Instrumental Song "The Way Home"

Some years ago I was just recording some ideas I had in my studio. I did some overdubs and left them as is for some future projects. This is actually nothing new. I still do this nowadays whenever I have ideas for new music. Well, I revisited that piece of music that originally was only acoustic guitar and electric guitar with lots of reverb. It just was just less than a minute long. But I added hi-hat, bass, piano and some percussion to it recently and I extended the song so it clocks in at just over 2 minutes. It's an instrumental and I titled it, "The Way Home." I don't know but this song has always had an on-the-road feel to it for me. And kind of a late 1970's soft rock sound to it. Perhaps even a TV theme song potential going on there. What do you think? Here is an abbreviated version I uploaded to YouTube. I had to edit it to fit the video:





Here is the unedited version that I uploaded to soundcloud:



I like how it turned out. I am considering putting it on the final draft of the album. Or I may just save it for my instrumentals album. Whatever the case I want to make it an official release.

I decided to work on this song even though I was not fully finished with "If I Told You." I just needed to take a break from that song as I was having difficulty with a small vocal part that I have now thankfully completed. The only thing remaining is the drum track. I may wait till I have another song ready for drums before I add them to this song. It's just way too much effort to set the drums and mics up for less than 2 minutes of playing time. At this point I will either continue working on that 10 minute song I started recording last year that is still without complete lyrics or I will move on to something else brand new. Stay tuned!

New Song Finally Finished! (Almost)

Started recording "Call On Me" back in December of 2012. I'm finally at the point (I believe so anyway) that I just have to mix and master the song now. I am considering re-recording a couple of guitar parts that feature the Leslie speaker sound. I'm not 100% sure if I will but it's pretty minor stuff regardless. So here is the mix/master I came up with as of last night:





I'm actually pretty happy with the sound. Everything can be clearly heard. Drums sound pretty good. I am however planning to move the background vocals during the choruses to either side instead of in the middle as they are in this version. And I may give the electric bass a little boost in volume.

For anyone who may be interested, I played an Epiphone Les Paul for all the electric guitar parts through a Fender Super Sonic stack, a Fender J-bass and a Yamaha S90 for the Rhodes sound.

My inspiration for this song was actually The Bee Gees. I was going through a time where I was listening to their early songs and checking out all their late 60's and early 70's videos on YouTube. I was just messing around on guitar and trying to come up with a melody over the guitar chords and some of the words just started flowing out. After I had the main theme of the song I started writing the lyrics to match. And then I spent way too long on recording it. Truth is I abandoned it for a long, long time and didn't finish it up. I had spent a lot of time on (Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind and you might say I was creatively exhausted. Excuses, excuses. I pretty much blew off 2013 but in all honesty I did some a pretty good reason. As I look through my recording log book--which I'm not very consistent with keeping up to date--I see that all of 2013 is blank except for nearly the very last month, which is when I managed to cut those 2 Christmas recordings. So it wasn't a complete waste. Pending all things possible, I promise myself to make 2014 a much more productive year. I Already have this song done. "Already". LOL. Album will be on the way as soon as I finish up recording one last song and go back and remix some of the others.

But for now I want to enjoy all the work I put into "Call On Me." If anyone should happen to give it a listen (Bootsy) I hope it sounds like music to your ears. I'll be back in the studio tonight tweaking and making adjustments.

Stormy by Dennis Yost & the Classics IV Guitar Chords

One of my all-time favorite songs by one of my all-time favorite artists is "Stormy" by Dennis Yost and the Classics IV. It's one of those songs I can just put on repeat and play all day long and never get tired of. Back in the days when you could find just about any guitar or bass tab you needed on HarmonyCentral.com I found the tab for this song and learned how to play it. Don't know if the tab is out there somewhere floating around on the web still so I am providing it here.

First here is the video from YouTube of me playing the song on guitar:


And here is the tab of the chords played above:


   Intro                               Am9              GM7              
E  :7---------------|---------------- 1|7---------------|----------------|
B  :5---------------|3--------------- ||5---------------|3---------------|
G  :5---------------|4---------------*||5---------------|4---------------|
D  :5---------------|4---------------*||5---------------|4---------------|
A  :7---------------|---------------- ||7---------------|----------------|
E  :5---------------|3--------------- ||5---------------|3---------------|

   Am9              GM7              Am9              GM7              
E  :7---------------|----------------|7---------------|----------------|
B  :5---------------|3---------------|5---------------|3---------------|
G  :5---------------|4---------------|5---------------|4---------------|
D  :5---------------|4---------------|5---------------|4---------------|
A  :7---------------|----------------|7---------------|----------------|
E  :5---------------|3---------------|5---------------|3---------------|

   CM7                               Am9              GM7              
E  :3---3---3-3-----|3-3---3---------|7---------------|----------------|
B  :5---5---5-5-----|5-5---5---------|5---------------|3---------------|
G  :4---4---4-4-----|4-4---4---------|5---------------|4---------------|
D  :5---5---5-5-----|5-5---5---------|5---------------|4---------------|
A  :3---3---3-3-----|3-3---3---------|7---------------|----------------|
E  :----------------|----------------|5---------------|3---------------|

   Am9              GM7              Am9              GM7              
E  :7---------------|----------------|7---------------|----------------|
B  :5---------------|3---------------|5---------------|3---------------|
G  :5---------------|4---------------|5---------------|4---------------|
D  :5---------------|4---------------|5---------------|4---------------|
A  :7---------------|----------------|7---------------|----------------|
E  :5---------------|3---------------|5---------------|3---------------|

   CM7                               Bm7              B7               
E  :3---3---3-3-----|3-3---3---------|2---2---2-2-----|2---2-----------|
B  :5---5---5-5-----|5-5---5---------|3---3---3-3-----|4---4-----------|
G  :4---4---4-4-----|4-4---4---------|2---2---2-2-----|2---2-----------|
D  :5---5---5-5-----|5-5---5---------|4---4---4-4-----|4---4-----------|
A  :3---3---3-3-----|3-3---3---------|2---2---2-2-----|2---2-----------|
E  :----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

   Em9              A13              Em9              A13              
E  :7---7---7-7-----|----------------|7---7---7-7-----|----------------|
B  :7---7---7-7---6-|7-7---7---------|7---7---7-7---6-|7-7---7---------|
G  :7---7---7-7---5-|6-6---6---------|7---7---7-7---5-|6-6---6---------|
D  :5---5---5-5---4-|5-5---5---------|5---5---5-5---4-|5-5---5---------|
A  :7---7---7-7-----|----------------|7---7---7-7-----|----------------|
E  :0---0---0-0---4-|5-5---5---------|0---0---0-0---4-|5-5---5---------|

       C6           Bm7              Em9              A13              
E  :----------------|7-7---7---------|7---7---7-7-----|----------------|
B  :----8---8-8-----|7-7---7---------|7---7---7-7---6-|7-7---7---------|
G  :----9---9-9-----|7-7---7---------|7---7---7-7---5-|6-6---6---------|
D  :----7---7-7-----|7-7---7---------|5---5---5-5---4-|5-5---5---------|
A  :----------------|9-9---9---------|7---7---7-7-----|----------------|
E  :----8---8-8-----|7-7---7---------|0---0---0-0---4-|5-5---5---------|

   Em9              A13                             
E  :7---7---7-7-----|----------------|
B  :7---7---7-7---6-|7-7---7---------|
G  :7---7---7-7---5-|6-6---6---------|
D  :5---5---5-5---4-|5-5---5---------|
A  :7---7---7-7-----|----------------|
E  :0---0---0-0---4-|5-5---5---------|

Going from the Em9 to the A13 I do a little bit of a slide up but I didn't include the slide up symbol. In other words I slide up from 4456 (Ab13) to 5567 (A13). Hopefully that makes sense. Also of note is that I played the little bass line runs between the GMajor7 and Aminor9 on the video but they are not included on the tab. Finally, the rhythm with which I played the chords during the verse is not tabbed out either because I just added a bit of my own flair to it. It's not what they play on the recording, just something I threw in there. 

New Song - If I Told You

Here is another video of me performing a new song I'm working on. Just another 1 minute or so clip:

I'm pretty excited about this song and the other one I posted a few days ago. I just have to finish writing them and then come up with arrangements for them. Both this song and the other one, "Call On Me," were inspired by early Bee Gee's music. These 2 songs just came to me as I was working on recording another song right around the time Robin Gibb was deathly ill. I had originally envisioned both this song and 'Call On Me' to be sung in my Robin Gibb-imitation voice even though I did not sing that way in the videos. I have not yet decided what tone I will use for the actual recording but that is still a long ways from now.

It is already mid-October and I absolutely need to finish the current project I'm working and get at least 1 more song recorded before the year is up. And that would make 4 songs I complete this year. But first I have to make a final mix & master of the song I've been working on for months now, "(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind." I should be working on that right now. Off I go....

New Song - Call On Me

Here is a song that I've been working on. It's heavily influenced by the Bee Gees sound and I was particularly inspired by their song "Run To Me." I was just messing around with my camera so I decided to do a live pseudo-performance and uploaded it to YouTube.

It was an impromptu 'live' version so I didn't even sing all the right lyrics. And when I have the actual recorded version complete it will feature a full band arrangement.