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dhanners623

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Everything posted by dhanners623

  1. That’s a better job, for sure. To be honest, I think one of the issues is that you’re trying to cram too many words into the meter, and that disrupts the flow. Plus — and this is just one hack’s opinion — there are some words or phrases that could be changed or edited to make it flow more smoothly.
  2. I’ve enjoyed your songs, too. If one is going to post songs here, one needs to be ready for constructive criticism. Some people are better at expressing that than others. I know that I, for one, have appreciated the comments I’ve gotten on songs. I’ve even edited the songs a couple of times based on feedback here. In fact, one suggestion by Murph on a song helped turn the song around, for which I am grateful. As for playing out live, I think you just need to get out there and do it. I get the desire about being “ready,” but that is a relative term. I’ve known lots of songwriters who keep moving the goalposts on what they define as “ready” and wind up never performing in public. I’ve been to open mics where beginners have shown great “courage” but the audience supports them. Audiences WANT you to succeed. You’ll probably be nervous at first, but it goes away and you start having fun.
  3. MissouriPicker’s advice about hitting a coffeehouse (or some type of open mic) is spot on. You learn more about a song in 3 minutes in front of a live audience than you do in a month’s worth of sitting alone and playing it in your living room, or posting it here.
  4. Thanks, Red! I appreciate it….
  5. What slimt said. I have been playing guitar for over half a century and never turned a truss rod. I figured if there was a way I could screw it up, I’d find it. Take it to a qualified repair person. Yes, I know folks here do it on their own, usually with great results. And yes, I know there are YouTube videos galore showing how it is done. It’s just not something I want to mess with, though.
  6. I forget about Cotten….. Jimi changed his strings around. I read somewhere that he started without changing his strings around, but then changed so his bass strings were on top.
  7. All ya gotta do is turn the guitar upside down…. I taught myself to play on my late brother’s blond Stella. (Wish I still had that guitar….) It didn’t have a pickguard on it, so I didn’t know I was holding it upside down. Being left-handed, I held it the way that felt natural. Checked the “Glen Campbell Guitar Method” book out of the library and looked at the chord diagrams and put my fingers where the dots were. When I started playing with others, I realized I was holding the guitar upside down. Albert King played the same way, as did Bill Staines. Texas folkie Shake Russell plays this way. I’ve known four or five others personally who play that way and oddly, we all sound different. I attribute it to the fact we all taught ourselves how to play, so we all interpreted the instrument differently. And I never did figure out how to play like Glen Campbell….
  8. Thanks. If it is any consolation, when I watch people who play the same way I do, I get confused because I am so accustomed to watching righties play.
  9. Thanks. I’ll set the camera back farther next time. Usually, people complain my fretting hand just confuses them…. As for chords, I’m capoed at the 4th fret and using Am, G and Em fingerings in the verses (or C#m, B and Abm without a capo) then F, Am, G and Em (A, C#m, B, Abm) in the bridge.
  10. Thanks! Yeah, I’ve been looking for an affordable reso. It would sound good on this one.
  11. Yes, you have to be a folk purist and hate music to believe an intro that takes up a full minute of a 3:28 song is maybe padding a bit….
  12. Here’s “Blood Will Tell,” another one I might do for the West Terre Haute concept album/EP. I might slow it down a bit and this version is performed without an instrumental because I had no instrumentalist. But it gives you an idea of the song. Lifted the title from Gary Cartwright’s great book about the T. Cullen Davis murder trials in Texas in the 1970s.
  13. The guy’s voice sounds ok to me, but I don’t understand Swedish so I’m not sure how much (if anything) is lost. The thing I wonder is why he spent a full minute on the intro…. Talking about — or criticizing — a singer’s vocal “quality” is pretty much pointless. You sing with the voice you have. You either get the point of the song across or you don’t. Tom Waits has a voice like wet-or-dry sandpaper soaked in bourbon, but nobody complains because he tells great stories. Hell, Johnny Cash spoke off-key, but nobody could imagine his songs sounding any “better.” His songs anre instantly recognizable. In fact, my first cognizant memory of music is Cash’s voice coming over the car radio. Yes, there are ways to improve what you have. If you’re concerned about the vocals, take a lesson or two from a vocal coach. It’s a question of putting the talents you have to their best use and you could probably pick up some important tips in just a couple of sessions.
  14. A singer can be forgiven for a wrong note, but not for an insincere note. Lars’ stuff is sincere. Music is filled with imperfect singers. Johnny Cash. Townes Van Zandt. Lucinda Williams. Gram Parsons. The list goes on.
  15. Good memory. It’s been reworked quite a bit. Aside from the line about the trash dump fire, it only includes half a verse from the previous version (“That fire burned years, land and air were corrupt/Then the feds made them clean it all up”) and even those two lines were rewritten. As the late Tom T. Hall said, any song worth writing is worth rewriting.
  16. Thanks, all. There’s a concept known as “environmental racism.” Wikipedia defines it as “a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionally placed in communities of color.” Its existence is pretty well documented, as are the health impacts. But in the case of places like West Terre Haute, it is based more on economic status than ethnicity. When the mines played out or were closed, it just seemed like the landfill got bigger. In the 1980s, it was declared a Superfund site and cleaned up. I last saw it in 2019 or so. It’s just a big, barren triangle of land with a few trees. Last I heard, they would have flea markets there on weekends.
  17. Granted, it isn’t everyday you hear a song about a trash dump fire, but here ya go…. Been toying with this one for awhile. One of my strongest memories growing up was when we’d drive through West Terre Haute, IN, and there, along the main road (the Old National Road) was a giant trash dump that was always smoldering. It stunk to high heaven. I always wondered how people could live near it, but they did. West Terre Haute — just across the Wabash from Terre Haute — had been a coal mining town and when the mines were running, it had a pretty good economy. When the coal played out, though, things went downhill. Fast. Today, it is pretty much low-income. Lots of meth labs until cooks went to the “one pot” method of manufacturing it. I’m contemplating doing a dreaded concept record on West Terre Haute. Got about eight songs written for it. I may just wind up doing an EP, though.
  18. Fine job recording. I’m not sure I’m understanding the story, though. Is the protagonist looking for someone in particular or just anyone? I gather it is a song about loneliness. Your vocal delivery helps with that. Thanks for sharing it!
  19. Wow! Excellent all around. That must’ve been a great and memorable experience. You got the opportunity and made the absolute most of it. If the Ryman is the High Church of Country Music, the Bluebird is where the liturgists show off their writing. Great job!
  20. Which makes me wonder…. Are there any similar books or scholarly articles about Martin’s war-era guitars? And is it just me, but does it seem like Martin’s pre-war guitars are prized, while Gibson’s war-era guitars are what folks look for? (That said, I don’t know of anyone who would turn their nose up at a pre-war Gibson.)
  21. I should’ve bought it sooner. I probably didn’t out of fear it would tempt me to go out in search of a war-era Gibson, which I could ill afford. (How many lefties did they build?) Having made my living by writing for four decades, I was always impressed by folks who churned out books. I worked with several who did. Although I had a few publishers approach me about doing a book of some sort, I always decided I had no desire to spend 8-10 hours a day digging for information then sitting at a keyboard, then go home and spend even more time digging for information and sitting at a keyboard. So my hat is off to you.
  22. I’ve seen that. As well as the bit that says, “Kindle titles are available for US customers on Amazon.com. Continue shopping on the Kindle Store at Amazon.com. “ Went ahead and ordered a physical copy of the book. Looking forward to reading it.
  23. Will check that out, but I have to dig out my U.S. Amazon password and stuff. Can’t buy it as a Kindle in the UK. I’d probably rather have a physical copy anyway….
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