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STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: Smell things..

I've been wildly busy and thus no entries for a while. Maybe I'll try shorter entries and more often .... That could work.

I got involved in an interesting project recently. I was contacted by Anthony Blakeney, a very fine guitar player. He covers Nick Drake's songs amazingly well, replicating Nick's difficult guitar parts note for note. He contacted me to see if I'd be interested in adding a vocal to his guitar recording of "Been Smoking too Long." Nick's guitar arrangement of the song is challenging - the blues riffs come thick and fast. In fact, the tempo is much faster than I used to sing it. It's really an uptempo jazz/blues the way Nick performed it. Tony sent me a CD of the guitar track and he had it down perfectly. I was amazed.

I knew it would probably be difficult for me to sing the song at that fast tempo and it was. I needed to really adjust my approach, especially since I recorded it as a slow ambient chill track a couple years ago. Finally, I asked myself: How would Mose Allison sing this? - and that seemed to open the door into the vocal. Interestingly, Nick was a fan of Mose Allison's and used to sing his "Parchman Farm" so that may have inspired the feel of BSTL you hear on the Time Of No Reply album. I had a great time recording it and Tony was pleased with the results. If you'd like to check out some of his ND covers, visit Anthony Blakeney's website. At some point I hope he'll upload the BSTL we did. He mentioned he might be playing it at this year's ND Tribute Gathering in Tanworth-In-Arden. For more cover versions of BSTL go to the "Been Smoking Too Long" web page on my site. There's a big range of styles from Placebo's version to an Italian electronica arrangement that's a real kick. Even a video by Graham Coxon.

Several of my songwriting clients/students are finishing material and recording demos. Jeff Deutsch and Lendy Baugh have a killer Teen Pop song ("Don't Call Me I'll Call You") in the style of Hilary Duff and Ashlee Simpson. Producer Dan Marfisi did an excellent job. You can hear more of Dan's work at his Joneshouse Music Productions website.

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

Copyright 2006 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.