Last night we knock out the guitars on Oh Face. They are sweet. There's clean with a hint of dirt on the right, and dirt with a hint of clean on the left, serving each other, playing off of each other, I am a musical genius.

And then the next song, a crazy fast 6/8 thing (didn't used to be fast, but apparently I jacked the tempo when we laid the drums) I'm trying for heavy guitars. Okay. On the right, I've got fat and heavy. On the left, I've got fat and heavy.

The engineer calls me into the console room and we listen back and it's a nasty convoluted confused mess. He reminds me that the great heavy songs aren't weighted down with distortion - you THINK you hear it, but it's a cleaner guitar - think about stuff like "Voodoo Chile (slight return)" or "Back In Black" - while the guitars ain't CLEAN, they aren't Zakk Wylde dirty (that's Ozzy's guitarist for those of you who are blind to the metal side).

So, okay, I roll back the support guitar to just above crystal clean, and tighten up the chords - to the point that I'm actually just playing the root notes - NOT chords (since the meaty fat guitar is chording everything) and holy wow, the song pops thru with clarity and I am happy.

Three beers and two hours later, (uh, ONE THIRTY THIS MORNING) while we're listening back to the work thus far, the engineer says "hey, you wanna hear what I think is the best sounding record?"

Does a cat have an ass?

So, he pulls out a CD case, and I think to myself, surely, that's just a spare case he had and it contains a jewel that I've heard a thousand times, but not really heard. Certainly it's not the actual CD promised by the aged bearded redneck on the cover.

Maybe it's Beatles' Revolver? Sgt Peppers? Oh hey, maybe some Frank Sinatra thing back when they rolled tape live, one mic in the room? Or what about, what about maybe a Yes record that I've snobbed off all these years?

Oh no my friends. It is INDEED the "Best Of David Allan Coe", and he's playing track three, some song about picking up Hank Williams on the side of the road ("The Ride" is the song, now looking in iTunes.)

Go giver her a listen:
http://www.officialdavida...com/17.htm

Holy cow. I was amazed. This song is just plain ol' 1980's pop country talk/sing stuff. The engineer is an ARTIST when it comes to recording my music and hearing it, and knowing what I'm trying to do, even when I obviously don't know what I'm trying to do. However, when he played this tune - pointing out amazing parts of the song, (uh, the bass, the piano, the background girls) I just didn't see it.

But, well, to each his own I suppose.

Anyhow. Back in the room, doing my thing. It's coming together. I've dropped the tele in favor of his Les Paul, but I'll be back to the tele on the funkier stuff. It's just guitar guitar guitar this week. I guess I'll knock out the bass next week, then keys, harps, and sax (if I can find one around town - hey Tal - don't you have a spare sax in your studio? Can I borrow it?)

Yeeh-Haw!
I guess he's an acquired taste.

haha, i dreamed with you in the studio playing a les paul and showing me the song, the riff was terrible but the sound of the guitar was great, it's the first time I ever dreamed with someone i dont know, that i know by the internet. But it would be cooler if the song of the dream was good, so i could write it. And there was even mention of the compass of the song in the dream.
[Edited 5/12/05 4:46am]

Thanks for these updates, I'm learning something and I can't get enough of that.

Slave2daGroove said:

Co-Sign, this is really exciting!

Okay, I'll keep posting them. I took last night off and nodded off at 8pm. Yeah yeah hardrockin!

I'm going back in tonight to knock out the guitars on most of the stuffs. I'm doing a couple of songs with the guitar tuned down to D. Not drop-d tuning, I'm tuning everything down to D, using 12s. It's freaking the engineer out.

Then this weekend, hopefully I'll knock out the basses. I'll post the progress. I think we're mixing down some stuff tonight, just to hear progress so far.

otan said:

I have a brand new soprano sax. U can borrow it if u handle it with kid gloves. call me.