I wrote pieces of this song from the mid- to late-1990s. Kevin and I recorded it at Stryker Studios in Danville, Virginia, in 2005, but we never made it past this stage. (Totally my fault!)
The music sounds good, but the mix is rough—no backing vocals and little to no vocal mixing. Still, it brings back so many memories and makes me wish I could go back and handle things a lot differently.
Vocals: Jo Hawke
Guitar: Kevin Hawke
Keyboards: Kirk (Glenwood) Smith
Bass: Mark Earp
Drums: Jere Stryker
K. Hawke, S. Hopkins, J. Rising – 2002 Hopkins Studio Recordings
Kevin’s 2002 recordings at his cousin Shawn Hopkins’ Danville basement studio.
The first track is 200 Days, which Kevin (lead vocals & rhythm guitar) wrote with Shawn (drums & keyboard) and Jody Rising (lead guitar & backup vocals). The second track is Johnny L.V., which features only Kevin on vocals & guitar.
I wish there were pictures of the recording or at least a picture of the three of them together… back in the pre-cell days.
I’ve sung Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” (and/or Jimi Hendrix’s cover of it) a whole lot through the years, usually backup, with a lot of different bands and people hanging out with a guitar…around a campfire, in somebody’s basement…
But Kevin’s first time ever playing the song was last month (June 13th, if my TapeMachine app can be trusted). And he definitely brought his own style to it.
It was late, after the kids’ bedtime, and I was putting a new laptop desk together. The thing came in a thousand pieces (hyperbole!), so I was listening to one of my Pandora stations to pass the time.
Kevin started playing along with his acoustic, and after Dylan had finished, Kevin kept playing and told me to sing. I looked up the lyrics (singing along is one thing, but carrying the load is another 😉 and after we played around with it once or twice, I pulled up the TapeMachine on my phone, so we wouldn’t forget the feel of it.
Well, we haven’t changed a thing since then, but here it is:
What do you think?
UPDATE: One of my teacher-friends on Twitter just asked if he could download and add to this. The answer is YES! Here’s the file!
May 2011: Atticus & his lifelong best friend, Puppy
What a difference a year makes! Especially to a little kid!
Last year in May, Atticus recorded this version of his favorite Neil Young song at the time, “Old Man.”
He was four at the time. His birthday’s in September, and he turned five last year.
Wow! He’s grown up a whole lot since then! Preschool summer camp, kindergarten, YMCA afterschool daycare, Bible class at church… No more staying at the babysitter’s all day. He’s in (the little kid version of) the real world now.
It’s remarkable how much his pronunciation, tone, and delivery have improved. He has a greater maturity and control over himself in so many ways in addition to his voice.
My baby’s not a baby anymore, but he’ll always be my baby to me. 🙂
It was Thursday, July 22, 2010, around 6 p.m.
We had just left The Silversmith on West 4th, where we got the most fantabulous Mr. Blue and Jo’s amber ring to celebrate our 5th anniversary.
The vibes were good. We were oozing happiness. It was a beautiful day, not too hot with a little breeze. And — oh, man! — we love playing in the park!
We found a park bench and spread out a bit. Black squirrels greeted, acoustic guitar tuned, H2 recorder ready.
The whole band was there, minus Josephine, of course (no electricity in the park). 😉
The full show (minus encore, below) with all our crazy chatter and everything:
Since we haven’t edited out individual songs yet, here’s a set list with approximate start times:
What Else Can I Say* (0:32)
All Around the World* (6:17)
Music Man* (12:01)
Every Second of Every Day* (18:08)
Baby, What Do You Want Me to Do (23:46)
I Don’t Need No Doctor (27:22)
Amazing Grace: test (37:07)
Amazing Grace: full (39:37)
Danglin’* (42:42)
Johnny LV* (49:50)
Summertime (56:19)
The encore, Going Down the Road Feeling Bad:
*original ESoED songs
p.s. Turn your speakers down a little before you hit “play.” 🙁
When I posted my first revived cassette recording, I mentioned that I don’t “cringe at the imperfections” anymore. Well, I can’t say that’s true with this one.
I don’t know whether it’s just a sensitive day or the recording just sounds that imperfect, but I must admit that today I have cringed. More than once.
Anyway, this recording has been on my to-find list for a little while now.
My longtime friend Sandra, who goes to church with us, told her kids a few weeks ago that I sang a great version of this song (or something to that effect). LOL!
She said she was there in the recording studio when I sang this. Wow. I know at least one more friend was with us, but I don’t remember who. Maybe she does?
It was 1987. Senior Week at Myrtle Beach.
Quite a lot I’ve forgotten, and much more that I wish I had…
This cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “Let Me Be There” was recorded in the summer of 1984 at Songmasters on the Boardwalk, Surfside Beach, SC.
I was 14, almost 15, at the beach with my church youth group.
It wasn’t my best performance, though I don’t cringe at the imperfections like my old self did. Now, I can smile and shake my head and say, not bad. 🙂
Read about how I transferred the recording from the old cassette tape to my laptop here.
The kids and I have a goal: a special “get up” song for each day of the week.
Okay, it’s more my goal than theirs, though they do sing along a lot. And at the rate we’re going, we’ll be lucky to have one song completed before they graduate from high school. LOL
This piece of a something is in the running for — you guessed it! — Monday:
p.s. This is another attempt at getting my recordings from my phone to this site. The file was recorded using the TapeMachine app. I shared it to Evernote. (There was no option to share to this site via my WordPress app.) And then I used my Evernote app to share it to this site via WP. Still a convoluted process and still no player here.
Question: Do you see a player when you go to Evernote using the link above? I do on my Droid but not on my laptop using Chrome.
UPDATE: I don’t think my Evernote experiment worked very well. Or maybe I just left it a step or three too soon…I downloaded the WAV file to my laptop, converted it to MP3, and uploaded it to my server.
And voila!!
Nope, I still haven’t added anything to this particular piece…
A BIT OF TRIVIA: That “Sorry” at the end of the file was because one of my students had walked in the classroom to ask question or something. LOL I know I’m weird.
I must’ve been on a Billie Holiday kick when I came up with this little work in progress. Warning: It’s just a few lines and you can tell by the revision in the second time around I really have no idea where it’ll one day end up going (if anywhere)…
UPDATE: Just ignore the Evernote. I had recorded this on my phone, and I haven’t found a streamlined process to get those files here. So I went back and downloaded, converted, uploaded: