Record Your Own Demo

This was a free series of workshops conducted by the Tacoma Public Library.  From September thru November 2016, opportunity was provided to gain first hand experience in the sound recording process as we produced demo tracks for a number of aspiring artists.  The approach involved total immersion.  Whoever showed up helped with the set up and oversight, and in many cases acted the role of studio musician as artists took their alotted ninety minutes to teach and explain their piece, execute a few dry runs, elicit feedback and then bring it on with the team in creating a quality final product.  What an amazing experience for all who attended, witnessing genuine art materializing from friendship, committment, and sharing.  Here are a few highlights of what proved to be an extraordinary experience. We thank the Tacoma Library System, and especially John Hargis (Engineer/Facilitator) and Jimm Boudreau (Producer) for helping to transform this dream into an amazing reality.

September

The performer is Pauly Allen, doing his original "Girl Like You". Pauly does this alone.  He sets it up over a sound file he brought in, gets the groove going, lays out the narrative, and does all the harmonies himself, each track done individually, then all mixed at the end. Once he heard the mixdown, Pauly declined additional takes, explaining he had to leave early, he wanted to "walk his dog." Pauly, by the way, is a cancer survivor and lives life to the fullest. As he left the room, he jumped high into the air, and clicked his heels, bidding us all farewell.

Performing are Marc (Guitar) Bordelon and his buddy Dennis the bass wizard. They're doing Marc's “Ridin' the Video Range,” an original tune in 3/4 time. Marc is a personal friend from many jam sessions in and around town. He's a master of swing and the American songbook, so whenever you're with him, you'll have a chance to hear some good music, and to learn something new. Dennis promises to bring his bass to some of our third Saturday jams in Tacoma.

I'm doing the vocal and guitar part.  Originally I figured on doing it solo. As it turned out, my good friend Ed Gazabat brought his harmonicas and was happy to assist. Third man in was Steve "Dobro" Pearce. I had never met him before, he showed up just before I was to start.  I saw he had a dobro, and he said Ed had told him about it.  I twisted his arm, and there you have it. We used the first take for a "dry run". What you're hearing is the second take, not perfect, but not bad for not rehearsed. My friend Bob Kirschenbaum had taken extended lunch and just returned as we finished. I saw he had his usual collection of percussion toys and asked if he'd like to throw down a track.  He done rightous, don't you think? Song title,  "The Equivocal Blues" (but I could be wrong about that).

October

The song is "Riding High" by my friend Bob "Bobbo" Kirschenbaum. He also sings lead. Bob asked I work out the arrangement with him, so that's me on the guitar holding the groove, and singing background. Another friend, Ed Gazabat agreed to add some soulful, call and response harmonica to the session, and the subtle but clever mandolin work in the background is yet another friend, Willie Nelson. The four of us had never played this together until the morning of the session, so it was hit the ground running, pretty much improvising on the fly. We were about forty minutes into it when we laid down this track. The beauty of these sessions is they make you think quick, and act with grit and reckless abandon. I think we did just that, and it shows.

The song is "Christmas Song for Mom" by Jason Samuels. Jason does the entire song himself, he came prepared with all the individual tracks mapped out in his head. He likes his guitar tuned four steps down. You can see the effect it has, adding enormous drive to the final mixed down song. If you're like those who were in the room, you'll be amazed at how he pulled it all together into a coherent piece.

In this video, you'll have a chance to see a video of the raw and unedited take, start to finish. The song is "I Forget About It All" by Darrick Hartman. Darrick is accompanied by his music partner Miguel Hungria on bass guitar.

November

The song is "Dini Ba Ba". In this video we have Kyla Jones (lady wearing black) and Joy Dworkin. The instrument they are playing is a Mbira; considered to be a quintessential African instrument (Here's the Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira). I've known Kyla for some time as a drum circle mate. She is deeply into African music, and is a first rate percussionist and marimba player. I've only recently become acquainted with Joy, but am equally impressed with her broad knowledge of African rhythms and music. The video walks you through the entire process and ends with the mixed down recording. This time you'll have a chance to witness some of the rigors of the process. They had walked in to our October session, ran a test, and were invited back to do a full recording in November.  Note where engineer John Hargis is struggling to remove an "artifact" which he is understanding to be unwanted noise; believed to be an inexplicable rattling of the instruments. It wasn't until November, when I picked up one of the instruments to "fix" it when I saw there were bottle caps strategically mounted to produce a rattling drone beneath the melody when it was played. I showed John and the relief on his face was obvious. He said he had been thinking about it for weeks. Listen for the drone in the recording. What do you think?

The song is "Nhema Musasa". In this video we have Kyla Jones (lady wearing black) and Joy Dworkin. The instrument they are playing is a Mbira; considered to be a quintessential African instrument (Here's the Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira). I've known Kyla for some time as a drum circle mate. She is deeply into African music, and is a first rate percussionist and marimba player. I've only recently become acquainted with Joy, but am equally impressed with her broad knowledge of African rhythms and music. The video walks you through the entire process and ends with the mixed down recording; listen to the many improvised sub themes and layering as the ladies play off of each other.

This is our final video documenting the Fall 2016 "Record Your Own Demo" seminar series put on by the Tacoma Library (John Hargis/Engineer; Jimm Boudreau/Producer). I wanted at least one video which took the viewer through the entire process, start to finish.  This is it.  The song is "Anonomity [Originally titled Sittin' on Top of the World but revised for obvious reasons]; composed by Ed Gazabat. Ed is the vocalist and harmonica player on the video. Ed's resume includes several years accompanying Grammy award winner George Kahumoku. You already know me. In this lineup, Steve Pearce contributes dobro and bass. His versatility speaks for itself. Bob Kirschenbaum adds percussion.  You might recall his song "Riding High" which we previously aired.

This video begins with us shaping some raw ideas and musical thoughts into a final relatively coherent package, all in less than ninety minutes. We had never played or practiced the song together beforehand, and we weren't sure who would be showing up to contribute. A real world example of "in the moment" improvisation. It boiled down to a quick exchange of ideas, one or two dry runs laying out the groove; then deciding what to put on top of it, and how much we wanted to complicate the process with multi tracking.

The video puts you there with us. You can see some of our struggles, but you can witness something coming together in relatively short order. There simply wasn't time to waste. As I said before, one of the unanticipated side benefits of this series related to filling the role of studio musician, sometimes for friends, sometimes for strangers, hearing some ideas, then trying to pull something out of your hat in the moment. Simply exhilarating! Oh, and a little scarey! In the end, I believe we had nothing to be embarrassed about.