Return to RobinFrederick.com

* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: be unusually thoughtful

Just finished assembling my two hour program for Ted Airlines' Tedscapes channel. As always, I came across plenty of interesting stuff as I scanned through iTunes, various record labels, and new releases. One of my new favs is Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. His version of "Somewhere over The Rainbow" is gorgeous. It's just ukelele and vocal but his voice is so warm and he weaves in and around the melody with such a deft touch that it's all you need or want to hear. Speaking of beautiful tone, Jeff Kashiwa's sax sound is outstanding. There are a lot of good sax players out there - certainly Dave Koz has always been a favorite and lately I've been programming a lot of Euge Groove because he's got such great arrangements - but sax can get pretty edgy and abrasive at times. Jeff Kashiwa has a warm, fat sound that I love and never get tired of. In this program I'm using "The Power of Midnight." Found a great track by flute player Nestor Torres that's full of fun and joy called "Piper Dance." I used a couple of tracks by guitarist Artie Traum on a previous show and went back to pick up "Quiet Volcano" for this one.

Besides the Tedscapes channel, I've been doing some work with singer-songwriter Michael Doman. He came over to lay down a few guitar/vocal tracks the other day so that I could try adding a couple of bridges and maybe a chorus on a song or two. He laid down five songs and something really clicked between him and my set-up because the results sounded spectacular. His performances are dead on and the vocal set up I sweated over for my own vocals turns out to be just right for him. The similarities to Nick Drake are as strong as ever. This is purely accidental on his part - he had never heard Nick until I played a couple of tracks for him. His open tunings, strumming style, vocal quality, song content and overall emotional feel are all reminiscent of Nick. The voice and guitar demos we did sound eerily similar to Pink Moon.

I remixed a couple of songs from Water Falls Down and am thinking about having it mastered at DiscMakers before putting it on iTunes, etc. I got hold of their sampler with the before and after tracks and was very impressed.

* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

Read A Brief History Of Love Songs by Robin Frederick at the Sound Experience Music web site.

Copyright 2005 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.