My friend Eddie Cochran had written a bunch of songs, and I went out to his and Leilani’s house many times to sing along with whatever instrumental tracks had been recorded. He had me standing in the bathroom with the door closed, headphones and mic cords trailing under the door.
I believe this is one of many that he dumped into the Flat Five studio mix, re-recording parts. I’m hazy on the technical stuff, since I, er, didn’t do any of it. 😛 But that might account for the timing issues. Not sure.
Eddie says it features me, him, Steve Edmunds and Carlos Morales. He would know.
Anyway, it’s a cool song, and I miss singing Eddie’s music.
We’d been in New York for a few days already and were rich with musical experiences.
We’d been awed by the phenomenal Pat Martino the night before at the Iridium. We’d taken the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tour at the (now-closed) Soho annex (with the awesome John Lennon exhibit). We’d bought Kevin’s Les Paul, Josephine at Rudy’s.
And we’d just been down City Hall-way to purchase a Xoom H2 recorder at JR‘s, the same one we recorded this show of sorts on.
So when we walked toward Washington Square that afternoon, planning to play a little for the homeless people and the black squirrels, we weren’t expecting to be drowned out.
Yep, down by the fountain, a guy was banging on the drums while kids did flips and stuff. And by banging, I mean BANGING.
It was frustrating then, and it was even frustrating editing these recordings. 😛 It would be very easy to blame the drums for taking two years to get them posted, but it wouldn’t explain the other shows sitting in my to-edit folder..
Wesley Holtsford & Laura Liem (with Danny Ricketts behind the camera)
Last Tuesday, my cousin Wesley Holtsford and his friend Laura Liem, both in from west Texas, played some bluegrass music with Kevin and his dad, Ryland Hawker.
Their impromptu jam convened at James Lynch’s house. He’s Wes’ great-grandfather and my dad’s sister’s husband. (You really wanted to know the details, I know. 😉
It was so awesome! The four of them really sounded great to have never played together before!
Kevin played guitar and sang most of the songs. Ryland, of course, played banjo. Wes played mandolin and fiddle. And Laura played fiddle.
(I sang some backup and one lead, I think, but was mostly on Kid Patrol. 😉
James was dancing and singing along. He invited his brother and his fiance over to listen, too.
Even Jo-Jo, James’ little poodle had fun … although he probably would’ve had more fun if Lucas and Atticus hadn’t wanted to play with him soooo much! (I wish I’d gotten pictures of that.)
And Wesley and Laura? Wow. They are really great musicians. And both sweet as can be. I wish they didn’t live so far away!!
6/18/11 UPDATE:
I’ve finally been able to sit down and figure out my file-transfer issue from phone to laptop. What a mess!
I used my Droid X’s (awesome!!!) TapeMachine app to record eight songs … and then my phone died.
I didn’t get the beginning of the first song or the end of the last, and I only got eight songs from the several hours of playing. (I wish I’d remembered to grab the H2 on the way out the door, but we only had about 15-minutes notice.)
I’ll come back later and post the individual songs, but here’s the whole of what I recorded, talking and laughing and all in between:
7/17/11 UPDATE:
Here, finally, are the individual songs that I recorded.
The Man Who Wrote ‘Home Sweet Home’ Never Was a Married Man:
I’ve been playing around with a tool called Cinch this week.
It’s a website and a synced app that allow you to easily record audio, attach a message and image, and share with Twitter and Facebook followers and friends. You can also download, link, or embed the MP3 file.
You can see the widget I add over on the far right sidebar. It will play all of the “cinches” I’ve saved so far, once of which is our theme song, finally on our website:
Yay. Sounds pretty good considering it was recorded on the laptop at the Cinch site.
Every Second of Every Day
by Jo & Kevin Hawke
Everything I do, every word I say
Every second of every day
I give it all to you; I give it all away
Every second of every day
Everything I am, every little flaw,
is a canvas on which you can draw.
I give it all to you; I give it all away
Every second of every day
And in the morning when I look out on the day
I can say it is good 'cause it is yours
And in the evening when I look back on the day
I can say it was good 'cause it was yours
Everything I am, all the bad and good:
All my thoughts, all my feelings, all my beliefs
I give them all to you; I give them all today
Every second of every day
And when I feel like giving up
And when I take pride in what I've done,
It's a travesty of your majesty
And in the morning when I look out on the day
I can say it is good 'cause it is yours
And in the evening when I look back on the day
I can say it was good 'cause it was yours
Everything I do, every word I say
Every second of every day
Back in August, I went through a Dylan-song obsession of sorts.
The whole story is over at my education/teaching website, but to put it briefly, Kevin came home one day with a song on his mind that led us to think of other versions of that song that led me to a way of teaching a unit on the writer’s voice.
The song was “I Shall Be Released” and has always been one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. But I really had no idea how many different versions of the song have been played and recorded. Seriously.
Well, it wasn’t long after that school started, and I was sucked into my workaholic alter-ego, and neither Kevin nor I remembered that we had actually recorded the song ourselves sometime in the course of those two or three days.
And then yesterday I was looking through some folders and serendipity!
It’s loud, with a lot of background hiss, since I recorded it on my laptop with the system’s basic voice-recording program. And my voice is feeding back a LOT. So you may want to turn your speakers down a bit before you hit play. 😉
I don’t think my mom has uploaded all of the Thanksgiving Day bluegrass jam with Kevin and his dad, Ryland, but she did post this video of me and Kevin that she shot after Ryland left…our version of “Georgia on My Mind”:
And the third installment of Kevin and Ryland’s bluegrass session: “Little Maggie,” “Dear Old Dixie,” “Leftover Biscuits,” and “Old Home Place.” Thanks to my mom, Nancye Ricketts, for editing and uploading the videos. 🙂
Here’s the second clip of Kevin and Ryland’s bluegrass jam the other night: “Dig a Hole,” “Salty Dog Blues,” “Ballad of Jed Clampett,” and “Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight, Mister.” My brother Bobby’s behind the video recorder, and his wife Kim’s dad, Bruce Wiles, is the off-screen singer on that last song.
Kevin’s dad, Ryland Hawker, brought his banjo over to my parents’ house last night to play some bluegrass music. Here’s the first clip — “Wildwood Flower” and “Nine Pound Hammer.”
