Jesus On The Mainline

About a week ago I mentioned to floyd jane a public domain gospel song that Janice and I have wanted to work up for a long time. While the origins are not known it's roots thought by some to be with a 1920’s African-American blues and/or spiritual song. Many gospel, rock, Americana, blues and country versions have been done over the years.  Hey, believe it or not, Aerosmith did a version.

The reason for my mentioning it was the group of backup singers, "The Fabulous BIABettes," that floyd always has on 24 hour call...so I wondering if he (amongst floyd/Janice vocals and the BIABettes) could create a gospel choir.

He thought it was worth pursuing so I proceeded with several things in mind - in addition to the choir I wanted to use a slide guitar (lap steel), a piano and an a cappella verse.  I thought the slide would be incongruous with the choir in a positive way.  OK, I stole the idea from Ry Cooder who stole it from AA churches.   I loved David Lindley’s lap steel with Jackson Browne. Oh, and Janice and I tweaked the lyric and wrote one new verse.

At the time I originally wrote this I was not familiar with the "Sacred Steel" tradition in Florida African-American Pentecostal churches. During the 30's some AA churches replaced the organ with the steel guitar and that's where this tradition started. Wiki has some great history on the Sacred Steel. Some of you may be familiar, as I was, with the Robert Randolph Family Band that uses the steel. While they play secular music they clearly came from this tradition. Thanks to Tommyad for cluing me in on this info in his response to this post.

Fast forward --- I put the RTs together with floyd's great choir (created from floyd and Janice vocals with a few of the BIABettes), Janice’s lead/counter vocals and.......I couldn't get it to work and the harder and longer I tried the more disjointed it seemed to sound.  Everything I did seem to step on the choir. Floyd listened and offered to bail me out by remixing the entire project and swapping out several of the Realtracks.  And are we ever glad he did!!!  BTW, he very generously suggested I be considered a co-producer   So here ya go.  

Comments are always welcomed and appreciated.  

For those interested there are 30+ tracks when everything you hear is included!

Vocals:  10 Tracks/floyd/janice plus 4 tracks BIABettes
Handclaps: 16 Tracks
RealTracks in song: ~701:Bass, Electric, PopHalfNotesSync Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 1690:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm PopPromise Ev16 100
RealTracks in song: 1399:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Soul70sBrightSync Ev16 100
RealTracks in style: 382:Guitar, Slide, Background Blues Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 2110:Horn Section, Background, R&B Ev16 110
RealDrums in Song: NashvilleEven8^7-a,b:Snare, HiHat 

Hi, Janice, Bud & Floyd !


I enjoyed this spiritual very much
and most of all the a cappella part
towards the end of the song ! As
the barbershopper I am I dig all
kinds of a cappella singing spirituals
included !:))

Cheers
Dani

Hi Janice, Bud and floyd.

How amazing is this song to listen to!!!!! Wow.

What you've put together is incredibly inventive and it's one of the most polished uses of the BIABettes I've ever heard. To be able to create an a capella section with them is testimony to your collective remarkable talents.

I love Gospel music and this has all the elements that make Gospel such a great style. The memorable repetition, the tug-of-war between keeping time and ad lib'ing and, most importantly, the sincerity of performance.

Just brilliant!!!!

All the best,
Noel

Janice, Bud, and floyd, Great job by all three of you, though it sounds like many more. That must have been a mixing challenge. It sure was worth it. This style is found in the black churches in north central Florida. They call it sacred steel. This is where Robert Randolph came from. A few years back I had a gig in Key West and right behind the place was the Green Parrot saloon where the Lee Boys were playing. I went there every night on our breaks and watched them tear the roof off that place. This type of music definitely moves people as your rendition of this spiritual does. Congratulations on another job well done. Tom

Tom, that is great info. I'm from south GA and remember as a kid African-American churches where the gospel choir was accompanied by an electric guitar but never heard the lap steel. I'd walk across a field and listen to the music behind the church. The Robert Randolph Family Band played in our home town a couple of years ago. I wish I'd known of that connection since I heard Ry Cooder's version with AA backup singers back in the 70's and thought he'd put that combo together. Thanks for the info and kind remarks regarding the production.

What is there to say besides...."WOW!

Everything about this is betond great! Sounds like the entire church choir was there and in top form. It's a masterpiece of talent and technical ability. All three of you...take a bow!

SUPER WOW!!!!

Al & Di

Another great one from the Jane/Merritt studios. Enjoyed it thoroughly.


Regards,


Bob

Really nice work.

Loved the slide/lap steel track. Tasty stuff.

I recall listening to Jackson Brown and falling in love with Lindley's playing.....another great steel player was Sneaky Pete.... amazing players who influenced my early years and stated to move me from heavy rock (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath... et al) towards the country rock movement of Poco, Emmy Lou and so many other great bands and singers....

This is excellent.... the choir was well done.... it didn't sound like it was a contrived studio creation of only a few singers multi-tracked and cloned.....well done.

Hey Dani, as you're a barbershopper I'm REALLY glad you liked the harmony. Floyd did a great job with just his and Janice's vocal.



Thanks Noel! If you get a chance look up "sacred steel" on wiki and read about this African-American tradition. BTW, the BIABettes while present only accounted for a small part of the choir. It's mostly the "real" Janice and Floyd.

Hi you three,

great production.
I especially liked that a capella part.
Would have wanted more of it.
I helped myself by playing that part
several times.
Kudos to Floyd for that choir feel.

Guenter

Thank y'all. Including the handclaps this was 30 tracks. Floyd did a great job on the mix!



Thanks Bob! This one was interesting for sure.

Bud,

Well that was outstanding! Loved the choir & the slide guitar!

Greg

Thanks Herb, this was definitely the biggest production I've been involved in track wise. And, yeah, Sneaky Pete definitely sticks in my memory also. Great player.



Thanks Guenter, I thought the a cappella worked out well. If the song had been longer I would have thrown in another a cappella verse -- should've done that.

Janice as always your vocal is superb, the harmonies sound great, fine work all around. Thanks for sharing!

Just want to let y'all know...

I created a RealDrums of the "Choir Claps" that we created for this song.

Look under the "User Tracks" forum...

Bud, Janice and Floyd
Fantastic. What can I say that hasn't already been said?

Just love the whole production, choir and a capella verse.

Yeah man, the choir and slide is unusual but if you get chance google "sacred steel" and read about the tradition.



Thanks! Janice really enjoyed working with floyd on this one.

Here is my version of Jesus on the mainline. I really like your version. This song has been recorded by many artists. Hope you like it. I used BIAB and Realband. occ

It's all been said so all I can add is this is fantastic.

This really has a live vibe to it and in fact sounds like it could have been recorded in any church.

You all should be very proud of this one.

What a HUGE choir Janice and Floyd were able to do with the Biabettes. Gonna have to enlist a male and try that myself next time.

I thought the vocals were "Heavenly" but that had to be one "hell" of a mix to work on....

Josie

PS. Thanks a lot Janice for getting that song stuck in my head now. <grin>

It's all been said, but I'll say it again -- Wow!!! This is some great work. The vocal are wonderful and I think I will download that "hand claps" realdrums file. I discovered how hard human percussion is to record when I tried it myself (ha, ha).

There are two things that I would consider, though:

1.) I would still consider easing back that slide in the left hand speaker especially in the beginning. It seems to compete with the vocal too much.

2.) Instead of using the same instrument in the right speaker (slide) and then back in the left during the solo, maybe you want to consider an entirely different lead instrument on the right.

In any case, super duper and I think I listened three times in a row.

Thanks for doing that floyd. Already have a use for them in mind.



Thanks Josie, glad you like the production. It was downright intimidating until floyd helped with the mix!

Chiming in again...

This has been a great project to work on. A lot of fun. The Merrits are such pros. This was truly a team effort. A real co-production.

For information's sake... the details of "the choir"...
I had originally intended to do a mainly BIABette choir. Use Janice's main vocal to generate several and then I would follow her lead and then generate some more. I did generate 8 BIABette tracks from Janice's vocal - but only used 4 of them. I started recording myself and just kept going until I had sung 8 parts (4 harmony parts double tracked). And Janice added a harmony and a counter.

So the choir was 14 tracks - 4 generated and 10 sung...

There are actually 16 tracks of clapping - but a lot of that was copy and manipulate....

Thanks for letting me join you guys for this!

floyd

Fantastic!!!

Glad you liked! We enjoyed your version. Shows how many ways this song can be done.



Thanks! Floyd conjured up that live feel for sure. 14 vocals tracks didn't hurt!



Heaven and hell for sure -- that's why I turned the mix over to him! And, yep, this song will stick in the head.

Thanks for the comments and the recommendations. If you get a chance please listen again as we have reduced the lead re stepping on the vocal and have made some changes with Janice's second lead. Decided to stay with the steel as the sole solo (I like that) instrument to keep with the Sacred Steel band tradition...but your comment is certainly understandable -- particularly given that I tried a sax early on. Much appreciate the remarks and thanks again to floyd for mixing!



Thank you floyd for the generous remarks. And a HUGE thanks for the choir and the mix -- it made it all work!!




Thanks man, appreciate the comment.

In case you miss it (in Bud's response)...

There is a new mix of this - that allows Janice to shine even more...

Check it out...

(thanks, Kevin)

I listened again -- still sounds wonderful!

Thank you and thanks again for the suggestions regarding the mix! Now on to the next next one...........

Janice, Bud, and Floyd,
Great song and colab. I really needed a little spiritual pick me up. Thanks.
SD

Thanks SD. Glad it offered a pick me up. We got several from recording it!

J&B

Beautiful!

Thanks gruve.....gotta a raucous hard blues/rocker in the oven!

Hey Bud, Janice and Floyd,

I just noticed that the view count was up to 599 so I thought I'd kick it over to 600! Wow!!!! That's awesome.

This song DEFINITELY deserves those kind of numbers.

All the best,
Noel

The more I delve into these forums the more inspired I feel...and the more overwhelmed...oh wow!

That. Is. Awesome.

hi guys just awesome love this eric