The last post (here)

I've been neglecting this site and have decided to just integrate all the songs into my more active blog, chuckFALZONE.com. You can find all the songs there, interspersed with other posts, and when I record new stuff, I will post it there and not here.

I'm aiming to record at least a song a month in 2009 so please follow the link and keep an eye out over there.

Thanks!

Live and in person with the Bob Dylan Ensemble

Spread the word far and wide, I'll be singing and playing this Saturday at the Hidden Cove with the Old Town School of Folk Music's Bob Dylan Ensemble. For those of you around Chicago, come on out. Here are some of the reasons you should:

• We'll be mining some pretty obscure material--great Dylan songs that you've likely never heard.
• It's at the Hidden Cove on Lincoln Ave. north of Foster. Have you seen their sign? Come on, that's reason enough right there.
• It's early, 7pm!
• It's FREE. No Cover!
• We'll be followed by Crustz, featuring Jimmy Tomasello and Steve Levitt. (No, I haven't heard Crustz, either, but I'll bet they'll be worth a listen.)
• You know you want to.

Here's all the relevant info:

Saturday, October 25, 7pm
at The Hidden Cove
5336 N. Lincoln Ave.
Free of charge


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Not Dark Yet

A cover of a Dylan song that appeared on his 1997 album, Time Out of Mind:

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The Cubs are down 0-2, have looked terrible against the Dodgers so far in the series, and now would have to win two in L.A. and one more at Wrigley. Game three is about to start... "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."

I actually recorded this several weeks back but hadn't gotten around to mixing and posting it. It seemed appropriate to do so today.

Next up I want to get back to some more old timey songs. And hopefully at least a couple a month. We'll see.

I'm Not There

"I'm Not There (1956)" is possibly my favorite Bob Dylan song. There's an immediacy to the emotion there but at the same time you can spend however long you like trying to "figure it out."

I've been working on playing it for a while now. This recording is definitely just a stop along the way. I'm already past it and may give it another shot again soon.

I couldn't decide which way to go with the mix, so here are two alternatives, one dark and grimy, one clean and shiny. Let me know which works better for you.

Dirty:

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Clean:

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Suzanne and Long Black Veil

I know, it's been a while. Things should flow more regularly again now, though.

Today I have two songs that have been covered many, many times. Hopefully, my arrangements will hold some interest if you're already familiar with the songs.

First, "Suzanne," the Leonard Cohen song:

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Next, an old country ballad called Long Black Veil. This one has been most famously recorded by Johnny Cash and also by The Band. It sounds like one of those old ballads that's maybe been around for a hundred years or more...but in fact it was written in 1959, first recorded by Lefty Frizzell.

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I played a bit with the recording to get a certain sound for each song...ultimately, I probably could have kept it a whole lot simpler and it would have sounded about the same.

More coming soon.

Soundtrack to a Hiatus

I'm still here, and still not recording. I'll be up and running with a swank new recording set up pretty soon...and have some interesting things to post here from my past, if all goes well in transferring them from moldy old cassettes.

In the meantime, enjoy this French radio station I found.

Hiatus

The Chuck is on hiatus, friends, while I deal with buying a house, packing, moving, etc.

I'll be back in action sometime in April, I expect.

I Threw It All Away

Just one song this weekend. Two others were recorded but upon further review need more work.

So we've got "I Threw It All Away," from Bob Dylan's album, Nashville Skyline. Corny as the lyrics look in type, bridge just lifts me up when I hear it or sing it: "Love is all there is/It makes the world go 'round..."

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I Ain't Got No Home and Moonshiner

The first one this week is an old Woody Guthrie song, "I Ain't Got No Home," which I'm told is based on an even older spiritual. I played with the melody a bit. Typically I try to stay pretty authentic on these old songs but here I felt like I could make it feel a little more desperate.

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Next up is "Moonshiner," an old folk song. The lyrics I use are a mix of a couple different versions. It's a moody song but really fun to sing. The narrator seems to drink more whiskey than he makes.

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I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

Just one song this week. I had five ready to try out and figured I'd get at least two but actually just ran out of time. So only one got recorded. It's one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine."

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A few things about the song and this recording:

• There are some extraneous noises on the recording. You can hear the radiators whistling in the background throughout, and towards the end you can hear Mugsy tapping around on the floor. Guess it's time to get his nails cut.


• I'm not entirely happy with my performance. I will likely take another stab at it at some point.


• About the song: I have a whole interpretation worked up and it's a really meaningful song to me but I don't want to impose that on you necessarily. Do note, though, that in the 2nd verse, St. Augustine tells him, "know you're not alone," and in the next verse, when he awakes, he feels "so alone and terrified."


• I tried a slightly different miking setup. The previous songs have all been done with one vocal mic and one close mic on the guitar. For this one, I set the vocal mic a couple feet away, and then had a room mic on the floor on a chair a couple more feet away. Both mics picked up a mix of guitar and vocals; I added reverb only to the room mic and left the vocal mic dry.

Jesus Christ and Corrina

Two more songs this week, both recorded today. First off is Woody Guthrie's ballad, "Jesus Christ":

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I find it to be a really interesting song. First off, the tune is exactly that of the old outlaw ballad, "Jesse James." Even some of the phrases are similar: "laid poor Jesse in his grave" vs. "laid Jesus Christ in his grave"; also the phrases "dirty little coward" and "on the sly" appear in both. Woody could expect his audience to recognize the tune and so he is making a statement just by the fact that he has cast the story of Jesus as an outlaw ballad. His point is that Jesus, in his time, had a radical message that was a threat to those in power; he was an outlaw. Later he makes it a little more pointed by pointing out that the message is still radical. It does go a little overboard toward the end, where Woody's leftist leanings sneak in and we hear Jesus talking about a revolution by the workers...Anyway, really interesting song. Lyrics (both versions a little different than how I sing it) are here.

Next up is an old blues, "Corrina."

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This one goes way back and, like "Frankie," has spawned some pop song derivatives. I'm basically using the same lyrics Bob Dylan does on "Freewheelin'". The arrangement is pretty much my own, though.

Frankie and Freight Train

Two songs this week. I recorded the both today, two old favorites I've had in my repertoire for years. First, the old ballad "Frankie and Albert."

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Next, "Freight Train," which feels like a ballad with a bunch of important pieces of the story missing... The original is by Elizabeth Cotten, and it's claimed that she wrote it when she was eleven. I sing it in a higher vocal register and I'm not totally sure how I feel about the results. Let me know what you think.

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Dear Landlord

So I've decided to keep an audio blog for a while. My first effort is below, a quick run through of Bob Dylan's "Dear Landlord."

I'm aiming to post at least a song each week. I'll lean towards simply guitar and voice at first while I get the hang of my recording device, then venture into more ambitious stuff here and there.

Geeks: I'm using a Foxtex MR-8mkII. It's an 8 channel digital recorder that uses CompactFlash. It has a couple of big limitations: first that it can only record to two channels at once, and second that it has no onboard eq at all. I've got a couple of MXL mics that came with it and can send a stereo .wav of the mastered track to my computer via USB (or even the individual tracks as mono .wavs if I want to). Once on the computer, I'm using Audacity to clip and clean and convert to mp3.

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p.s. If you'd like to download the mp3 file itself, you can do so here.