More Mavis

Here are some more live demos. We recorded these last Sunday at our keyboard player Roberta's place. I took my portable Boss digital 8-track studio over there and we used only one mic, because it only has input for one mic. Didn't have access to a mixer. But they actually sound better than the previous demos when we had 2 mics set up. Go figure.

Took another run at "Masterpiece" (I replaced the old "Masterpiece" file in the folder with this new version) and "Just My Imagination". I added the newer take on "Imagination" to the folder because it's a better recording (despite some cable crackling coming from somewhere), but I left the older one up because it has a nice vibe to it. We also ran through Murray McLauchlan's "Down By The Henry Moore". "I'll Be Back" is a song we've been doing in our set, written by Pat Temple. We also recorded our originals, "Thelma Jane" and the new one, "Saved By A Song" (subtitle: "Lanois Song"), but I'm not going to post those until we have them registered.

I'm playing my Epiphone again, through my little Fender SKX amp. Not a great amp, but it only weighs about 7 lbs, which is I why I got it, to take to rehearsals at Bertie's. Beats lugging my 30-lb Blues Jr. amp on the bus.

Overall, I think these recordings sound pretty good. Boag's voice is more prominent, which is the main thing. Bertie's keys could have be a bit louder. But until we do some multi-tracking, these will suffice. I think we're really starting to find our sound, kind of a country-soul-rock thing.

Enjoy.

[click on the link, then, on the page that opens, go to the "page" icon in the middle, right-mouse click/save file to disc, etc.]

Down By The Henry Moore
I'll Be Back
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Just My Imagination

Sound Off

Sorry for the problems with the Yahoo files. Yahoo says they're trying to fix my Briefcase access problem. It's been several days, though, and nothing has been solved. Took me forever on their Help page just to find a way to contact them. Maybe that should give me some indication of what kind of help to expect.

If you're really interested in hearing the demos we recorded, let me know (click on my name below to send me an email). I can email you a link to the files that apparently works.

Sounds Of Mavis

As promised, here (in the Music folder) are a couple of the live demo tracks we recorded last Sunday at Tim's place. Obviously not professonal studio recordings, but it gives some idea of what we're up to. Don't forget to do the right-mouse-button-click "save as"/"save link to disk" thingy.

If my memory serves me well, we only did one take of "Just My Imagination" and two takes of "When I Paint My Masterpiece", the keeper being take 2. We may try re-recording these. I think Boag's voice should be more prominent. There's talk of maybe doing some multi-track recording, which would yield a much more professional sound, of course, but for now, these will suffice.

That's me starting off "Just My Imagination" with the tremolo guitar. Nice job on the backup vocals by Roberta, Sean and Tim. I think my solo sounds a little thin, and maybe lacks some "verve". I wasn't quite sure how long I'd be soloing. Was expecting Kenny to take over half-way through, but then Boag was gesturing for me to keep going as well, so my solo doesn't quite "tell a story" like it should (beginning-middle-end), but we kind of got into a bit of a groove near the end.

Please feel free to share your impressions. Feedback is always welcome.

Making Tracks

Instead of our usual Sunday rehearsal, this evening we gathered at Tim's place to lay down some tracks for a little demo CD to shop around to club bookers, etc. Tim has a recording board that he runs into Garageband on an eMac. We just set up a couple of mics in the small den off the livingroom and played live -- myself and Tim on guitars set up in opposite corners, Sean on bass in another corner, Boag sat by the wall, positioned between both mics, Kenny sat on the couch and blew away on his harp, Roberta played a little Yamaha keyboard to my left, and Gerry set up his snare in the doorway to the livingroom, so it wouldn't be too loud. A couple of the songs needed a few takes, but we got pretty good performances of "I'll Be Back", "Just My Imagination", "Thelma Jane" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece".

Tim's apartment has fairly high ceilings, and even though the den is a pretty small room, and we were all crammed in there, we actually got a fairly decent sound. Add some reverb in Garageband, and it came out with a pretty nice vibe. Far from Abbey Road, mind you, but we were all pretty pleased with the results. If I get a copy of the disc, I'll see if I can post the results.

Meet The New Boss...

So I met my new boss earlier this week. She was taken around on Wednesday to meet everyone. She seems quite nice. Hard to tell how old she is. Possibly my age or maybe even younger. Late-30s? Good sense of humour, it seems. Isn't a stickler about making sure we come in at 8:30 on the dot, which is refreshing.

Strange though that she didn't hold any kind of meeting with all of us in our department. I would have thought she'd want to hold some sort of pow-wow, even just a brief little pizza lunch just to get acquainted with us all, her new underlings. In fact she was oddly invisible for the remainder of the week. To be fair, I'm sure she had a lot of stuff to get up to speed on, being a newbie to the company. Lots of meetings. As well, there are several people in our department who were still away on holidays last week, so maybe she decided to wait until they returned.

So we'll see how things go. I assume she has the background to do the job, and she seems a lot more easygoing than my previous boss. I liked Phil personally, and I was sad to see him get canned after 17 years there, but the truth is that he could be a real hard ass, and it was quite frustrating to work for him sometimes. Maybe this will be a nice new beginning. Stay tuned.

Blood On The Boardroom Floor

Major restructuring at work today. "Streamlining". "Efficiencies". Those words scare me.

They canned my boss, Phil, Creative Services Director, as well as the director of A&R, a marketing manager, and the web manager. A couple of other people "left to pursue other opportunities". And they're bringing in outside people to fill the newly "streamlined" management positions. Yikes.

Bit of a shocker. I meet my new boss tomorrow. Better get some sleep so I make a good impression.