Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Carolina in My Mind (cover)


Avery

Recommended Posts

Thanks guys! I always appreciate the feedback. Wish the vocal would've come out a little better, suffering from my usual "morning voice"...anyway.

 

Sal, just used my iphone 6s with a zoom iq6 plugged in the lightning port...and then I put it in imovie and used the "enhance" feature...really cleans it up a bit.

 

A while back, duluthdan gave me the idea to look at James Taylor's own guitar lessons! First I thought I couldn't use them because he doesn't really do any explaining. Then I realized you can just slow it down and pick up what he's doing...although it took me a really long time.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8-5czYJvPM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys! I always appreciate the feedback. Wish the vocal would've come out a little better, suffering from my usual "morning voice"...anyway.

 

Sal, just used my iphone 6s with a zoom iq6 plugged in the lightning port...and then I put it in imovie and used the "enhance" feature...really cleans it up a bit.

 

A while back, duluthdan gave me the idea to look at James Taylor's own guitar lessons! First I thought I couldn't use them because he doesn't really do any explaining. Then I realized you can just slow it down and pick up what he's doing...although it took me a really long time.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8-5czYJvPM

 

I agree 100% that this tune wears me out. Your cover is EXCELLENT Avery! Beautifully done and well paced. Your voice is a wonderful complement to the tune as well.

 

I used James' video as well and worked on playing the tune for a couple months before I felt I could even start to add vocals. There is that complicated fingerstyle lick after "Dark and silent late last night..." that I can play, but still can't sing over. I play it live for friends and at open mics and stuff, but still won't attempt that lick while singing. LOL

 

After I played it at a Christmas get together with friends at my place, I said how difficult and complicated the song was and how long I worked on it. One of my friends said he didn't understand as it didn't sound complicated at all. Amazing how this incredibly intricate fingerstyle and vocal sounds to others as smooth and uncomplicated. James Taylor genius.

 

Here's my kick at it (I'm not brave enough to record my playing it live):

 

Carolina in My Mind

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, thanks Lars, FB, EA, jvi, Kelly, and Doug, I really appreciate it!

 

Lars, no doubt you could do this one. While you were writing songs, I was spending a really long time on this...Man, this song ate up most of my guitar playing time for some time, and it might be time better spent to song-write like you!

 

Doug, great job! I really like your recording. You sound like Gordon Lightfoot.

 

From one JT junkie to another, that lick was also one of my favorite parts. Well that and that little Eminor9 thing he does after "you must forgive me"...

 

For me the hardest part in that melody you mention was the last two notes: A string fretted at 1, and then fretted at 2 (when he goes into the bm7 chord). For me, I realized you had to already kind of go into a barring shape on that note at fret 1 and then slide up 1 fret into the bar on fret 2 for the bm7 chord. Took me a long time to get comfortable with that, and I'm still not there yet.

 

I think on the studio version that lick is a bass lick. But live, JT now plays it on his guitar...to me, that's an example of why I like JT is best on his own and not drowned out by a band...He really incorporates it all into his guitar playing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, man. JT was a big inspiration for me pick up the guitar in the first place.

 

 

Great job Avery, so many people do JT covers but it just never seems quite right. You do some of the best JT covers I've seen and heard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nicely done, Avery! Not an easy thing to do, young man, and you pulled it off quite well. [thumbup]

 

Would that I had spent time early on learning to fingerpick, but alas! I'm stuck in my ways. Taylors' use of hammer-ons and pull offs is unique and instantly recognizable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just being curious here, in the English language, is there a difference in meaning between "Carolina in My Mind", as opposed to "Carolina on My Mind".

 

To me as a non-native English speaker, the in my mind part sounds odd, and sort of conveys something more obsessive in nature, than the on my mind version. Maybe that is what JT intended, or am I totally missing something??

 

Lars

 

Edit: Just listened again and realized the lyric is "gone to Carolina in my mind, which gives a different meaning than I thought at first and makes the word "in" appropriate.

 

Without the use of the King's English, I must confess: My Bad [biggrin]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just being curious here, in the English language, is there a difference in meaning between "Carolina in My Mind", as opposed to "Carolina on My Mind".

 

To me as a non-native English speaker, the in my mind part sounds odd, and sort of conveys something more obsessive in nature, than the on my mind version. Maybe that is what JT intended, or am I totally missing something??

 

Lars

 

Edit: Just listened again and realized the lyric is "gone to Carolina in my mind, which gives a different meaning than I thought at first and makes the word "in" appropriate.

 

Without the use of the King's English, I must confess: My Bad [biggrin]

 

Hey Lars, you're totally right. Think of the song "Georgia on my Mind"... "something's on my mind", that is how the typical English phrase goes...and probably this lyric is trying to convey something more intense as you said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just being curious here, in the English language, is there a difference in meaning between "Carolina in My Mind", as opposed to "Carolina on My Mind".

 

To me as a non-native English speaker, the in my mind part sounds odd, and sort of conveys something more obsessive in nature, than the on my mind version. Maybe that is what JT intended, or am I totally missing something??

 

Lars

 

Edit: Just listened again and realized the lyric is "gone to Carolina in my mind, which gives a different meaning than I thought at first and makes the word "in" appropriate.

 

Without the use of the King's English, I must confess: My Bad [biggrin]

 

Hey Lars. I would interpret Taylor's use of the word "in" as opposed to "on" to mean he is transported to Carolina rather than simply thinking about it. In his lyrics, James says:

 

"And with a holy host of others around me, I'm still on the dark side of the moon. It seems like this goes on forever, you must forgive me, if I'm up and gone to Carolina in my mind"

 

This tells me the songwriter is actually transported, on the spot, in various moments of homesickness, to his home. Taylor wrote this while in England and terribly homesick for the USA and his home in North Carolina.

 

So, I believe, Taylor is using the word "in" to show he is not simply thinking about his home, but completely taken away in his imagination and appearing "zoned out" to all around him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

snip...

 

Doug, great job! I really like your recording. You sound like Gordon Lightfoot.

 

From one JT junkie to another, that lick was also one of my favorite parts. Well that and that little Eminor9 thing he does after "you must forgive me"...

 

For me the hardest part in that melody you mention was the last two notes: A string fretted at 1, and then fretted at 2 (when he goes into the bm7 chord). For me, I realized you had to already kind of go into a barring shape on that note at fret 1 and then slide up 1 fret into the bar on fret 2 for the bm7 chord. Took me a long time to get comfortable with that, and I'm still not there yet.

 

I think on the studio version that lick is a bass lick. But live, JT now plays it on his guitar...to me, that's an example of why I like JT is best on his own and not drowned out by a band...He really incorporates it all into his guitar playing.

 

Thanks, Avery! That is an extreme compliment (if you meant how Lightfoot USED to sound of course).

 

I agree about the slide to the Bm7. I can DO the lick no problem. It is the singing of the lyric while performing the lick that is really tough. And yes, JT does play the song differently now. The video lesson he provides shows his current performance method rather than the studio recording. He has "improved" many of his old tunes from the way they were in on the original recording. "Fire and Rain" and "Sweet Baby James" are a couple of other examples of that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I mean the old Lightfoot, Doug, you sound great!

 

Also, I totally like your explanation of the lyric. That's what I was thinking too.

 

Here's James Taylor explaining the story behind this song.

 

 

Thanks Avery. That's a great video. I had not seen that one before.

 

Let me correct myself then; Taylor was in Europe when he wrote Carolina in My Mind, not England... off the coast of Spain to be exact.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...