So, I have been working on another song that I started to lay down some tracks for.  I have to give my brother some credit for this one as he is the one who introduced me to the original Woody Guthrie tune and a recent cover by Billy Bragg and Wilco.  I like folk music, it is always fun to play.  I wish I had the chance to play this song over the summer with my brother, but he never made it up to camp.  He wanted to play it too, so maybe sometime in the future.

The song is “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key” and it is a great, simple folk melody.  Here is my current recording, hopefully if time permits I will be able to add a little more depth to it.  Right now all the tracks are me, I played guitar and did all the vocal tracks.  nothing fancy, just some help from Garage Band.  So, let me know what you think, I am always open to comments and criticism.

Yep, there were a million things that I could have been doing yesterday and I didn’t really do any of them.  Well, that is probably not true, but I could certainly have been more productive.  I did meet the new neighbors, well one of them anyway.  I don’t remember her name (not that I would post it), but I believe that she is a student at one of the schools here in Salt Lake, and she is either married or is living with her boyfriend.  To me, she seemed young to be married, but this is Utah after all.

What I really did yesterday was fiddle around with making a recording of me playing guitar and singing.  I am not really sure what inspired me other than it was a nice day and my mother woke me up with a phone call to tell me that it was National Hamburger Day, whatever that means.  I don’t think the phone call was really inspiration other than getting me out of bed.  I am sure the neighbors would have accomplished that though with the moving in and such.

So, what song did I work on?  The great traditional folk tune, Shenandoah.  I laid down two guitar parts, one on 6-string played capo-five and one on the 12-string played open.  I also laid down a “drum” track by just banging away on the back side of the 12-string.  It was actually pretty effective.  On top of that I laid in a few vocal tracks and played around with all the effects that Garage Band has built in.  It was pretty cool.  I think that I even came out with something that I like.  It is no professional recording, but it is nice.

There are a couple little mistakes that I made, but I felt like they were small enough to just leave in.  I did make a whole bunch of takes on both guitar tracks to get where I am and, to be honest, I just didn’t feel like going back again.  Last summer my brother, a camper, and I performed an arrangement of this song.  Maybe I can get them to lay in the parts that they played, specifically mandolin and harmonica.  On top of that I have a friend who plays and makes indian flutes who might be interested in collaborating.

In any event, I am looking forward to the summer and playing and singing a lot again.  I am sure that I have mentioned that before on my blog.  It is a lot of fun to do.  As always, comments and critiques are always welcome!