Forget Me Not

Ever since I first heard this song on an album by a group called Country Gazette I've considered it to be one of the best anti-war songs ever written. But maybe it's not an anti-war song and I'm just hearing what I want to hear? The album was full of great bluegrass songs and the cover was a foto-novel with an exciting tale of how the album was conceived. 

FORGET ME NOT

The banjo, drums and bass were supplied by Band in a Box.

Sweet Baby James

Continuing the series of old classic tunes that I vaguely remember is one of my favorite James Taylor songs, Sweet Baby James. It was one of our best waltzes back at the Las Cruces Inn and is one of the most enjoyable campfire songs ever.

SWEET BABY JAMES

Even though this was one of the first songs I recorded with the harmony machine it turned out much better than subsequent recordings. So I'm still learning to use the harmonizer in better ways, I hope. You can expect to hear more mechanical harmony in future songs including some in which I use the ubiquitous "autotune" to give me that young and stupid sound that is so popular these days.

Jamaica Say You Will

I've been recording a lot lately using  a new toy, a Digitech Vocalist Live 3. It adds one or two voices of harmony to any melody I sing and it does it correctly by analyzing the chords I'm playing on the guitar. The device is definitely aimed at use in a live setting, but I figured out ways to use it in the recording studio.

I still have a few original songs that haven't been presented in this blog, and will get to them soon, but in the meantime here are some songs that I felt were superior, even with me singing and playing the guitars. For most of them I use Band in a Box to provide the drums and bass, and occasionally, piano.

The first song in this series is a tune by Jackson Browne that I've always liked. I think we probably played it a couple of times at the Las Cruces Inn with the Calhoon Brothers, but it wasn't a keeper. It's not a particularly danceable tune.

JAMAICA SAY YOU WILL

As always, click on the song title to download or play the MP3.