The Desert Mothers

Monday, January 28, 2008

5 Favorite Songs

I stumbled across Paul Zollo’s music site bluerailroad.com, which features lists of 5 Favorite Songs by Bob Newhart, John Doe, Diana Krall, and others. Before I knew it I’d written my own and was trying to submit it - only to find the form is broken. So, rather than let it go entirely to waste…

Angel, Jimi Hendrix
Many people think of Jimi Hendrix as a lead guitarist, but he was also a brilliant rhythm player, with a style that grew out of his work backing R&B bands, including the early Isley Brothers. “Angel” is a beautiful ballad with a rhythm guitar accompaniment that transforms “licks” into orchestration.
I Can’t Make You Love Me, (sung by) Bonnie Raitt
Just a beautifully written song that captures a deep emotion - a favorite “I wish I’d written that” of many songwriters. The actual writers were Allen Shamblin and Mike Reid. I understand they started out writing an uptempo bluegrass song - if you sing it fast in your head you can hear what they were up to. (more…)

posted by spencer at 2:07 am  

Monday, January 28, 2008

O’Reilly Digital Media Article on Recording “Nowhere Motel”

I wrote an article for O’Reilly Digital Media (as in Tim O’Reilly, not Bill O’Reilly), on the recording of “Nowhere Motel” using esession.com, the web-based “virtual recording studio” founded by Gina Fant-Saez - the same Gina Fant-Saez who sings “Nowhere Motel” - you can read how all that came to be.The Desert Mothers were scattered around the United States - and at one point, Nova Scotia - but stayed connected via esession. The article has lots of MP3 examples so you can hear the song came together.

posted by spencer at 1:28 am  

Boots Road Music