These lyrics were written by the fantastic Elizabeth Petty for 50 90 and are pretty awesome as usual but the music is something completely different (for me anyway). Firstly, it is a spiritual song, which is a genre I don't usually attempt, and secondly it is my first co-write with my duo partner Lebz Muzo who provides the lead vocal and guitar on the track, with me on the harmonies.



The RealTracks were:
RealTracks in style: 1397:Bass, Electric, Soul70sSync Ev16 100
RealTracks in style: 1404:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Soul70sWarmA-B Ev16 100
RealDrums in style: Soul70sPercEv16^1-a:CldHHSn, b:BsyBs

Lyrics:
I am open
and I am trying
while I'm waiting for You
yes I'm open
and I am trying
while I wait for You

I am present
and I'm seeking
and I'm praying to You
yes I am present
and I am seeking
while I pray

I am open
I am trying
yes I'm waiting for You
yes I'm open
and I am trying
while I wait for You

I am present
and I'm seeking
while I'm praying to You
yes I am present
and I'm seeking
while I pray

I am open present
hopeful grateful
all because of You
I'm trying seeking
striving dancing
just to be close to You

waiting praying
standing singing
I'll do anything
waiting praying
standing singing
all for the love of You

I am hopeful
I am striving
I am standing by You
yes I'm hopeful
and I'm striving
while I stand by You

I am grateful
truely grateful
and I'm dancing with You

said I'm grateful
and I'm dancing
while I sing

yes I'm grateful
and I'm dancing
I am singing with You
and I'm grateful
so I'm dancing while I sing

Honest feedback is always much appreciated. (After all how else will I learn? lol)

Oh lord, I really enjoyed this one as I always do with your songs Joanne

Hi Joanne - and Everyone Else On The Song,

Sure did enjoy this! Great lyric and loved the arrangement. Everyone did a super job. The vocals were terrific - lead and harmony. The acoustic lead was real nice. Everyone take a bow!

Alan

I agree. Great collaborative effort!! Really pretty, pleasant song. Everything works for me! Take care. Greg

Really nice work here Joanne The harmonies here are unreal, and the groove is a real toe tapper. It has such a joyous tone to it as well. I really like how upbeat and positive it sounds.

Great job - thanks for sharing!

Hi, Jo and Lebz !

A wonderful tune with
wonderful lyrics and
superb performances by
the two of you - congrats
on a superb collab !

I liked everything with it !!

Cheers
Dani

This song had a really wonderful flow to it, and I adored the use of RealTracks. Awesome stuff.

Joanne, I've liked everything that you have done thus far and this song rapidly went to the top of the list.

Your vocal is exceptional, I didn't know that you could sing so low. Your harmonies were fantastic as were the backing tracks. Your guitarist is one of the best; he knows exactly when and what to play. He is a true lead guitarist.

Everyone should really be proud of this song.

Hello, Joanne

Yes, this tune is completely different from your usual style.
Your duo partner Lebz Muzo who provides the lead vocal and guitar on the track is very nice.
I like the chord progression.
And your harmonies are fantastic as are the backing tracks.
Your challenge to 50 90 is wonderful.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

This was good, nice harmonies and lyrics.

I wasn't crazy about the guitar for some points in the song.

Joanne,
your harmonies are stellar as expected.
I felt the guitar and main vocal go a little astray at different point along the way.
Having read how you create your harmonies made this an even more interesting listen.
Your voice is the Prix L'Amour in this track.

Uplifting and most pleasant collab.

Nice tight harmonies too.

We enjoyed the stripped down backing tracks...perfect for the tune.

J&B

Joanne,
I enjoyed the relaxed style- which is a good fit for Lebz Muzo`s vocal. Super harmonies.
Good collaboration.

Robert

Hi Joanne,

Yes, this was a bit of a surprise - definitely different to what I've heard
you do before.

This song has a feel to it as though it could have been written by Tracey Chapman.
Just something about the openness of the guitar part, the arrangement and the way
the melody worked in. Super.

well done to all who were involved - great writing and performances.

ROG.

Beautiful collaboration! I think this works so well because the lyrics are simple and uncluttered and have a nice repetitive pattern that works so well for song composition. Skillful use of the real tracks provides the perfect style and background. And the guitar solo was light and fit right in. Love the work!

Thank you Graham. Appreciated.


Thanks so much Alan. High praise indeed. I will pass it on to Lebz.


Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment, Greg



Thank you deryk. I used my normal "cheat" method for the harmonies laid out here...https://www.joannecooper.co.za/blog/blog/recording-and-processing-vocals-using-realband-melodyne-and-izotope-nectar
plus I used a trick that Lebz taught me and that is to record the harmonies in "bits". So I will record the low harmony for the phrase from, say, bar 12 to bar 16; then I will go straight back to bar 12 and record the mid harmony for the same phrase and then I will go back to bar 12 and record the high harmony for the same phrase. I find it very quick and easy to record harmonies in this way because the phrasing that the lead singer used is already in your head.

Thank you Dani. Appreciated



Thank you



Hi Mario. I am so glad you enjoyed it. I enjoyed producing it. The lead vocal was sung by Lebz. I just did the harmonies and yes, his guitar playing is really so unique. He plays a wonderful mixture of the harmony and melody at the same time.



Thank you Shigeki

Thank you beatmaster, especially for your honesty. I really appreciate it.



Thank you Ray. It seems that the jury is out about the live guitar recording on the track. I find that the more I work with Realtracks the less accepting I am of "live" guitar that may not be perfect. I do tend to run out of patience long before we get a perfect guitar track down. lol... I am also finding that as I work more and more with Melodyne my ears are becoming accustomed to hearing perfectly tuned vocals. PS. Have a look at my previous reply to Deryk were I talk about another little cheat I used on recording these harmonies.



Thank you Bud and Janice. I am so glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you Robert.



Hi ROG. Lebz will be absolultey delighted with the Tracy Chapman comment because she is his hero! I will pass your comment onto him.



Thank you Tano. I appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment.

The surety of BIAB is seductive but it does also generate a generic patina that desperately needs something to break the surface. Some of the guitar ideas were excellent and a dose of slice, slide, copy & paste may have given you the goods.
The steadiness of BIAB also make a "live" feel sound sloppy in comparison.
There are ways around the problem but patience, rehearsal and time are a requisite for all.
Doing the harmonies in blocks reminds me of Brian Wilson's methodology when recording his teen symphonies era work.
Modern technology is perfect for "construction" and as long as it sounds like a performance all is well.

Very easy going song, the lead vocal was spot on and your harmonies were icing Joanne. Excellent song!!!

Well, first, I really like the song. Excellent write and the vocal arrangement is great for the song. Like some of the others, I'm a bit on the fence with the interaction between the two guitars and to my ear, the bass never seemed to find a comfortable place to sit in the song. Lebz has a wonderful and unique style and it seemed BIAB music wasn't in the same groove. It may have worked better for him to record both guitar parts and used a more simple bass part. Just my opinion and not to diminish the fantastic job and top notch recording you guys turned out. I'll be listening again.

I enjoyed the song! I agree with all the nice things that have already been said.

But... I fall on the "have issues with the guitar" side of the fence. I think the guitar is a bit too bright, so calls attention it itself. If you did a low-pass filter on it - at least, during the singing - that might help it sit in the mix a bit better.

One of the things I love about DAWS is being able to "fix" the timing of parts by slicing and sliding parts around. Of course, it's possible to sink way too much time into that sort of thing. But when you don't feel like re-recording a part, it's a wonderful thing.

Hi Charlie. Thank you so much for this feedback. Sometimes I think Lebz is better without BIAB at all. For our second album together "Duo" we just used BIAB drums to get the groove and record with and then muted the drums in the final version. Lebz recorded a bit of bass so the album is just bass, guitar and vocals. He has such a unique way of playing the guitar that it is actually enough. When we perform live we have two voices, two guitars (or his guitar and my uku) and a kick drum and seem to get quite a nice full sound.

Thank you for the feedback David. The song was written and recorded in one afternoon and I think it would be a better recording if we lived with it and even performed the song for a few months before recording. Also I could have been a little more careful in editing the guitar.