Music Update: June 9, 2011

Looking south from Ft. Tryon Park at the George Washington Bridge, 8 o'clock this morning.

So here’s what’s been going on with my fourth album in the past few weeks. In short, not a whole lot. I’ll recap what I’ve gotten done so far.

(As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m taking the working titles for these tracks from this list, so I don’t have to think about what to call them.)

Aunt Nancy: I wrote about the character of this piece in the post referenced above. In its current state it consists of two guitars playing the same chordal part, drums (kick drum, snare, cymbal & tambourine), and a bass guitar part. I know it needs a lead guitar, but I’m not sure what else yet. The last time I worked on it was on February 23.

Brer Rabbit: This is the slow 6/8 blues-like piece which I previously wrote about here. I believe all the tracking is done on this one; it just needs to be mixed. And for that I need a six hour block of time — I’ve got to find a spot on my calendar. I last worked on this track on May 17.

Eris: The idea with this one was to create a shuffle-rhythm, riff-based instrumental like something Jeff Beck might have done in the mid-1970s or early ’80s. “Eris” is written and arranged, and the main guitar part has been recorded, and doubled. I took a first stab at the drum part a week ago, but I was interrupted by an agitated neighbor. It was OK though — it wasn’t getting anywhere.

It’s interesting — when I think about this piece there’s a rhythm section playing. Very natural. But when I try to focus on what, exactly, the drum part is, it’s gone. No details. After a little frustration I thought of farming the drum part out to a proper drummer, but my second thought was to give it one more go. I’m in no particular rush, and if I can figure it out I’ll have learned something. We’ll see how it goes.

I haven’t touched “Eris” since June 1, but I’ve been working on another, non-album piece of music in the meantime. More about that later. Thanks for reading.