OT:We saw Lightfoot last night.

Apr 16, 2010 92 Replies
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That would have been Red Shea. He passed away almost 2 years ago. He was a finger-picker from the Kotke way of getting things done. Even though he had extraordinary picking skills, he always stayed tasty.

Lightfoot has a very distinctive voice but what made him was his song writing ability. That and Elvis doing his Early Morning Rain.

That would have been Red Shea. He passed away almost 2 years ago. He was a finger-picker from the Kotke way of getting things done. Even though he had extraordinary picking skills, he always stayed tasty.

Thanks for filling in that missing piece for me, RT. I'll say that guy could pick a 12-string.

Tom

was a finger-picker from the Kotke way of getting things done. Even though he had extraordinary picking skills, he always stayed tasty.

---------------------------------------------------- Some years ago, NPR brocast a night of pickin from someplace in North Carolina.

Ricky Skaggs on mandolin, Doc Watson on guitar & Earl Scruggs on banjo.

Quite an evening's entertainment.

Lew

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, no tractors.

His upper register is shot and he tried to power his way up and through, but it sounded like air escaping, no tone. That happened on a few occasions. I do know he is 72 and he no longer has the voice of a younger man. I know this. But to see him struggle like that wasn't fun. Imagine Ali going in for 15 rounds the shape he is in.....(I know that's a bit different.) Like I said... it was awkward.

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I saw Gord in concert about 20 years ago in NJ. He kept having to stop and apologize for forgetting the words - to songs that HE WROTE!

B.

Skaggs is a criminal So is Vince Gill... Yup, Ricky can really fly.

20 years ago he was still doing all kinds of substances....booze in particular. A lot of people in the Toronto music scene wouldn't have anything to do with him for the longest time.

Ricky Skaggs played on two cuts of Manhattan Transfer's "Swing" album.

I'll order it. I watched Elvis Costello's show Spectacles this evening. John Prine, Lyle Lovett and Ray LaMontagne. They did, as a group, Van Zandt's Loretta. Kinda cool that.

On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 10:13:48 -0500, the infamous -MIKE- scrawled the following:

Milli Vanilli incarnate, wot? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

It's DEPENDS time, folks.

On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:44:08 -0500, the infamous -MIKE- scrawled the following:

What is getting very common is to have the road band and singers go in the rehearsal studio before the tour, and record the "live" performance to a multi-track recorder.

Then, the live show sound engineers have the option of what to mix in the house sound, live or recorded. So, essentially, you are hearing and seeing what the people on stage are playing and singing.... it may have been performed weeks ago, but it's the people you're seeing... their performance. If that makes sense.

You're getting a mix of live with recorded that is different every night depending on circumstances.

And, a treatise on why most all pop music these days basically sucks.

In a nutshell, the opportunity for an exciting _live_ performance based on the oftentimes magical interaction between a band, the music, and the audience is being traded for what is perhaps an adequate, but above all safe for all concerned performance, with little or now chance for the former.

Then throw in a gallon or so of AutoTune ... :(

:)

True dat. Pretty much, any time you see dancers and/or video presentations along with the music, you can be certain that much of what you are hearing is canned.

Stevie Wonder did that 30 years ago during his Circle In The Square tour. I discussed this with Mark Smith, his engineer, and the reasons were, I thought, quite valid. First of all, they only did a few songs with only Stevie's voice, the band was live, and the big reason was that Stevie's voice had to be conserved for the last part of the concert. That particular night at The Memorial in Rochester NY, they only did two songs that way. Sometimes 3 or 4, sometimes none. Certainly never because they 'had' to.

There's always a rationale, and when it comes to time, money and convenience they are usually very valid.

Being a realist, I concur with the methods, although I regret them as a musician.

There is absolutely nothing on this earth like the HIGH of a live, spontaneous, musical interaction with other musicians when your hearts are beating as one and you're meeting on top of the beat and shaking hands ... and that goes doubly for the witnessing audience as well!

Record that, and you've got gold!

Besides, it's why most musicians play in the first place ...

Not money for nothing and the chicks for free? Microwave ovens?

Playing like Mark Knopfler does, it's a slam dunk that he played many a gig for nothing, for the sheer joy of playing. :)

The big inside joke in the biz, is that *the* benchmark live rock album, "Frampton Comes Alive," was about 70 percent overdubs.

Might be an urban myth, but it's still funny.

I can get all the chicks I want, *real* cheap, down at Tractor Supply, the week after Easter.

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