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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
AG studio work on Tony Holiday's new single
AG studio work on Tony Holiday's new single
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kudzurunner
3777 posts
Jan 09, 2013
8:25 AM
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When I was in Salt Lake City to do a couple of solo shows and a clinic, I helped out Tony Holiday, the promoter/musician, by sweetening a track off his now-just-issued album.
The tune, "Weep and Moan," is a 16-bar minor blues with some added chords on the end: a move to the flat 7th chord and back up to the tonic, twice. Something like that.
You can hear the full track for free here. (I'm playing on the first version. Tony, I believe, is playing harp on the second version):
http://www.reverbnation.com/tonyholidayandthevelvetones
I'd stepped off the plane less than an hour earlier; we drove straight from the airport to the studio. I listened to the track three times, did one test take, and then did the take he used. I played a C harp in G minor. Once, early on, I hit the 7 draw, so that you get a major third over a minor chord. Not ideal. The drummer had a tendency to lunge, so the song has occasional small rhythmic variations, but basically it is what it is--and the harp is mixed front and center.
I used my Shure PE5H and Kay 703 with a little delay from the Boss DD-3 digital delay pedal.
There are two choruses of harp solo in the middle and one near the end. By the end I was a little more in my zone. The track as a whole was a good exercise in comping as well as soloing.
Last Edited by on Jan 09, 2013 8:27 AM
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isaacullah
2226 posts
Jan 09, 2013
8:45 AM
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Adam the cut with your playing on it is WAY better than the alternate version. And the difference is your playing. Cool track...
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Last Edited by on Jan 09, 2013 8:46 AM
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kudzurunner
3778 posts
Jan 09, 2013
9:38 AM
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Thanks, Isaac. I should add that circumstances conspired to make my own performance one that I'm fine with, but not one that shows me at whatever my A+ best is. I was still finding my way around the slightly offbeat changes. One way of thinking about it might be to think about the difference between, say, a pro tennis player's first and second serve. Their second serve is still good enough to crush you or me, if we're facing it, but it has an element of playing-it-safe in it. The first serve, by contrast, isn't a sure thing, because they're throwing everything they've got into it and working the edges, but it's a gamble worth making. I felt as though I needed to make the changes--remember, I'm playing a C harp in G minor, trying to avoid major thirds--and blend with the specific energy of the cut, not razzle dazzle. So I didn't push the pedal to the metal.
If it were my own recording, I would quite possibly have taken a belt of scotch and said, "Let me try one more take," hoping for the A+. But this one is good enough, and it has some unexpected touches, like the ascending root/fifth/root/fifth arpeggio near the end. Modernize!
Last Edited by on Jan 09, 2013 9:39 AM
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REM
218 posts
Jan 09, 2013
5:40 PM
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The track seems to be in A minor, did you actually use a D harp (instead of a C), or did they change the pitch after recording (I know Stevie Wonder has done this before so that he could play his C chromatic in one of his preffered keys that allows him to get his unique sound/style)?
Last Edited by on Jan 09, 2013 6:03 PM
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kudzurunner
3779 posts
Jan 09, 2013
5:58 PM
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Sorry, REM, I'm sure you're right. I was speaking from memory. Yes, if it's A minor, I used a D harp. Tony used a G harp, third position, I believe.
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felip
12 posts
Jan 09, 2013
11:55 PM
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Wow, what a huge tone difference.
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dmitrysbor
16 posts
Jan 10, 2013
12:41 AM
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Adam,
I like first version with your solo. Confident solo line ,good amplified sound.
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Martin
199 posts
Jan 10, 2013
5:59 AM
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Interesting to compare the versions. No 2 seems very under-produced ... but still have backing vocals, "featuring" somebody etc, whereas you are un-credited.
As I grow older I find it harder and harder to step right up and deliver a good solo, so I can appreciate you´re way of seeing it here. And maybe there were a couple of "strangers" in your first solo, un-noticable to an overwhelming majority -- however the playing is great, and if I´ve had heard the track I´d immediately would have started to check out who´s the harp player.
A while back a friend asked me if I could lay down a harmonica track on something he had recorded, and of course I said yes. It was a bit early in the day for me and I´ve had no warming up. Did two takes and he said Wow!; I was a bit hesitant, but no no, this was just great. "C´mon on now, let´s have a glass of this really interesting wine I´ve got here," and of course I trotted along and thought, "OK it´s his funeral".
Then a bit later I heard the song in an early mixed version and I just got cold with embarrasment: Jesus, this was shit! I immediately wrote him and said "delete!", but he insisted: it was just great.
The moral: we should have started with the wine; I should have warmed up for at least 15 minutes; and I shouldn´t have taken Yes! for an answer: "One more take, please. I INSIST."
Ed: to Kudzurunner: And please don´t read this as some sort of indirect criticism of YOUR soloing here ´cause it´s certainly not.
Last Edited by on Jan 10, 2013 6:04 AM
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