The Jongleurs - The Peddler

[Armistice]

... and the hits keep on coming...

Apologies for bludgeoning you with more Jongleurs, but I'm on a mission...

So...

Another of the other guy's (Rich's) songs.

Rich: lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, djembe
Moi: backing vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, shaker egg (badly - they're not actually that easy...), tambourine & handclaps

As usual... can't help you on what it all MEANS in terms of lyrics.... it sounds deep to me...

The Peddler

Now... imagine two guys & two acoustic guitars on stage... we get through the song with the big third verse/chorus bit, and then the song ends with him strumming and me ripping out the (acoustic) guitar solo - not the one I've recorded here, another one... before the quiet bit at the end... it dies at the guitar solo, basically.

So I thought, I have to do something about this... and like a good producah, I've just gone completely batshit crazy with the ending without even checking with the song's author and singer, who's currently on holidays. That'll learn him to take a break whilst I'm sweating on his songs over a hot PC...

He could well come back next week and say "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO THE ENDING OF MY SONG!!!!!" but I'm sort of hoping, given that it continues to build through the guitar solo, that he'll like my randomness. I don't even like guitar solos. Anyway... before you turn the volume up at the beginning, imagine a carrot lying on its side... that's the wave form - so trust me, it gets much louder at the end.... take care

A difficult mix and lots of tweaking ahead I guess, but I have to start somewhere!

Have at it... any and all feedback gratefully received.

Cheers

 

[Mr Clean]

All I can say is very nice. You've captured a really nice sound. I'm on listen 5 as I type. I've listened loud and quiet.

I'd personally like to hear a little more brightness to the acoustic but it sounds nice as it is. The solo at the end seemed a little smidgen too loud to me but in an acceptable region. As did the vocals in some parts but it didn't sound bad.

There's a noise at the end on the fade, probably the last bang on the djembe that almost sounds like the guitar being put down or banged. I'd personally remove that.

Just my 2pence worth.

Very good work, this is my cup of tea. I think the song is great. Great vocals, performance.

*EDIT* I can almost hear a banjo playing in that song. You should add one.

 

[Armistice]

All I can say is very nice. You've captured a really nice sound. I'm on listen 5 as I type. I've listened loud and quiet.

I'd personally like to hear a little more brightness to the acoustic but it sounds nice as it is. The solo at the end seemed a little smidgen too loud to me but in an acceptable region. As did the vocals in some parts but it didn't sound bad.

There's a noise at the end on the fade, probably the last bang on the djembe that almost sounds like the guitar being put down or banged. I'd personally remove that.

Just my 2pence worth.

Very good work, this is my cup of tea. I think the song is great. Great vocals, performance.

*EDIT* I can almost hear a banjo playing in that song. You should add one.

Thanks MC.... alas, I don't know any banjo players... Probably not a bad thing! I had a listen on the home stereo after I posted it up and I agree that the solo is a bit loud and the acoustics a little dark so I've done a tweak or two this morning....

I need to walk away from it and get fresh ears with the vocals... so much going on there - maybe tonight. Thanks for the kind words... I've always thought this was a good song that we never could quite get happening live... just hope he likes what I've done with it!

 

[TripleM]

Generally sounds nice. Great clarity and tone on the acoustic guitars.

Little pop at :10.

Lead vocal sounds a little boxy to my ear. Sounds like it's in a different space from the guitars. The lower harmony vocals (at 1:13 for example) have a weird rumbling to them in spots. The other harmonies sound nice.

I like the rhythm section.

 

[fritsthegirl]

I like listening to your stuff, the more the merrier. Kind of really jealous, but your music is right up my street, I always really enjoy it.

Mate, mate...I keep forgetting you're Aussies. LOL. Ah, you must be sad to be losing this particular mate though, you guys make a superb team.

Nice bit of electric solo. Kind reminded me a bit of one of Heatmiser's solos. All in all, I cannot ever fault your stuff, sounds amazing to me, chilled out, sweet melodies, excellent recording and playing & singing.

I just thought the lower harmony vocal at about 1:18 was sounding a bit buzzy, possibly just too loud. But I'm listening on headphones, and also, what do I know?

Nice job. I really dig the guitar solo FWIW.

 

[Armistice]

Generally sounds nice. Great clarity and tone on the acoustic guitars.

Little pop at :10.

Lead vocal sounds a little boxy to my ear. Sounds like it's in a different space from the guitars. The lower harmony vocals (at 1:13 for example) have a weird rumbling to them in spots. The other harmonies sound nice.

I like the rhythm section.

Thanks TM.... I'll have a listen to the lead vox again tonight...and I suspect the weird rumbling in the backing vox is my incredibly croaky voice... had a bad cold earlier this year and ever since, down low, I'm completely croaky... v. annoying!

 

[Armistice]

I like listening to your stuff, the more the merrier. Kind of really jealous, but your music is right up my street, I always really enjoy it.

Mate, mate...I keep forgetting you're Aussies. LOL. Ah, you must be sad to be losing this particular mate though, you guys make a superb team.

Nice bit of electric solo. Kind reminded me a bit of one of Heatmiser's solos. All in all, I cannot ever fault your stuff, sounds amazing to me, chilled out, sweet melodies, excellent recording and playing & singing.

I just thought the lower harmony vocal at about 1:18 was sounding a bit buzzy, possibly just too loud. But I'm listening on headphones, and also, what do I know?

Nice job. I really dig the guitar solo FWIW.

Hi frits... thanks for listening and the comments.... actually I'm the only Aussie... he's English! The son of one of the founding Strawbs members, no less... I had this really uninspiring solo happening live and I tried all sorts of stuff to bring it into the recorded version and then thought... stuff it, I don't even like it, it's just that Rich has this thing about me playing guitar solos sometimes... so decided to reconstruct and force myself to not just stay in the box... so I'm quite happy with it. Will check out the 1:18 thing... sounds like the same thing that TripleM is saying and I think I know what it is!..

Cheers

 

[rayc]

Son of Strawb!
Wow, a pommy with decent provinence is Mr Rich.
His affinity with the Jong. style makes all the more sense.
The solo? MATE! It def. has a bit of Lloyd & Verlain in it.
The song is cool.
I'm waiting to get a CD!

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Lovely. Great harmonies on the chorus.

The big thing that sticks out to me is that the lead vox get a little buried in a few places after the second chorus, when the guitars start to pick up.

Solo sounds alright to me. The claps (finger snaps?) afterwards are a little weird and disjointed though.

 

[JimmyS1969]

I love the Djembe! Another one I have not much to nit about.

 

[Mr Clean]

Wow, a son of a Strawb. I love the Strawbs, the early stuff. Got the vinyl of the first 5 albums tucked away in the collection. After a little digging on the old google, I take it his papa was Bassist Ron Chesterman? (sadly no longer with us)

Had another few listens to the song today. This is definitely my favourite song I heard from anyone on here this far. Proper good song.

 

[Armistice]

Son of Strawb!
Wow, a pommy with decent provinence is Mr Rich.
His affinity with the Jong. style makes all the more sense.
The solo? MATE! It def. has a bit of Lloyd & Verlain in it.
The song is cool.
I'm waiting to get a CD!

Thanks ray... all this feedback is going to be good for when he hears it next week... if I get a WTF reaction.... Hopefully early next year for the CD... not much more to do now and I may pick your brains on exactly how you got yours up and running at some stage soon... Cheers.

 

[Armistice]

Lovely. Great harmonies on the chorus.

The big thing that sticks out to me is that the lead vox get a little buried in a few places after the second chorus, when the guitars start to pick up.

Solo sounds alright to me. The claps (finger snaps?) afterwards are a little weird and disjointed though.

So I've learnt something about recording handclaps here.... that if you don't get the really chunky cupped sound, they do indeed sound like finger snaps... I may redo bits of that... it was sort of me attempting to make it sound like there was this bunch of people in the studio grooving along and they just got a bit carried away at the ending instead of stopping... I'm happy to give ground on that one... haven't convinced myself yet. Still listening to the vocals and will tweak more on the weekend .. thanks for listening

 

[Armistice]

I love the Djembe! Another one I have not much to nit about.

Thanks Jimmy... it's my first djembe... Had to go and edit out a few hits there... he was getting a bit carried away in places...

 

[Armistice]

Wow, a son of a Strawb. I love the Strawbs, the early stuff. Got the vinyl of the first 5 albums tucked away in the collection. After a little digging on the old google, I take it his papa was Bassist Ron Chesterman? (sadly no longer with us)

Had another few listens to the song today. This is definitely my favourite song I heard from anyone on here this far. Proper good song.

Correct Mr Clean. His father died a couple of years back... his mother's Australian, although she lives in England, which is sort of how he landed here... she came out last year and attended one of our gigs and gave us the thumbs up as "the real deal" compared to some of the other acts on the bill, so I think he got a lot of pride out of that... I never met his father. And Rich hasn't inherited the bass playing chops, alas...

I never actually mentioned in all this rambling one of the more interesting points about this tune... guitar playing wise... A couple of years back I discovered this thing called a "third hand" capo which allows you to capo strings on an individual basis, and so I bought one and it sounded interesting, and I showed it to Rich and he bought one too... and then he turns up for practice one day with it on and played this tune... it's set to 220202... I play standard tuning and normal chords against it so that all gives it a bit of jangle... oh and when he turned up to record he'd downtuned a half step too for something else, so we just kept it that way...

 

[Mr Clean]

I never actually mentioned in all this rambling one of the more interesting points about this tune... guitar playing wise... A couple of years back I discovered this thing called a "third hand" capo which allows you to capo strings on an individual basis, and so I bought one and it sounded interesting, and I showed it to Rich and he bought one too... and then he turns up for practice one day with it on and played this tune... it's set to 220202... I play standard tuning and normal chords against it so that all gives it a bit of jangle... oh and when he turned up to record he'd downtuned a half step too for something else, so we just kept it that way...

Nice bit info, thanks for that. I'd been jamming along with it while listening earlier. Nice chords structure. I might record it myself, but differently obviously. I cannae sing like that. lol

 

[Armistice]

Nice bit info, thanks for that. I'd been jamming along with it while listening earlier. Nice chords structure. I might record it myself, but differently obviously. I cannae sing like that. lol

One of these bad boys... Third Hand Capo

Great idea, crap engineering.. elasticised bands holding it on and cheaply punched holes with a metal grommet thing that falls out... luckily they're cheap.... I also had to pull both of ours apart and insert small washers in between the lugs to space the individual things out to suit the guitars. Not hard, but annoying....

Actually when we did this song live, it was my excuse to rap on about something for about a minute whilst Rich got his capo out, put it on, got down and retuned his guitar etc etc. Told him he should be using heavier strings. I can put one on my guitar without retuning, but his was always problematic... anyway, it just meant I got to crack jokes with the audience for a while...

 

[paulisher]

Nice song and performance. Acoustic guitars sound great as does your vocals. Percussion part may not compliment this song as much as it could but at least it's not busy or overbearing. Great sound overall.

 

[Armistice]

Nice song and performance. Acoustic guitars sound great as does your vocals. Percussion part may not compliment this song as much as it could but at least it's not busy or overbearing. Great sound overall.

Thanks for listening paul. Cheers

 

[rpm61]

That's a very tasty sideways carrot! I enjoyed this song quite a bit, very nice harmonies and the feel of the guitar sound I love. I also liked the percussion but I would probably have added a bass line anchor at some point, not that it needs it. Your guitar solo was very good as well, using your imagination there I hear, it has some very nice turns. Great listen, let us know your "mate's" reaction!