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MAXEL TOFT29 (Harding)
2016 I know I say this every time but this is yet another album that builds off of ideas in the previous recordings. I like trying to create old sounding folk songs with new lyrical material. I don't know how much it works for the listener but I am pretty pleased with the content. It is more "folk" like 31 where there are a lot of solo live recordings but this time there are also a couple of guitar songs like 30. I recorded every vocal track simultaneous to banjo/guitar. The drum parts were just recorded with two condenser mics. I went back to mixing this myself to save both time and money and as usual I wonder how much better it could sound from a professional. I released this only four months after the last one and I am not sure many people listened to it. I could have taken more time to rehearse everything but I decided that the results would be negligible so might as well record and move on. Hopefully there is character where the musicianship falters. A Few Laborers is a clawhammer G tuning Bible reference song attempting to continue the tradition of old time religion. Dissed uses a more strummed clawhammer style in G tuning. These are some lyrics that I thought I would never use because they are more of a hip-hop parody but with this banjo lick they really work well in an upbeat sarcastic way. Offer is a clawhammer C tuning song. These lyrics are really old and they never seemed to fit with anything but finally it kind of made sense and fit in really good with this chromatic lick. Perfect is just the opposite of a hard luck song. The words came first and the music came naturally. When a song comes naturally I am always worried that I inadvertently stole from some other tune. Other times I can tell which tune I stole from and purposely not do the same thing. In Transition probably could have used some more producing but I wanted to make a sparse version. I think it could sound real good with piano and someone that can sing all the correct notes without straining. This was one of the more difficult songs to sing. Singing Along is one of those lyrics and tunes that came together real nice. I may record it again as a country song but I wanted a simple version first. Because We All Are Teachers is just me trying to be political folk and classical at the same time. I don't know if it works or not. I don't know if I broke any copyrights. The Typist is a D tuning clawhammer song that could almost be an instrumental but I had some words that fit. Just trying to create a folk song for another profession than all those romantic figures like cowboys and train engineers and hobos etc. This was one of the more difficult songs to play. He Is Instrumental is a song recorded after 30 but before I officially started 29. The words are too religious for what I consider a Maxel Toft song but I had space and wanted to include the tune. |