|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Another skillful subtle comp example
Another skillful subtle comp example
Page:
1
STME58
1116 posts
Oct 01, 2014
12:31 AM
|
I have signed up to lead a song at Slo Jam in a couple of months. That means I pick a song, write it out on a big chart, and take one hour to teach it to the musicians that show up that night and are assigned to my group. Each group then preforms the song for the other groups. It's lot of fun. I have lead once before. I did St James Infirmary.
I heard a recording of Cisco Houston singing Woody Guthries' "Deportees" and it struck me as not only sad beautiful, strikingly timely for a song written in 1948, but also simple enough that it might work at Slo-Jam (likely instrumentation, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, possibly bass or flute and me on harp, all acoustic). In preparing, I was listening to as many covers as I could find. I came across this Joan Baez cover that had a subtle and beautiful harp comp first coming in at about 1:20
I think I was able to find out who did it but I'd like to see what others think.
I really appreciated Adam discovering it was Norton Buffalo who did the comp on the Kate Wolfe piece I posted earlier. I have been listening to more of his work and really enjoying it.
|
JustFuya
568 posts
Oct 01, 2014
6:35 AM
|
Charlie McCoy?
. . .
|
The Iceman
2169 posts
Oct 01, 2014
7:20 AM
|
I second the opinion of JustFuya
----------
The Iceman
|
clyde
392 posts
Oct 01, 2014
7:55 AM
|
You're right guys it is Charlie
|
mr_so&so
872 posts
Oct 01, 2014
11:02 AM
|
Thanks, STME58, nice song, nice singer, nice comping by Charlie. To me this is a superb example of comping to support the song. Charlie isn't playing all the time, mostly in the chorus. I had to listen carefully to hear it. No chugging. He's holding long notes if playing when the singer is singing. I'm sure Charlie, as great as he is, was content to add his bit of spice, get paid and go home. It's Joan's show after all.
All this is a good contrast to your last example with Norton, doing what I called "special guest star" playing.
----------
Last Edited by mr_so&so on Oct 01, 2014 11:05 AM
|
STME58
1117 posts
Oct 02, 2014
12:27 AM
|
mr_so&so, I thought of your comment on the Kate wolfe song when I listened to this piece. While Norton did "take a solo" in the Wolfe piece, when he was comping to was quite similar to what Charlie is doing here. In fact when I first heard it I wondered if it was Norton, but my ear is not yet trained well enough to pick out who is playing by the sound and style yet.
I really liked Norton's work on "Across the Great Divide" even if not all of it was comping.
A web search showed me that Charlie McCoy played on this song on Joan's 1971 Album "Blessed Are..." but I was not certain that that was where this track came from. I could not find the track available for digital purchase so I could compared and verify this came from the album.
|
mr_so&so
874 posts
Oct 02, 2014
9:53 AM
|
STME58, I appreciate your raising of this topic. I am no expert on this by any stretch, and I'm not trying to be argumentative. However, I hear quite a difference in the comping styles in your two examples, part of that might be in the mixing. Norton Buffalo seemed much more up front in the mix. And, respectfully, I heard him playing almost constantly through the song, with chugging, etc. Charlie, in contrast, was mixed in a more subtle manner, was playing only in the chorus, and was playing more "melodically". Charlie was blending in, not standing out. To me that is a big difference. And worth pointing out, if we are to make a study of this important role of harp players. Soloing is a second role, that I am not discussing here at all.
----------
Last Edited by mr_so&so on Oct 02, 2014 10:48 AM
|
barbequebob
2726 posts
Oct 02, 2014
10:48 AM
|
@mr_so&so -- One thing you may need to realize is that whenever you're a studio session guy like those two, you have exactly ZERO say in how everything gets mixed and mastered in the studio and I can tell you that from personal experience doing recording sessions being a back up player.
Another thing to remember is something you probably never thought of, and that was it the request of the artist, producer, or maybe the recording engineer wanted what you are critiquing about.
When you're a full time studio pro, you absolutely HAVE to know how to sight read and if there were charts there, then they HAVE to play what's on those charts, as it's NEVER like a live gig or an open jam session by any means.
Bottom line is that both of them were doing exactly what the artists they were backing wanted and had arranged as being a session player is not an open jam free for all.
----------
Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
|
mr_so&so
875 posts
Oct 02, 2014
11:34 AM
|
Excellent points barbequebob. I have no experience at all in a studio. My critique is purely as a listener.
----------
|
Post a Message
|
