new music

Follow Me Up to Carlow / Kid on the…

Here is another track from the Amadán CD that we recorded back in 1999.
 
amadan large
 
The track is made up of two parts. The first is a song that our guitar player, Kevin, sang. I did not really have much to do with this song and, in fact, was not really that familiar with the melody. Kevin, however, wanted me to lay down a penny whistle track for the instrumental break. I put the phones on, asked the engineer to playback Kevin’s track so that I could give it a practice run. As soon as I was done with my practice run the engineer informed me he had recorded it without me knowing. That was the first and only time I ever played Follow Me Up to Carlow.

Now, the part of the track that I really enjoy the most is the second half. After Kevin’s singing, we launched into a well known slip jig called Kid on the Mountain. The ultimate and most famous version of Kid on the Mountain was recorded in 1976 by The Bothy Band on an album called Old Hag You Have Killed Me.
 
Old Hag You Have Killed Me
 
It is a mighty tune in five parts, teetering back an forth between e minor and G Major. If you’ve ever heard the Bothy’s version you’d know it kicks ass…and there is really no reason anyone else needs to record it. It’s kind of like trying to improve on Let it Be…it can’t be done.

Well, we were young and impetuous. We recorded it anyway. I’m happy we did.

announce

Colorful Guests

Colorful Guest
 
I thought it would be nice to mix things up a bit and invite some colorful guest bloggers to post at baconworks.com. I plan to include people that have been influential to me in a variety of ways. You will be able to tell they are a guest blogger by the colorful banner at the top of their posts. It will look something like this:
 
Guest Blogger
 
Stay tuned (no pun intended)!!!

announce

Fun with Twitter

All sorts of fun tonight. I just connected baconworks.com to twitter.
 
twitter
 
So, now every time I post to baconworks.com a tweet will automatically be sent to twitter. Incidentally my twitter account is http://twitter.com/baconworks. Lastly, if you have no idea what I’m talking about then you might want to check out this useful newbie guide to twitter. Suffice it to say, you can now be notified on you mobile phone when I post a new article.

announce

facebook page

I created a new facebook page today called baconworks which can be found here.
 
facebook page
 
Apparently a page in facebook terminology is different than your standard-run-o-the-mill facebook account. Check it out. You’ll notice that somehow I became a fan of myself. Oddly enough, I can’t seem to figure out how to become an un-fan in the event that I decide that I really don’t like myself anymore.

…and, just moments before I posted this, I noticed that Sally has also become a fan. Thanks Sally. Now I don’t feel so lonely.

new music

Busted!

My recording gear busted last week. Ughh!
 
busted
 
You know what that means, don’t you? It means that the only way I can post new music is by dusting off all the old crud laying around that wasn’t good enough to post the first time.

Here is a recording that I found settled in the dust. It is of an old American song called Shenandoah. I don’t even recall recording it, which can only mean that at the time I thought it stunk. Well, apparently time not only heals all wounds, if you believe that, but it also seems to wash away imperfections. That is not to imply that this recording is perfect. Far from it. But somehow I now find some redeeming qualities to it.

Having said that, I would consider this a learning track. In recording they say there are three things that make a good track; a good performance, a good arrangement and a good recording of the performance. When I listen to this track I hear a lot of “growth potential” in the vocal performance. For now I’ll refrain from any additional self deprecation on the topic of vocals except to say that listening to ones voice on tape can be about as much fun as gargling bumble bees.

I will say that I’m fond of the simple arrangement. Though, I think the melody may need something to break up the monotony, but I’m not sure what.

The actual recording was a challenge because both the vocal track and the guitar track were recorded at the same time. The downside to this approach is that I don’t have as much control over the tracks as I would like due to the guitar bleeding into the vocal track and vice versa. For example, I like to add a little delay to the vocal track. But if you listen closely to the guitar, milliseconds after a strum you can hear a ghost strum, which is the delay. So, I can’t add delay to the vocal track without adding delay to the guitar because of the bleed. Consequently, the guitar track is not as clean as it could be.

You might say to yourself, ‘why doesn’t he just record the guitar track first and overdub the vocals later’? Well that is sort of like eating one piece of bread with peanut butter on it and then following that up with another slab of bread with jelly. Even though it is all the same ingredients, it is just not as tasty as eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Anyhow, I digress…

With any luck, and some new gear, I may revisit this track again down the road. But for now, it is all I’ve got.

announce

baconRadio

Since February of 2007 close to forty mp3’s have been posted to baconworks.com. Unfortunately they are scattered all over the site. So, why don’t I put them in one place you astutely wonder? Good idea.

I’m pleased to introduce baconRadio.
 
baconRadio
 
You will always find the banner for baconRadio on the top of the right sidebar on baconworks.com. Just so you know what you are looking for…it looks like this:
 
baconRadio banner
 
When you click on that banner a brandy new window will open and music will automatically begin playing, which will look something like this:
 
radio screenshot
 
You can play any tune you like from the list. In addition, clicking on one of those nifty little circles to the right of the tune will link you back to the original blog post where that tune was first introduced.
 
example
 
Try it now! All the cool kids are doin’ it.

Let me know what you think.

general

Memories of Westbrook

The Mariners at Westbrook
 
From top to bottom this past weekend was one of the best Westbrook Musters I can recall. The weather was beautiful, the music was a blast and the company was great. Here are just a few highlights for me. Feel free to reply with your own.

  • Deb, it’s so nice to see April again.
  • John E. Boy, thanks for the interpretive Irish step dancing.
  • Alan, that spider nearly killed you, glad I could save your life
  • Dan, if ever you need any attire correction in the future, you can count on me. Besides I don’t want you to embarrass the rest of us
  • Beave, good man on ye ol’ goat skins. I guess we’ll have to continue carrying the Gary & Ralph torch since there are no others.
  • Richard Benoit, nice chatting and playing tunes with you. I’ll be sending some music your way.
  • Katie, you are sooo grass roots. Thanks for advertising our session before I knew we were having one. Also, thanks for making me feel good about B minor.
  • To those two girls from Delmar who said they were going to go find Wi-Fi so they could check out my web site … you girls rock!
  • Tim, impressive flute playing. Glad I could convince you to play one more tune.
  • Bosse, I can’t believe you played Shenandoah in F! Cool. You’ve come a long way in a short time.
  • Deirdra, mighty whistle playing. With a little more practice, you should be able to get those tunes up to speed  ; )
  • Jeff, glad you found us.
  • Craig, ninety seven versus of The Humors of Whiskey and I could see the finish line for the first time in three years. But, once again, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory. Someone has to take the blame.
  • Mountain, you should play that Em tune like nine times through. Good shtuff.
  • Kate, bring your pipes to Sudbury, we’re putting you on tape.
  • Tish, your fifing rules.
  • Biscuits, you would have been proud.
  • McGraw, you know how to make ’em. Thanks for bringing them down. I’m so happy you all came. It was the best part of my day.
  • Max, I know you can’t read, but Happy Birthday my little punky pirate.
  • Sudbury and the Troopers, Great performances. Thanks so much for playing my tunes.
  • Rachael, thanks for starting Blackwater Tide in the jam. I guess I should re-learn it now.
  • The only downer of the weekend was that Mr. Dukes and The Salad Queen did not make an appearance. I hope you guys show up at Sudbury because my fans hate it when you’re not there.
  • finally I’ll leave you with Eighteen fifes, Six snare, Six bass, Eight flags, Three gunners, Two prisoner handlers, One prisoner, One musketeer, One Jeff, One Commode and, apparently, a fair young maiden. Boom.

Read more “Memories of Westbrook” →

new music

South Wind / Out on the Ocean

Two Old Stones
 
A few weeks back I convinced Unstachio (formerly Mustachio) to swing by and record a few tunes. We had been talking about doing just that for some time but the stars had never quite aligned. We had no real plan other than to just play through some things that we play on Tuesday evenings over at Stone’s.

We did all our recording together, he on bouzouki and myself on guitar. The next day, as I began to play with the tracks, I found that they were super-easy to overdub. It is amazing how playing music with someone else results in a track that is much more musical than anything you can do alone. It is that relationship between musicians that is the real magic dust and it is what transforms notes to music. I feel like we captured some of that here and, at the very least, it was a whole lot of fun.

This track is a combination of two traditional tunes. The first tune is called South Wind and is one we just started playing. The second is a popular jig called Out on the Ocean. I love how the bouzouki (left speaker) just seems to lick around the guitar melody (right speaker). Incidentally, I’ve added this track to the working album title called Two Old Stones (George, did I tell you we’re making an album?)
South Wind Out OnThe Ocean by baconworks

performance

Civil War Troopers Play the Bacon

A long time friend, Dominick Cuccia, just sent me this video of his fife and drum corps, The Civil War Troopers, playing an arrangement of tunes that I authored through the years. They entitled the piece Bacon Bits. Dom, as well as much of his family, have always been great supporters of my music and it is a real pleasure for me to hear this. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to hear a live performance yet, but I’m really looking forward to it. Great job Troopers!
 

 
For those that are interested, here is the ordered list of tunes in the medley:

  1. The Seguin Island Light
  2. Gloriana
  3. Cape Horn
  4. Blackwood Reel

Incidentally, Gloriana and Cape Horn can also be found in the Company of Fifers & Drummers Book IV, entitled In the Ancient Spirit.