New tune: "Hard Times Don't Make A Sound"

[dhanners623]

A year ago at this time, my wife and I had made the decision to leave Cyprus at the end of the 2020 school year and move back to my hometown in East Central Illinois, or close to it. Then the pandemic hit and folks (particularly in the rural area I'm from) showed a disdain for wearing masks, social distancing,  etc., and a lot of flights were cancelled anyway so we decided it was safer to stay in Nicosia at least another year.

One of the things I was looking forward to was putting together a bluegrass band. There are some crackerjack banjo, fiddle and mandolin players in that small town and they were game. So I started writing some bluegrass stuff.

"Hard Times Don't Make A Sound" was NOT one of those songs. It was written as a folk song with the title, "St. Barbara of Uniontown" and I liked it. But the other day, I listened to some of Sturgill Simpson's bluegrass show at the Ryman and thought, "I should bluegrass-ize a few of my songs," and this came out. I turned the bridge into a chorus and did some rewriting here and there. As such, it is probably still a work in progress.

(A quick note about singing, and this may be TMI, but.... Since we didn't travel this summer, I decided after many years of ignoring my teeth and avoiding dentists at all costs, I needed to get some serious work done. Cyprus is known as a destination for "medical tourism" so good dentists aren't hard to find. I'm about halfway through a fairly extensive bit of work and now I have stuff in places that were previously vacant. Aside from relearning how to chew food, it is also affecting my singing. I'm sure it is just an adjustment thing.)

 

[kidblast]

I like this..  great tie in with the lyrics.  I never noticed this before, you're a lefty, with the guitar strung for a right handed player...  🙂

[ratherbwalkn]

I like it too.  I think you are on track with music and writing!  This is IMHO,      I have little experience in writing  and find your work to have a good feel!

Cheers!

[kelly campbell]

I like it as well...good song.nice playin'

 

[BoSoxBiker]

Well done! I can feel it, live it and understand it. One of your better ones, me thinks. Congrats!

[Seagull]

Great job!

[Lars68]

You are really turning them out now. I like it a lot and look forward to the  studio stuff.

Stay safe!

Lars

 

[dhanners623]

18 hours ago, Lars68 said:

You are really turning them out now. I like it a lot and look forward to the  studio stuff.

Stay safe!

Lars

 

Thanks. I’m looking forward to the studio stuff, too, but the upcoming EP is just going to be me and guitar. Our plans to add bass, harmonica and background vocals fell through one by one, for various reasons out of my control. So it’ll basically be a field recording with good microphones. Not entirely what I was shooting for.

[Lars68]

7 minutes ago, dhanners623 said:

Thanks. I’m looking forward to the studio stuff, too, but the upcoming EP is just going to be me and guitar. Our plans to add bass, harmonica and background vocals fell through one by one, for various reasons out of my control. So it’ll basically be a field recording with good microphones. Not entirely what I was shooting for.

 

I don't mind the down to basic approach one bit. I think your material is perfectly suited for only guitar and voice, since it helps bring focus to your lyrics. As long as you can find enough variation in the guitar styles between songs, acoustic only versions will be great!

Lars