The Christmas Songs

OK, definitely waited too long to do this. Should have started back in October. I guess that's why some recording artists start making their Christmas albums in the summertime. But then again, they have the best of everything--the best equipment, the best singers, the best musicians, etc. They could roll out a full length album in a week start to end. I'm doing everything by myself with my limited skills and gear (and I'm very grateful for what skills and gear I do have). And the idea to do this didn't come to me until Thanksgiving which was rather late on the calendar this year.

Anyway, I tried recording the drum tracks for both "Silent Night" and "It's Christmas" last night and they just came out horrible sounding! I don't know what happened from the time I recorded drums for "Blow Your Mind" and "Call On Me" to now. I was very disappointed and don't have much time left to work on this before I send the songs off to "The Basement Tapes" show with Nick and Bootsy for their Christmas show tomorrow (Sunday) evening.

The drum track for Silent Night came out a lot worse sounding than the one for It's Christmas. I went back and listened to the drums on It's Christmas and I was able to tweak it to where it sounds okay. Plus I'm considering adding hand-clapping in rhythm to the song in order to give it somewhat of a live feel and cover up the weak drum sound. Also planning to add a few other sounds on top of the 6 and 12 string acoustics, upright bass and vocal that are already there. Maybe some harmony vocals here and there. I'm actually really excited about this song and the way it's turning out. I wrote it pretty quick and the arrangement is just kind of falling into place.

As I mentioned, I may have to settle for my Yamaha S90 keyboard drum sounds for the drum track to Silent Night. I tried tweaking the drum track that I did record for it but I made adjustments to the snare drum at the time and it just turned out worse. There is no hope for this track. If I had all day today to work on it I would try again. But my time is limited and I'm going to devote most of it to finishing up my very own "It's Christmas." Once both songs are done I will have them here. Off I go....