note that these details are mostly pulled from the diary I kept during those days. Here, I will include some details about the recording process, participating musicians, guitar gear used and word for word excerpts from my diary. At the bottom of these pages will be pertinent links.
I will post the diary in it's entirety sometime in the future.
The Willow
The Willow
Traditional, arranged by Michael Earhart
Origin of the tune:
“The Willow” is loosely based on a traditional Celtic tune entitled “The Willow Tree”. I first heard this song on a $2 CD of Celtic tunes, performed on harp. I love finding odd, inexpensive CDs.
I was really taken with the melody and learning it was no big deal, but finding an interesting way of playing it on guitar was difficult. I managed to find the lyrics on the Internet once, but I can't seem to locate that website now. The lyrics are as mournful as the tune is. No one pulls on the heartstrings like the Irish.
In the studio:
We used up every single available track on the console with this one! About 6 tracks were used for guitars alone. Brandon and Alan were brought in again for this tune, with Brandon going first. He brought in every odd hand drum and strange percussion instrument he owned for this tune, plus he used the studio drum kit. The strange grinding sound at the beginning and end of the tune sounds like an ox-cart pulled across an uneven road. In actuality it’s Brandon with a large Styrofoam cup of iced tea, being stirred with a drumstick. We had paused for some refreshment and were listening to the playback on the monitors while he stirred sugar into his tea. We both looked up at the same time and came to the same conclusion that it sounded really neat! We quickly set up a microphone in the studio and captured his “performance”. I have vivid memories of Brandon trying not to laugh out loud while tape was rolling. Brandon Bumpas on iced tea, give him a hand ladies and gentlemen!
Alan’s chore on this tune was to play keyboards. He did a fine job with the piano parts, the synth pads and the church bells.
The real key to this song working for me is Eleanor Bissell, my vocalist. My only instruction to her was to improvise her part. When she arrived at the studio we cued up and rolled tape. Then we backed up and did it again, keeping her previous performance on a separate track. And then again. And so forth. I had her do 5 different takes, with the idea that Nick and I would piece together a single performance from the 5 she gave us. On a whim, I asked Nick to play all of the parts at the same time. Suddenly the studio was filled with sound of angels crying. It was so beautiful. Without singing a word, she imparted a sense of great heartbreak and sadness, which was what I was looking for. So instead of just one performance we kept all 5, washing them in reverb.
On a side note, my original intent was to have a female vocalist and a male vocalist, with neither person hearing the other’s ideas. Since the song is about two lovers separated by death I didn’t want a typical call-and-response thing, but rather two souls in pain at the same time.
My male vocalist was Neil Schnell, and he was eager to participate. It was a great idea, if I do say so myself, but it never happened. We ran out of available track space for this tune.
Guitar talk:
All acoustic guitars are the 414CE, tuned Db-Ab-Db-Gb-Ab-Eb, low to high. The Ebow on the intro to the tune was performed on my Parker Fly Deluxe directly into the mixing console.
Diary Exerpt:
August 13, 2001:
Today I recorded ‘The Willow Tree’ basic tracks. We cut the session short at 4 hours 15 minutes, and it took all of that to get my parts down for the tune.
It was slow going (again), mostly because it was just yesterday (Sunday) that I figured out how to play the darn thing. I had been looking for a proper tuning on the guitar to achieve the Celtic harp-like drones I heard in the song, and I finally settled on DADGAE, and then spent the rest of that day finding the easiest fingerings that sounded best.
Once in the studio I had the basic arrangement down minus the middle section that deviates from the melody line. That came together after lunch, mostly on the spot. Again, the Taylor is featured prominently throughout this song, but I also pulled out the Parker Fly for the Ebow at the intro of the song. Piecing this song together took about 11 of the 24 tracks!
There are lots of empty spaces throughout this recording to allow for percussion fills, and I’m taking a copy of this, with click, to Brandon tonight at his gig. He was not able to make it today, so we are shooting for Wednesday. I’m going to get Alan to listen to this, because I’d like him to play keys on it. There is also a place (in the middle) that I hear for a solo female vocal line, just oohs and ahhs mostly, so I need to either find a singer or a synthesizer with a vocalizer, like the Roland M-30 I have at the shop.
I’m very pleased with the outcome of this song. Anthony said it is definitely pretty, but so sad! He’s right about it. I think it just might turn out to be the best track on the CD…
August 14, 2001:
I spoke to Eleanor, my sister-in-law about the vocal line of ‘Willow Tree’, and she is going to attempt it. Alan is still going to play keys on the tune.
I took the CD copy of ‘Willow Tree’ to Brandon tonight. He and Velvet Love Box are playing at Birraporettis.
August 19, 2001:
Today is Sunday, and Kay and I went to visit Eleanor about the vocal I need on ‘Willow Tree’. We listened to the piece together and discussed how we might introduce the part in the song.
August 22, 2001:
Eleanor arrived on time, but I was 5 minutes late. We set her up in the vocal room, and rolled ‘Willow Tree’. We did 5 takes in all, keeping each one. Each individual performance was pretty good, just a little polish needed. But when we combined all 5 tracks at the same time, wow! I got chills listening to it.
August 25, 2001:
Fishman came through. My new pickup arrived this morning, and the installation went pretty smooth. I spent some time this afternoon going over Alan’s ‘Willow’ keyboard part with him.
September 10, 2001:
We spent the first 1 and ½ hours moving tracks around on ‘Fire Ant’ and ‘Willow’, because Brandon isn’t finished adding percussion, and I need more vocal tracks for Neil.
We moved all of Eleanor’s vocals to two-track stereo, after touching up a few notes with the Eventide. We did the same for Alan’s keys on ‘Willow’, and Nick made CD copies for me of both performances only, no other instruments. I need to see about sequencing Eleanor’s lines for live performance. That would be cool! If I can find a sequencer with a footswitch play/stop feature I’m there.
We then laid down basic keeper tracks for ‘Resurface’, and I had my first ‘first takes’, which really boosted my confidence. I’m pleased overall with my performance, though I can hear where the song needs some modifications. It shouldn’t prove to be too difficult.
We worked right up to 7:00 p.m. and a little after, too with a food break at 4:00.
September 13, 2001:
I played the keyboard only track from ‘Willow’ for Alan and he pointed out a bad edit on the track. If we can’t repair it we’ll have to re-record it.
October 1, 2001:
Kay’s birthday!
I finally put the finishing guitar touches on ‘Resurface’. Yay! I also managed to get the erased rhythm guitar on ‘Fire Ant’ re-recorded. Yay! Brandon arrived today at 3:30, with his brand new djembe and triangle (he just bought them), as well as his udu, congas and assorted shakers and things. He added triangle and vibra slap to ‘Fire Ant’ and it is now officially finished! Yeeha!
Next up on the percussion session was ‘Willow Tree’. While Brandon was unloading and setting up his gear in the studio I had Nick play back the ‘Willow’ tape, while I went across the street to J. Gilligan’s to get soft drinks for everyone.
So, we’re all in the control room listening, and Brandon is stirring a huge amount of sugar into his iced tea, ok? We are discussing possible percussion sounds for the song at this point when it occurs to both Brandon and myself that the sound of the ice in the Styrofoam cup sounds pretty awesome. So, we put him in front of a microphone in the room and put the sound on the song. We could not find a larger straw so Brandon used one of his drumsticks! At one point I look up into the room and Brandon is shaking with laughter. But we got it, and it sounds so cool.
He also added shakers, udu and the djembe to the tune, and when it came time for the drum kit to enter into the picture Brandon draped a metal chain across the 21” cymbal, to create some really nice sounding sustain. All in all, it was a lot of fun today. Most of the time it’s hard work.
October 29, 2001:
Brandon arrived at 3:30, and we started tracking at 4:00, changing some of the percussion on ‘Willow Tree’, namely the snare drum cadence at the end of the tune. I asked Brandon to try locking in on the acoustic guitar dynamics, and he did a great job. I also asked him to add cymbal swells at two places, which turned out nice.
To be continued...
To purchase "Surface Tension" (featuring "The Willow"): www.cdbaby.com/cd/earhart
To discover the E-Bow: www.ebow.com/ebow/flash/index.htm
Parker Guitars: www.parkerguitars.com/
Taylor Guitars: www.taylorguitars.com/
Whats an udu?: www.udu.com/
Whats a djembe?: www.rhythmweb.com/djembe/
