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Stephen Pickering

Category: Music

  • Cotton Eye Joe Cover

     

    Cover of a Cover. Cover of Josh Rouse covering “Cotton Eye Joe.” Damn, I keep forgetting to turn the iPhone sideways for video. Will remember next time. Vocals not very clear because P.A. is way in the background and the iPhone mic is picking up mostly the guitar. Oh well just a test. Not bad.

    Damn, I also just realized I left out a whole verse!!! The one that goes, “I’ve been laughing in the sunshine. I’ve been lying in the rain. You know that living is easy, and I ain’t feelin’ no pain.”

    Oh well, do over. And next time I’ll have the camera sideways, and maybe try to play picking with my fingers, Brazilian style, like Josh plays it.

     

  • A New Song: “In Their Glow”

    In Their Glow by spickeringlr (Click the Down Arrow on the Player to Download Song)

    “In Their Glow” Lyrics

    We’ll stake the embodiment.
    A deadly priestess dresses the aisle during Lent.
    Depressing as it may seem,
    the little lecterns take their places in the scene.

    Washing Mary cold and foot,
    the diesel engines blast down to the blessed root.
    Actual fire stretches the islands leg,
    and individual pieces can only stray out and beg.

    It wasn’t their fault in the beginning.
    They thought this ritual had an ending.
    A pitied the boy dressed up in a mask
    He answered questions that no one had the courage to ask.

    Watch the candles out there. Watch the candles fall.
    Dressed up like an Angel. Dressed up like a doll.
    All winter she waited for the snow dove’s feathery song.
    It flew through the flickery flame the darkest, most silent of them all.

    ©2009 Stephen Pickering. Creative Commons

    What do you think of this song? Good, so-so, bad? Don’t be afraid to critical. I have a thousand things I want to change with all my songs. So your criticism (as well as compliments 🙂 are welcome and helpful. Love to here your comments.


    Link to “In Their Glow” poem by Stephen Pickering (i.e., the lyrics)

    Album Art Credit: Renata Spiazzi “Autumn Glow” 48×36′ Digital Art Glycee
    Expressions of Mexico Gallery

  • Garageband Tip: Work Behind the Beat

    So I’ve been in the Mac World for over a year now, but I’ve just now entered the Garageband World or recording and the whole idea of recording on a computer. I know what you’re saying, “Welcome to the ’90s!” I know. I know, but you see as much as I’m interested in technology, I also have this reverse energy working. I call them “mental blocks.” In the early ’90s I got a 4 track cassette recorder. I think it was $500. Couldn’t make it work. I don’t know why. I just couldn’t.  Then I bought some multi track software from the local music store. Looked fancy. Only $50. Couldn’t make it work either. I just couldn’t get decent sound into the damn thing. I don’t know what it was. A PC, the drivers, the technology? I don’t know. Just a lot of buzzing.

    Finally in 2001 I got a stand alone “DAW” one of those little BOSS BR things, and FINALLY, something I could simply plug in and play, and though its woefully small GUI (I wouldn’t even call it a GUI) would make the normal musician drive to the local bridge and jump off, I could actually record multi track sound that sounded clear, and a drum machine to boot! I was hooked. My creativity jumped. Then in 2005 I bumped up to the BR-1600, spending $1200 and thought I was in heaven. Even better Pre Amps, better sound, and the ability to program real arrangements, bass lines and customized drumming. I thought I had my studio. So I’ve been working with it ever since, thinking I had it all. All I needed at least.

    Finally though, especially with this gorgeous 20″ iMac screen, I just couldn’t live with the little 1×5″ GUI. I never wanted to do editing because it was just too painful. So I was stressed with every take because I felt I had to get it perfect. I did, because I wasn’t willing to cut and paste or even punch in and out very often. Pain moves folks to action.

    So finally I entered the Garageband world a few weeks ago, cutting my first song on it, “The Darkest Hour Comes,” just recently. Loooooove it. The colors, seeing all the tracks. The loops. Dragging and dropping edits allows one so much freedom, that one can relax and get into the groove.

    So, since I don’t have an interface yet, I’m recording guitars and vocals into the BR and importing the .WAV files into Garageband. (Of course that little pain will have me down to the Guitar Center getting a Presonus Firebox very soon!)

    But in the meantime I’m working on a new tune. Now with the freedom of Garageband (And computer based recording in general) I discovered I can just record away over and over again, not worrying about mistakes, because I know that I can cut and paste the best parts on the desktop and arrange the song with relative ease.

    So finally here comes my tip. I’ve been working on the guitar track today, cutting and pasting away, and I’ve noticed one thing: Even though I’m working with a click track, you’re almost never exactly on the beat, especially at that crucial juncture of the first beat. You’re either a millisecond ahead or behind it. That’s one of the things that makes it sound natural. But if you cut and paste a section that comes in ahead of the beat you’re going to cut out an important part and also hear a little clip. If you cut and paste those sections a little behind the beat, then everything sounds seamless.

    When you’re recording, you can’t consciously decide to be in front or behind the beat, but knowing that you have the freedom to make mistakes does allow you to relax and get into the groove. So if you just keep the tape rolling and make multiple passes (I recorded 6 minutes of passes for a 4 minute song last night) you’re going to have enough material where you have as many backbeats as frontbeats, so you’ll be good.

    Then, when you’re editing look for those sections that have a backbeat to cut and paste with. It’ll make your life a lot easier. And a lot more fun. And when you record enough passes, every once in a while you’ll even be right on the beat.  Those moments are rare (unless your a good musician) but they feel like Luke finally getting those laser torpedos into that right whole of the Death Star.

    The “Death Star” of your anti creative complex explodes and you up your anti to a new level. Oh, shit. I feel Pro-Tools and Logic on the horizon coming forward.

    Comments, Questions, or Suggestions? Love to hear your thoughts.

  • A New Song “The Darkest Hour Comes”
    The Darkest Hour Comes by spickeringlr *Click the down the arrow on the right of the player to download song. Actually its not completely new. I did a preliminary version a week or two ago, so maybe I should call this one "The Darkest Hour Comes 2.0." But this sounds a lot better. I recorded the main tracks into my "DAW" (A Boss BR-1600) with its pre amps instead of into the Mac's microphone, so the sound is clearer. Then I dragged the wav files into Garageband and added the loops and strings. I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think! Oh, the words are actually not mine. It's a poem by Kim Addonizio VERITIES Into every life a little ax must fall. Every dog has its choke chain. Every cloud has its shadow. Better dead than fed. He who laughs, will not last. Sticks and stones will break you, and then the names of things will be changed. A stitch in time saves no one. The darkest hour comes. —Kim Addonizio, from Poetry and The Best American Poetry: 2006, ed. Billy Collins

    Related:

  • The Darkest Hour Comes

    [audio: http://www.stephenpickering.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Verities1.1-4.mp3]

  • “I Miss You So” | A New Single

    I Miss Her So by Stephen Pickering
    Download now or listen on posterous

    01 I Miss Her So 1.mp3 (5016 KB)

    Posted via email from stephenpickering’s posterous