Nothin' but the Blues

Nothin' but the Blues
America's truly original music form

Get answers to questions about the Blues

Learn interesting stuff about Blues performers

Discover some great Blues CDs you can buy (not from me)

Check out "The Bluez Projekt" (my own blues recordings)

Learn about Open-G tuning and Slide guitar

See what happy readers say about these blues pages

Find links to other Blues-related resources

Yes, I couldn't resist. I love blues. I also play some guitar.

And, for better or for worse, I sing a little as well. (I'm in the blue shirt)

So when a friend turned me on to "Cakewalk" software, which allows multi-track recording on a PC, what else could I do? I am now in the process of creating a set of blues recordings featuring:

Myself, mostly playing my Godin Freeway Classic and Fender Fat Strat guitars (shown below), and
MIDI instruments for all the stuff I don't have or cannot play (e.g. drums, piano, bass, etc).

I hope to get some musician friends to make guest performances here and there.

Video sample
(Windows Media WMV, 5.6 Mb)

See complete videos of this
Blues Jam Session on YouTube
including optional commentaries

When it is all done, and assuming it doesn't suck, I hope to release a CD of my work.

I'm also working on a DVD with the video of us all jamming away, complete with subtitles, commentary, and extra non-video music tracks.

Of course, it is edited to just show the good parts :-) :-)

Tunes recorded so far...

"Before You Accuse Me" (by Bo Diddly) is pretty much done. This rendition is a fairly intense blues-rock interpretation of the song - to hear a sample click here.
"Bromophenol Blues" (by me) is pretty much done. I wrote this song roughly 25 years ago about my college chemistry class - to hear a sample click here.
"The Cool 23rd" (by King David, arranged by Dennis Buettner, Bob Fuss, Tim Neblung, Dave Sheffield and Tom Van De Pol) is completed. In case you didn't guess, this is the 23rd Psalm from the Bible, only done as light jazz (not exactly blues, but close enough) - to hear a sample click here.
"Walking Blues" (by Robert Johnson) is a classic tune from before World War II. This is my first unplugged tune; I use a bottle-neck slide on my 12-string acoustic guitar, which has a unique sound. This little musical snack is completed - to hear a sample click here.
"Rats 'N' Roaches" (by Silas Hogan) is an obscure but very cool tune about unwelcome guests in the kitchen. My friend Ernie finally came by and added a sizzling lead guitar solo! All done! To hear a sample click here.
"Stormy Monday" (by Aaron 'T-Bone' Walker) is finally done, and I have a sample worth hearing!! It took literally weeks getting this lead guitar part right (my fingers suck at lead riffs). To hear a sample click here.
"Spirit in the Sky/Sanctified Boogie Chillin" (by Norman Greenbaum/John Lee Hooker) has come together very rapidly! This classic psychedelic Jesus-freak anthem has been kit-bashed with some John Lee Hooker boogie blues, including bits of his flagship song "Boogie Chillin" blended in (with "sanctified" lyric changes). To hear a sample click here.
Extra! Hear a sample of the killer lead guitar solo provided by Bob Donnelly! To hear Bob tear it up, click here.
"Slidin' Delta" (by J. D. Short) is one of the oldest known blues songs; J. D. Short heard this being sung when he was a child in 1907. The "Slidin' Delta" was a very slow train that ran through Mississippi. This haunting song struck me because it was so rich with emotion, and yet so timeless after almost 100 years. My recording features the sound of an actual Crosby 3-chime 6-inch steam whistle, which I found to be the most eerily-beautiful of all the old train whistles. To hear a sample click here.
"Everybody Works But Pappy" (by me) is defintely an act of God! This tribute to my Dad, based on a silly snippet of a song he used to sing, just came to me all at once. Due to the significance of this piece, I've opted to place the entire tune on this page, not just a sample. Remember, this is copyrighted, you can refer others to my website to hear it, but please don't duplicate or distribute. To hear a sample click here, or to hear the whole song click here.
"Baby What You Want Me To Do" (by Jimmy Reed) is a great classic tune! While his original rendidtion of this song was slow and plodding, I have opted, like many others, for a faster, more upbeat rockin' tempo. The tune is almost finished, to hear a sample, click here, .
Extra! Special thanks to Peter Reali for providing a much needed harp solo! It provides a good segue into Ernie's final guitar licks, to hear just how good, click here.
"Down In The Bottom" (by Willie Dixon) was written for Chester "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett, and my arrangement is largely modelled after how the "Wolf" performed it. It has kind of a "retro" sound, in that I kept the arrangement simple, but I put plenty of slide guitar in. To hear a sample, click here, .
"Stink Butt Doggy Blues" (by me) was written, largely as a joke, in order to show my son Nathan how easy it was to write a blues song (he had to write one for his guitar class). But instead of following my example and writing his own, he proceeded to steal this song and use it in his class! The tune is almost finished, I'm still polishing the lead riffs, but to hear a sample, click here, .
"Have You Ever Been Mistreated" (by Lightnin' Hopkins) is also known in later incarnations as "Five Long Years". As much as I like Buddy Guy's modern arrangement, the droning sound of the original arrangement really caught my ear, so this tune is based on the original sound of guys like Lightnin' Hopkins and Joe Hunter. To hear a sample, click here, .
And, hopefully, more to come...

How the recordings are done...

Here are the steps I take when recording music (more or less):

Establish the basic foundation of the song: I create MIDI programming so the computer will generate and play the drums, bass, and keyboard. Originally I did this using "Anvil Studio" (freeware) - it's features were limited, but, hey, the price was right. Today, however, I use "Cakewalk" since it has a better user interface and all the later steps will also occur within "Cakewalk" anyway.
Polish up the MIDI instruments: The drum, bass and keyboard parts are improved by adding interesting embellishments, like what a human musician might do. These instruments must sound believable so they are good enough to include in the final recording. "Cakewalk" really helps me here because the MIDI instruments can be "played" by virtual software-based synthesizers included with "Cakewalk". These often provide better sounding instrument voices.
Add a rough draft of the guitar part: One more MIDI instrument (with a guitar sound) is programmed to provide a rough draft of what the guitar part will be. This helps me hear what the overall song should sound like once I've added real guitars later. The MIDI guitar instruments sound crappy, nothing like a real guitar, but they are temporary. Once I've recorded the actual guitar parts, then the MIDI guitar will be deactivated and not be heard in the final recording.
Convert all the MIDI sounds to "recorded audio": While the MIDI instruments can be heard during the recording process, they are not included when "Cakewalk" generates the final product (in a Windows WAV file). Only recorded audio can be part of the final product, not MIDI-generated sounds. Luckily, "Cakewalk" is able convert MIDI instrument sounds into recorded audio by simply feeding the MIDI commands into "virtual synthesizers", which also have better instrument sounds than the MIDI instruments. Unlike the MIDI instruments, these virtual synths can have more special effects added to them (like reverb, echoes, chorus effects, etc.).
Record the rhythm guitars: Finally, a human being is making a contribution to this song! I record the rhythm guitar part, usually more than once. I like to have two rhythm guitar tracks for a fuller stereo sound. I typically record several takes, then keep the best ones. Also, "Cakewalk" has a feature called "punch-in" recording, where small flawed portions of an otherwise good take can be re-recorded, leaving all the other good parts intact. Many little mistakes and flubbed notes are repaired this way.
Record lead and accent guitar parts: Additional guitar tracks are recorded for things like lead solos and little bits of guitar riffs that are just for accent (usually with a different sound than the other guitar parts). Since I'm not that quick with the fingers, my solos tend to be done with a metal slide instead.
Perform the first round of "car stereo tests": Now that everything is in place except the vocals, I take the instrument-only recording in the car with me and play it loud and often. I listen for any little thing that could be improved, then I might adjust the mixing, or the special effects, or I might re-record some parts.
Record one or more vocal tracks: Years ago, I'd often record songs with two or more vocal tracks, so you would hear more than one of me singing. But voice-doubling doesn't really sound right with blues, so I usually use just one vocal track, unless there are some background vocals or a bit of harmonizing to add. I still record many takes of the vocal track, then I keep the best of the bunch. I'll sometimes use cut-and-paste editing to copy a tiny bit of singing from one vocal track and paste it into another, thus fixing a small but noticable goof in the singing.
Perform the second round of "car stereo tests": The complete song, vocals and all, is now put to the test. I listen to how it sounds pretty loud, and also with the volume pretty low. I look for spots where the words of the song are hard to hear, as well as places where a loud high note is too shrill when the volume is turned up. I may go back and change the mixing, or re-record some portion of the song, depending on how good or bad it sounds, then repeat the "car stereo tests" again. With any luck, I may have a good final product at this point, and then I can decide what other song to record next...

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