Since I wasn’t able to perform much in 2021 due to COVID, I decided to hone my musicianship — with particular emphasis on developing my skills on drums, bass and lap steel — and dive deeper into digital recording technologies by tackling some cover songs by a few of my favorite artists. The result is an oddly eclectic and sometimes uneven collection of recordings, but one that I really enjoyed developing. I’m sharing them to document the learning process, with all its highs and lows, and in the hope that you find a few tidbits that delight and/or surprise.
Below are links to the audio files. They will open in the web-based version of Dropbox, where you can either download them or listen to them using the Dropbox audio player. You can also right-click and select “Download linked file” to download it directly without opening Dropbox.
If you want me to send you a ZIP file containing the whole bunch, just let me know.
A NOTE ON COPYRIGHT AND ROYALTY ISSUES
I’m not violating any copyright laws by sharing these recordings since I’m not releasing them publicly via any streaming sites or other formal distribution methods (e.g., CDs) and most importantly I’m not selling them. To help me maintain their “fair use” status, please don’t circulate or sell these files in any way — if you do so I could get tracked down by the royalty police! ;^>
For more info on these tunes, like why I chose them and what went into my arrangements & approaches to recording them, just scroll down past the song links.
About The Tunes
Out on the Weekend & Campaigner
“Out on the Weekend” (Neil Young)
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Neil Young. While I’ve performed several of his tunes since I was a teenager (when I played his triple-album Decade obsessively), I find a lot of his later work pretty ragged and not at all glorious, if you get the reference. Plus I can’t stand his voice. So when people tell me, thinking it’s a compliment, that I sound “just like him,” I’m not too pleased to hear it.
You can’t deny that Young is a prolific and interesting — by which I mean, quirky in a compelling way — songwriter. “Out on the Weekend” is a bouncy number that leads off his 1972 breakthrough album, Harvest, while “Campaigner” is an unexpected low-key dirge that he snuck onto the aforementioned Decade compilation. I followed Young’s lead on both songs by recording “Out on the Weekend” with full guitars, drums, bass and lap steel, and “Campaigner” in one lo-fi take with just guitar and vocals.
Moonshiner
I discovered this tune through Uncle Tupelo’s awesome version of it, and then learned that it’s been covered by TONS of people over the years, including Delia Murphy, The Clancy Brothers, Bob Dylan, Elliot Smith, Cat Power and many others. Its author is unknown, and some people claim it was originally an Irish tune that was transported to Appalachia while others claim the exact opposite. The first known recording of it, by the Combs family of Kentucky, was featured on the poet Carl Sandberg’s 1927 collection The American Songbag, crediting its minor key arrangement to Alfred George Wathall.
I followed Uncle Tupelo’s lead for the most part by starting out acoustic and then adding drums, bass and electric guitars later on to ramp things up. I stuck a long reverb effect on the harmonica to make it sound like I was playing it in a deep dark cavern. I’m especially pleased with how the bridge’s dueling harmonica and electric guitar lines came out. The slide I played on a dobro guitar towards the end seems like the right touch for this gloomy, mortality-conscious tune.
Sensitive Boys
“Sensitive Boys” (Alejandro Escovedo)
I’ve always loved Alejandro Escovedo’s songwriting and was thrilled when I got to see him play with his band at a smallish bar in Nashville for the 2019 AmericanaFest. He co-wrote this one with another favorite songwriter of mine, Chuck Prophet, who was briefly a member of Escovedo’s touring band at the time, which was named — appropriately enough — The Sensitive Boys.
I kept things mostly simple on this arrangement too, though I added some echo, reverb and fuzz effects to the electric guitars to give the song a bit more texture. I also threw in a synthesized Hammond B-3 organ and some orchestral strings (also synthetic) towards the end. Unfortunately the drums are off in a few places (like at the start), but I’m mostly pleased how with this recording of Escovedo’s lovely tune turned out.
I’ll Just Fall
If you know me well you probably know what a huge fan I am of the Memphis-based Americana band Lucero. Their main songwriter, Ben Nichols, writes tunes that are about as earthy and heartfelt — yet sneakily literary — as you can get. I loved “I’ll Just Fall” from the first time I heard it and have been playing it for a while now.
This arrangement is also about as simple as it gets: just me singing along with my Gibson J-45 rhythm guitar and an over-dubbed acoustic lead guitar. I recorded it on a whim one day using the GarageBand app on my iPad, intending to use it as a scratch track for a more full-blown recording later on. But I like the feel of this “demo” version so much that I’m including it here, background static and all.
Lazarus
Talk about moving to the other end of the spectrum! For this David Bowie tune (one of the last ones he released before he died) I went whole-hog on the instrumentation and effects, including everything from an Op-amp fuzz pedal on the lead guitar, to a chorusy echo effect on the rhythm guitar, to several effects and filters on the lap steel guitar. There’s a programmed drum pattern for the opening and ending, live acoustic drums for the rest, and some synthesized organ lines in lieu of Bowie’s amazing saxophone playing on his original version.
Obviously I was going for a dramatic, multi-layered, almost orchestral feel on this one. Doing that while maintaining the tune’s driving, emotional intensity was a real challenge, but I think I mostly managed to pull it off. I love how the bottom sort of drops out at the end, bringing the listener to the brink of non-existence. I’m REALLY happy with how this one came out — and my drum teacher was too!
Leave
This is a lesser-known R.E.M. tune off their late, under-appreciated album New Adventures in Hi-Fi. It’s a desperate song that calls for desperate measures recording-wise, to capture Michael Stipe’s “it’s the end of the world and I like it” gloom-and-doom lyrics. Seriously: in the refrain Stipe sings yearningly about how much he wants to “leave it all behind” — can you get any more depressed than that?
And yet, the song is a head-on rocker, musically. I decided to “go big” on this one too, by layering multiple fuzzed-out guitars and featuring a loop that I created by applying a reverse reverb to a simple acoustic guitar riff. I also employed the 80s production trick of adding lots of reverb and adjusting the EQ to accentuate the low-end, thereby making the drums sound huge in the mix. Even if you have no idea what those technical details mean, I hope you like the end product as much as I do.
Everything Must Go
“Everything Must Go” (Steely Dan)
Last but not least and most challenging of all for a variety of reasons, is this Steely Dan tune, the title track off their final studio album. For this one I really had to up my musicianship in order to play the Dan’s complicated jazz chords, utilize a wah-wah pedal for the rhythm guitar, and master those funky bass lines. And the vocal phrasing…. how could I possibly capture Donald Fagan’s incomparably tongue-in-cheek delivery on this one?
I think I did an OK but not great job on the vocals, after cutting & pasting snippets from a million different takes. I’m more happy with some of the fun details I snuck in, like the synthesized organ riffs, megaphoned backing vocals, sleigh bells and triangle taps, to give the tune a cheerfully off-kilter vibe. I think my version respects the overall feel of the original while adding a bit of extra flavoring. I’d love to know what you think of it!
Bonus Track: Creep
My drum teacher, Dave Indivero, suggested I learn this tune for one of my lessons. I liked it so much that I decided to record a full version with guitars, bass, backing vocals, etc. I’m pretty happy with how it all worked out, so I figured I’d include it here as a bonus track. Enjoy!
Thanks so much for listening. I hope you enjoy these home basement-recorded efforts of mine. If nothing else, they kept me from going completely nuts during the Great COVID Depression of 2021.
Hope to see you soon!
Mack's Musings 