For those expecting an update on “Future Psychic Girlfriend,” it’ll be a bit longer of a wait for that one. My muse has given me some fuel for Dangerous – now “Am I Dangerous.” I would like to say up front that I respect people of faith and their beliefs and hope they respect my humanism.

While not necessarily “shooting” for controversy, I understand that the lyrics for this one may stir some feelings.

Just piano and vocal as I present the first sketch.

Peace.

-Ed

We have demo. Putting Policy of Love to bed until I look to record the “real” version for the album. (Teddy, pictured up top, can relate to the policy and to putting himself to bed.)

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to cancel my plans to attend the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Missing Fest friends, but also appreciating taking care of everyone at home (human and feline) & managed to sneak in some time for recording.

After starting the morning with technical difficulties (missing DLL made it necessary to uninstall & reinstall my recording software), undaunted, I tuned my bass to the acoustic guitar track (I apparently did not make sure the guitar was tuned to anything other than itself) and recorded a track which I seem to have lifted partly from a Fleetwood Mac track – I think “Go Your Own Way”).

I then took to the mic and warbled some background which I pushed fairly far down in the mix. Not happy with them, but it is time to move on to the next track which most likely will be “Future Psychic Girlfriend.”

Here is the demo (from Soundcloud).

Been doing the only work on my album in my mind for quite a while. I had an idea for Policy of Love playing there which I’ve finally be able to get down on the hard drive.

“Make Love Policy, Love Making Policy” and the chords associated (A & G) have become an intro/bridge/outro. I mixed in a bit of the chorus (instrumentally) and I think the structure of the song is pretty close to where I want it. I think I’ve started to go in a Lou Reed-ish direction with it. Here is this morning’s take:

I also added a phrase/idea to the tentatively-titled “Dangerous”  (see Inviting All) lyrics:

“I’m having trouble understanding

Protect yourself

What do we really need to protect ourselves from”

Peace by Piece.

-Edicated

Yet another long pause in the symphony that is my project. I am determined, if not disciplined enough, to see this thing through. With thoughts of trying to go a little hippie-psychedelic on Policy of Love, I entered my home studio. Slowly it turned and then, I decided to slow it way down and experiment with vocals. I’m taking another step backwards with this one and perhaps slowing down the whole process – could it get any slower?

I’ve been thinking more about trying to set up to do some midi stuff (for drumming at least) and about fixing up the old electric. I think I’d really want it to do some psychedelic-sounding stuff.

Here is The Policy of Love (Vocal Experiment) – Listen at Your Own Risk 🙂

-CrackEd Voice

Awoke early this morning with the cats on and off the bed and circling in a pre-breakfast frenzy. I had some ideas for Policy of Love. I originally shared a sketch recording of this one in my very first blog entry. I’ve included it again below (I realized I called it a demo, but this was before I started my current project).

There is a risk here of the song quickly becoming dated, if it isn’t already. It was written while drones strikes were prominently in the news. The song has been called sappy by one. My songs are generally pretty straight-forward and I’m a fan of non-violence. Love is one of my favorite four-letter words after all. 🙂

At the risk of taking a step backward to go forward here is the hair in curlers/in pajamas/working the first cup of coffee sketch. (Note the bass intro – ran out of time to continue working on the bass part this morning – darn day job.):

I’m going to need to add some lyrics and am going to give some strength to the arrangement to try to drain some of the sap.

-Peace, Love & Ed

Original as noted above:

There is finally an “official” demo of Regular Folk! I used my trial and error from the various sketches and input from some, not quite as regular, folks and made a succinct demo. I felt that the harmonica was the strongest “color” component – the guitar and voice being the meat & bones. Then I brought in the mbira and, towards the end, a bit of didgeridoo. Percussion is the plastic container of picture hangers. I had an idea to use the didgeridoo as bass, but I need to be able to more consistently produce the drone to attempt it.

Here is the demo:

Next up is, most likely, “The Policy of Love” as it’s the most complete.

A few of you (which probably means all) are most likely tired of hearing my play around with Regular Folk. I’ll soon make a demo version, but I wanted to try it at a slower tempo as suggested. I don’t think I quite slowed it down to where the waltz model is, but I did work it down to more comfortable trot.

I also broke out my only harmonica and made a little noise with that and picked up a plastic container with some picture hanging hardware and tapped/rattled along.

Set plugins for the vocals as below:

And the audio:

Somewhat tunefully,

-Ed

Well, Frenzy is probably a strong word. Another friend, who I hold just as dear (so to speak) and whose musical knowledge and critical discernment I admire and value equally – no playing favorites here, provided what he thought might be harsh criticism. And it might have been if Regular Folk was anywhere near finished even as a demo.

I realize that I really need to lock down the beat and stay on it. This will take the practice to which I know I must commit. I want to avoid digital fixes as much as possible – specifically using quantization. My friend also gave some suggestions on how to improve the lead vocal recording, in addition to furious rehearsal, by recording 3 separate tracks of the exact same lead vocal and using the best as the main track and panning one of the others hard left and the remaining one hard right and lowering the panned tracks in the mix. I have to look up what panning actually is – not sure if it’s similar to balance on a stereo or not. He also did not like the didgeridoo as I used it.

My daughter, a stickler when it comes to proper grammar usage, had only one criticism that she couldn’t remember, said one phrase was exactly how she would have said it and relayed that she liked the kitten pictures the best!

-Ed “Not as Cute as a Kitten” Bejzak

Creation is often a very messy thing.

Last weekend was Farmhouse Just-West-of-Frederick-MD Fest where The Get-Up was the sole band on  the bill (with the exception of a few solo meanderings from Alan Schwartz, Bill O’Driscoll and David Husted – and an unaccompanied bass [pedal] solo by Mr. Edward “Rutherford” Bejzak).  It was a weekend of craft beer, painstakingly prepared food and all-out “jammination” for all those who partook. After run-through of the set-list on Saturday, the house lights were brought down (ok, we lost power). This led (not 100% sure that it shouldn’t be “lead” – even after consulting the “interwebs”)  to chili dinner – then on to  port, my yearly cigar and some wonderful discussions on, but not about, the farmhouse’s front porch.

So[lo], I unpacked the gear I had lugged up to Jefferson, MD and set everything up to work on Regular Folk. I had the idea of adding some off-beat instrumentation with the thought of using my Cannonball Gourd Thumb Piano (pictured up top & called a  “kalimba, mbira, mbila, or marímbula depending on the region in which it’s played” according to the Uncommon Goods website – from where, I think, my wife, Liz, purchased it for me as a Christmas gift), my clarinet and my accordion/concertina.  After playing some acoustic guitar along to the Folklore rhythm on my piano (of which only the guitar got recorded – not on purpose), I started with the thumb piano and then thought of my didgeridoo. I was able to get a bit of the “drone” going and mixed it all up after adding a vocal track and left it at that. Here’s the mess that I’ve dubbed Regular Folk, Sketch 2.

Acoustically,

-The Ed-Up