Like Americana? Want to review a demo?

Hey!

Do you like Americana? Do you like being a music critic? I'm thinking of making a CD to demo a handful of the songs I've written, but only if I can produce a CD that actually sounds good. And we're all our own most unreliable critics, right?

I'm posting here because (a) the opinions of friends and family are less useful than the opinions of strangers and (b) my '76 D-35 is on some of the tracks.

Since I'm better at writing than at singing or playing, coming up with something presentable is a challenge. The list of tunes I'm considering is whittled down to sixteen from over a hundred, but that's still too many.

So here's a link to a page with the songs: Sixteen songs. (I use the pen name Leon Fullerton.)

Scroll down past the extensive blather. The tunes are at the bottom of the page.

No need to listen to an entire song if you're not enjoying it. Just move on to the next.

Tell me:

- Which, if any, are demo-worthy?
- Which are dead weight?

You can tell me to use all of 'em. Or dump all of 'em and start fresh. All comments are welcome. We'll never meet, right?

Thanks!

cb
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I like the guitar playing.
i do not understand the talking over the progression however.

cool and thanks for sharing.

Westerly Wood said:

I like the guitar playing.
i do not understand the talking over the progression however.

cool and thanks for sharing.

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Thanks, Westerly. Just to clarify - you don't understand the words, you don't understand why they're spoken instead of sung, or you don't understand the vocal timing?

Any tunes worth holding on to? Any that need to be euthanized for their own good?

I listened to a couple. The whole spoken word over instrumental background does not work for me (and that was all the "vocals" were in the ones I heard). The backgrounds were interesting but I found the speaking distracting. This is not a value judgement on the music or performance as much as an indication of a strong personal preference related to style.

I find "Americiana" to be a somewhat vague and broad term personally. Some things with that label I find really enjoyable and others fail to hold my interest or otherwise engage me.

It bothers me to be negative but you did ask for feedback. I'm probably not the target audience.

Good luck.

fronobulax said:

I listened to a couple. The whole spoken word over instrumental background does not work for me (and that was all the "vocals" were in the ones I heard). The backgrounds were interesting but I found the speaking distracting. This is not a value judgement on the music or performance as much as an indication of a strong personal preference related to style.

I find "Americiana" to be a somewhat vague and broad term personally. Some things with that label I find really enjoyable and others fail to hold my interest or otherwise engage me.

It bothers me to be negative but you did ask for feedback. I'm probably not the target audience.

Good luck.

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Yeah, I don't like "Americana" either. It's just the contemporary equivalent of the equally poorly named "folk rock" of another era. Think Wilco, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welsh, Dave Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Sun Volt.

Your comments are great and help a lot.

Since the tunes I posted aren't blues, country, or rock and they all have American roots themes, sounds, and cliches, it's the closest genre I could hitch them to.

I'm not a singer and don't have anyone to do my vocals for me, so that's that. I write songs and play a bit of guitar and whatnot. If that leaves me dead in the water, that's life.

I'll go back and take some songs out and put a few others in - blues, country, and rock. If the same problem persists, it's back to the Tascam. Nothing wrong with that!

Charlie Bernstein said:

I'm not a singer and don't have anyone to do my vocals for me, so that's that. I write songs and play a bit of guitar and whatnot. If that leaves me dead in the water, that's life.

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Since you are recording, you can presumably multi track and dropping the spoken words and playing or improvising a melody above the background might be an alternative.

And I suppose I have committed myself to listening to more of the tracks. By and by.

fronobulax said:

Since you are recording, you can presumably multi track and dropping the spoken words and playing or improvising a melody above the background might be an alternative . . . .

Click to expand...

Yes, all the tracks are me. Could never afford to hire singers or musicians! I've put a lot of hours into the vocals, because for me they're the hard part. I rerecorded every phrase repeatedly and painstakingly to get them reasonably intelligible. So I don't think there's much to be gained by getting into that again.

And my basement recording space isn't available anymore. We got a new furnace, and its electronic components' hums are too noisy to record over.

What I CAN do is put together a different batch with more variety. That might do it.

If there's still nothing demo-worthy there, then I'll just put the CD money into something else, like a cool old mando or a little Dr. Z.