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.