A hard-rockin’ piece of “The Lucky One”: Double Lucky
The basic structure of Double Lucky, one of the hardest-rocking tunes on my record “The Lucky One,” is a double blues: 24 bars, with 8-bar vamp sections between each 24-bar form. There are variations in the turnaround in each 12-bar section. Bar 12 ends on…
A Glimpse of “The Lucky One”: Orphan Jam
This clip of “Orphan Jam” from the sessions for my record “The Lucky One” is based on a simple chord progression: G major and Eb major. The lap steel sets an appropriately grand and spooky tone, and the harmonica comes in like some kind of…
The Vocal Performances for “The Lucky One” started last night
The band’s performances for “The Lucky One” are completed, and great performances they are, done at speed and loaded with cool. I started recording vocals last night, and that’s the hardest part for me. I went into these sessions confident about the music, the lyrics,…
The band sessions for “The Lucky One” were killer–now for the overdubs
From Friday to yesterday I recorded the rhythm section, guitar, and some harmonica tracks for my upcoming rock record “The Lucky One.” At this point we have twelve such tracks in the bag, meaning that in the 27+ hours of recording starting Friday we’ve averaged…
The IndieGoGO campaign for “The Lucky One” is underway…
And about time. Recording sessions for this project begin in one week in Philadelphia, on September 16. So it’s not a day too soon to get the IndieGoGo campaign to fund this project going. Next Friday we’ll set up in the studio, get some levels,…
An Outtake from “The Lucky One”: Waka Blues
The sessions for my upcoming record “The Lucky One” are taking place in Philadelphia in the third week of September, and preparations are feverishly underway. My producer, Ed Abbiatti, passed on this piece, a basic blues driven by an auto-wah harmonica part. If we’re not…
My Favorite Song in Da Whole Wide World: Big Country, “In a Big Country”
RIP Ralph Stanley
Harmonica Master Boris Plotnikov is Teaching in Denver on June 15!
We saw a post recently on harp-L about Boris Plotnikov teaching a harmonica master class in Denver on June 15. Boris originally hails from Yekaterinburg, Russia, and it’s pretty rare that he sets foot in the USA, so this is a great opportunity for anyone…
“The Lucky One” video is up on Kickstarter!
I’ve just loaded up a video on Kickstarter that talks about “The Lucky One,” complete with a demonstration of several of the sounds I’m planning to use on the record! If you want to hear what kind of voodoo is going to be in the…
