Week 4 - "Under The Willow" b/w "The Hill"

End of month one! That's right, there were 4 Tuesdays in January and this is my 4th single! You can use the handy player below to listen to the songs while you read or you can just follow this link:
http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-4



Both of this week's songs, "Under The Willow" and "The Hill", have a couple important things in common (besides being recorded and released in the same week). They were both written for and with my 5-string banjo with a strong Americana/Bluegrass influence and they are both about the obstruction of love. On the "A-side" it's stubbornness and another man preventing the two lovers from being together, on the "B-side" it's a war.

I'm a ramblin' guy so let's get small...

I've had a banjo for a few years now but have only fairly recently started seriously playing it. Last year, Steve Martin mania entered my life. I've always been a big Steve Martin fan (I too was born a poor black child) but after picking up his stand-up memoir Born Standing Up in Barnes & Noble's "bargain books" section (and subsequently purchasing it, taking it home and reading it), I became a fanatic. I got his comedy records, memorized some of his routines, dressed up as him for Halloween, went to see one of his live bluegrass shows and probably most importantly for this blog, started picking up my banjo a lot more. I carried it around with me while walking around NYC on Halloween and played (Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", "Duelin' Banjos", Steve's tense political song "Ramblin' Guy", and a little piece I had just thought up) for anyone wanting to hear me play. Soon after I felt confident enough to carry my banjo down into the subway to play for change on the platform.

A wild and crazy guy...

That "little piece I had thought up" turned out to be the basis for "Under The Willow". I was very pleased with its peaceful/calm tone and had considered leaving it as an instrumental but every time I played it, images and ideas started to come to mind. In order to insure listeners experienced the same images, I had to add words. Most of my songs seem to be emotion based and don't contain a lot of imagery (something I need to work on) and while this song really isn't very image-heavy, I think I've managed to imply the quiet country setting I had in mind pretty well. It's a song about two friends who grew into lovers and then grew apart but now long to be together again whether they BOTH want to admit it or not. I'm pretty pleased with how the song turned out, although I think I will record an instrumental version too.

Thumb(pick)s up!

I recorded the basic banjo and vocal tracks but then when trying to add backing guitar discovered I hadn't performed the song at a consistent speed, not a problem if I was leaving it alone but very difficult to build on. I settled on rerecording it strumming the guitar (which I knew I'd have no problem with) and then putting the banjo (and shakers) on top. I didn't have a jug but I figured out by turning up and tapping my condenser mic, I could get a great unnoticeable (but still foot stomp inducing) thump to add to the bottom of the recording.

I had come up with the very simple (but I think cool sounding) chord progression of "The Hill" back when I first got my ebay Oscar Schmidt OB-5 Banjo back in 2007. The slow/fast motif came out of my subway banjo busking. The music brought to mind images of a chase or a battle in the Civil War but instead of focusing on that I had the words reflect what someone on the outside thinks of what is going on. In the past I've attempted to write anti-war songs and have failed. I couldn't stand the uninformed preachiness that that type of song usually revels in but by setting it so far in the past  and using the war as an antagonist in a romance story I hope I've avoided what makes anti-war songs so cringe-inducing. It's about a soldier who has become so sick with what he is doing that he has decided to abandon the war and marry his girlfriend (for lack of a not-stupid term). He wrote to her to wait on the hill overlooking the train tracks where he will sneak into town via a freight train. She waits for months but he never arrives. But she doesn't give up hope and at the end a man leaps off a train, the listener can decide if it's him or not.

Go slide yourself!

I recorded the banjo and vocal with no problem. I was planning on using my recently acquired Epiphone Mandolin on the song but I couldn't find a chord combination that sounded right. I grabbed my lap steel but that didn't work either. I liked the slide sound though so I reached for my trusty Martin Backpacker, quick threw it into open-G tuning and started sliding. It worked! I played octaves on the bass which gave it an added feeling of doom. I even used my new Snoopy Jaw-harp to add some pluckiness (it's pretty low in the mix but it's there). I put another vocal track over the fast repeat to add some clarity to the words but I think it may have just muddied them up more. Can you understand the words during those parts?

Good grief!

I drew the cover myself and then colored it with oil pastels and colored pencils. I tried to combine ideas from the 2 songs by depicting a girl waiting under a willow on the hill. Both songs were written on/for the banjo so I added a banjo leaning against the tree. It didn't turn out exactly how I pictured it but I think it looks all right. I've always liked looking at willow trees so it was interesting trying to draw one.

word-free cover

I think that just about covers all of it. Remember, if you are listening and/or reading these posts please let me know and feel free to share your opinions on this stuff. And tell your friends!

4 down, 48 to go!

MJM

http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-4