Here's my second contribution to the Xtra styles contest (contents copied from the original post):

The Power of Men

This song is about the people all over the world who were (often) forced to work.
This has happened a lot throughout the ages and is still happening right now.
After hours and hours of editing the song in Cubase something went terribly wrong and the project got corrupted
beyond repair. It left me completely desperate
Luckily there was Anne-Marie who managed to recreate the song by looking up
and pasting each audio sample back to its original location (this again took hours of work)......

When I finished the song I suddenly realised I used one of the Xtra Styles and thought:
"What the heck, why not post another one for the contest

Style is _ATDAWN.STY (At Dawn Baritone Gtr Country)
1592:Bass, Electric, Pop16ths Ev 065
2542:Pedal Steel, Background ModernBalladAtmosphere Ev16 065
596:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Pop16ths Ev16 065
1600:Guitar, High-Strung Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16ths Ev16 065
811:Piano, Acoustic, Solo-Acc PopVancouver Ev 100
978:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm CountrySwingGrittyHeld Sw 140
Soloist: 810 Guitar,Electric,Soloist DrivingCountryBallad
RealDrums: NashvillePop16^1-a:Snare, Hihat , b:Snare, Ride

Lyrics:

The Power of Men

I pray, whenever life gets rough
On these windy grounds
Where it's taken all I have
Oh see, how these men will work together
Working with all their might
Working far away from home

And now we're breaking down again
As we work with the power of men,
Will we ever be free again

You see, you see we never had much chances
To be the lucky ones
To be the ones that live their dream

And as we face the day again
We will work with the power of men
Will we ever be free again

And now we're breaking down again
As we work with the power of men,
And as we face the day again
We will work with all we can
Will we ever be free again
Can we ever be free again
Will we ever live for real again.

Rob,

Excellent song and mix. GREAT vocal!

Bob

WOW! WOW! WOW!

My first triple wow review. LOL!

Brilliantly done and sung.

Rob,

You have a wonderful powerful voice.
This is excellent

my ears are glad Anne-Marie managed to resurrect this!

great stuff

Alyn

Stunningly beautiful!

The Power Of Rob! What a vocal! Sounded like Vince Gill at times. Does not get better than that.

Super production and mix. Nice job - both of you...

Another WOW.

floyd

Thank you Bob, glad you noticed ;-)

Thank you Josie, much appreciated!

Rob

Nicely done Rob, truthful and heartfelt lyrics. You really connected here, this was a great song worth having to go to the effort of saving it

Rob a novice ?? now Enthusiest, that was a bit amusing,

Paddy G

I'm glad AM was able to salvage that-would have been a big loss!! Very nicely done. Your vocals sound great as usual! Love the sparse arrangement. Another first class effort!! Take care. Greg

Thanks a lot Alyn, yes this project was a lot of work.
But worth it we think.

Rob

Well, I'm definitely honored to be compared with Vince Gill, he's probably my favorite country singer.
For him it's probably a little bit easier to reach those high-pitched notes, as his 'normal' talking voice is pretty high pitched too ;-)
But then again, you probably know this song 'colder than winter'. There are at the end of that song he's going up one full octave, unbelievably beautiful!

Rob

Thank you Paddy, we novices take all we can get ;-)

Rob,

This is magnificent!!!! I don't think I've ever heard you sound so brilliant... and that's really saying something because your and Anne-Marie's works always sound 100% professional.

What really stood out to me here was the way the lyrics flowed... outstanding prosody. I was fascinated by the effect that the non-rhyming verses created when the chorus came around.

Because ears are so used to hearing rhyme in lyrics, leaving it out draws heaps of attention to rhymes when they finally arrive. By keeping the rhyming at bay for 6 lines in the first section, when the chorus finally hits, the strength of the consonance rhyme with the words that end in the 'n' sound is really pronounced. I was hypnotised by the effect you created. Normally consonance rhymes are the weakest kind of rhyme/relationship but in this song, that was not the case. This is very strategic lyric craftsmanship. Your word movement, your melody, your arrangement and your attention to rhyme and non-rhyme were a match made in heaven... as I said earlier, outstanding prosody!!!

You've definitely raised the forum's 'bar of excellence' a few notches with this creation!

I also congratulate Anne-Marie for persevering and getting this song back on track. She has done an amazing job with salvaging the audio. Awesome!!!!

All the best,
Noel

WOW! Rob, this is superb! I am a huge fan of your (and Anne-Marie's) work. But your vocals on this one are just over the top! I agree with Floyd. I hear a little bit of Vince Gill. He is also probably my favorite country vocalist.

This is one of your best, in my opinion! (And I almost didn't get to hear it. My schedule is so hectic, I am only able to check in at sporatic intervals throughout the week. So glad I saw this post!)

Steve

Maybe you don't like comparisons...but like Steve and floyd said there is a LOT of Vince Gill in this song with the timbre of your voice and the phrasing. And we are MEGA Vince fans. And as Josie said 'triple wow!"

One of the best vocals we've heard on the forum.

Then throw in the great write and the production and, well, "triple wow" again.

This is an outstanding display of talent and BiaB!

Yep, we like it...

J&B

Thanks Greg! Yes, saving the project cost Anne-Marie a couple of hours. But she's very good, and very thorough in those things. All thanks go to her.

Rob, I listened earlier and thought I commented. What I wanted to say was how much I enjoyed your vocal as well as the write and production. Good luck in the competition. Tom

Thank you Noel!

What an analysis... I didn't know I could write like that ;-).
Just kidding, thank you for taking the time to analyzing my song this thoroughly. That is really appreciated!

As for rhyming versus non-rhyming. Lately I let go of 'forced' rhyming because very often it's getting in the way of creating emotion. I'm no Leonard Cohen ;-)
The timing of the song and lyrics were mostly created unconsciously I think. No real conscious/anticipation process involved here.
What I do try to avoid our clichés, which is getting more and more hard because, as you know, everything about anyone or anything has already been said in millions of songs.
When I finished the song, and my Cubase project broke down completely (the only thing that could be heard was a pounding random noise) I was completely pissed off. I knew I had something special in this song. Not only the last project failed, but any other saved work from before as well, unbelievable.

So thanks again to Anne-Marie for her salvation work ;-)

Rob

Another awesome vocal Rob. Love your stuff..

Thank you Steve, this is very appreciated!

Rob

Thank you J&B,

You can wake me anytime for comparing me to Vince Gill ;-)
And the rest of your comment, very flattering!

Rob

Really nice, sorry that I'm so late getting round to listening.
Good mix, I read the several posts mentioning Vince Vill and it's easy to hear! Great vocals, strong performance. Good song.

Kenny

To write such a poignant song topped with I think is your most outstanding vocal production yet. This is brilliant work.

Charlie

Thanks Tom, best of luck in the competition too!

Thank you Scott, much appreciated!

Rob