Band-in-a-Box really is the most wonderful tool for bringing people together from all over the world as well as people from just down the street.

Here is a collaboration across continents and Parkhurst streets of Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat".

FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT ON YOUTUBE

A few weeks ago Ian asked me if I would be interested in doing a recording of this song and sent me the BIAB file. I spent a bit of time listening to the track and some other recordings of the song. I recorded the lead vocal and few harmony tracks and sent those to Ian who mixed the song with his wonderful guitar tracks. While I was recording I took some video footage and Ian sent me some of his guitar playing and I made a video but we were never really happy with the result.

I was sitting in the local park when a girl called Lianne Cox came and sat down next to me and asked me what I was watching on my phone. I told her the story of the song and video and she said she was a videographer and could she take a look. She offered to make a video for me. I told her that I dont make much money out of my music and probably couldn't afford her rates! To cut a long story short, we negotiated a rate for her to shoot some raw footage and I would do the editing.

One evening, I went to her beautiful Parkhurst house, four blocks from where I live and she recorded the footage that I then took home on a flash drive. With Ian's input, a few edits went back and forth and the above video is the final result. We will be releasing the song on iTunes next year (my digital distribution company is closed for the holidays).

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!

Have a Merry Christmas.

Nice!

The video looks great.

The arrangement is excellent. Really focuses on the lyric (as it should). The vocal is one of your best - really well recorded.

Ian's guitar solos are beautiful.

Well done, y'all...

Joanne and Ian,

This is first class in every way! A great listen and watch.

All the best for 2017!
Noel

Excellent. Professional sounding mix and moody video.

What an impressive display of how technology has progressed. It hasn't been that long ago that music companies would hire couriers to escort tape reels across the ocean.

Both of you should feel proud of your joint production.

This is really gorgeous. Top notch in every way. Enjoyed my listen.


Charlie

Hi Folks
Thank you for the comments. They are much appreciated.
I am totally proud to be associated with this Production.
I don't post on Showcase much as a lot of what I do are guitar instrumental Covers,so I am doubly happy to see that Joanne posted this in Off Topic.
I have been Leonard Cohen fan for many years as has Joanne. As with all Collabs, ideas as to how it should be sung bounced back and forth between Johannesburg and the UK before we settled on which lyrics to use - the LC lyrics won. And the double harmonmies she recorded were simply knock-out! And with the video, early tests with my guitar finger work phased in didnt really set the scene we imagined and it was sendipiticious (love that word)that she should meet Leanne as she did. Again, after a few minor changes we had the result.
Joanne has the perfect voice for this, strong, clear and melodious and I'm trying to persuade her that she should try singing "Song Of Bernadette" sometime, for which I have already produced a guitar instrumental again with a BT made entirely in BIAB.
https://soundcloud.com/sixchannel/song-of-bernadette-tribute-to-leonard-cohen
Band In A Box is an amazing musical tool. I personally dont know what I'd do without it as I dont have a keyboard or any other software. For sure this BT wasnt the easiest to do in BIAB, a Labour of Love almost, but it got there.
Joanne's voice sits there in the mix so naturally, surrounded by a small band of top professional Musos.
Thanks Joanne for agreeing to record this and your support.
Very best regards
Ian

Mario, Floyd, Noel, Jim and Charlie
Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Much appreciated.

Ian - Thanks so much for including me in this project. It was great fun and I think the end production was well worth the effort.

I have "Song for Bernadette" on my phone and will listen to it some more while driving through Europe. My family and I spent 10 days skiing in Austria and are now on a road trip to Venice, Rome and Florence, which is quite an experience. Looking forward to more collabs in 2017!