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Earlier this year I wrote this song to make myself feel better. It's more rock so I could try out the metal half time drums. I sang lead plus three parts of harmony and added one track of TCH.
All done in RB.
RT's Bass 701, Metal Half Time Drums, Guitars - 798,896,643, Organ 671.

Oh Me Oh My
©2010 Josie Beck
A battle rages in my mind
Faith is hard to find
Life can be unkind
Like a soldier worn and frayed
Still pressing on for the light of Grace.

Oh me oh my, I won't run and hide.
Oh me oh my, God is on my side
Oh me oh my, He will turn this tide
Oh me oh my, My God will provide

A little nagging voice of doubt
Rising up to shout
Got to drown it out
Deliverance will come
The victory is already won

He's making a way for me
Making a way for me
Working in ways I cannot see

Josie,

I really liked this song, the chorus is especially catchy. I also thought the bridge with the key change going into the end chorus' was very cool.

Oh... and great vocals too.

Nice job girl!

Greg

Josie,

Excellent composition - really like the tune. Good mix - maybe bring the vox up a little - but that may be I am not a wake yet.

Super job - really like the whole feel of it.

Wow, Josie I do like that. Loved the vocals, the backing, the min/maj mood changes.
I think the lead vox could come forward a tad and it could do with the some EQ at the 'air and sheen' sector around 14 to 16kHz to accentuate the timbre of your voice.
John

very nice composition Josie, and I like the message a lot.

This would be a good song for an accompanying video.
There's lots of opportunity to visually illustrate scenes of discouragement
consummated by an ultimate victory... much like every walk of faith.

Hi Josie,

The chorus

Quote:

---

Oh me oh my, I won't run and hide.
Oh me oh my, God is on my side
Oh me oh my, He will turn this tide
Oh me oh my, My God will provide

---

Says it all for me.

I liked your singing too.

Best regards
Michee

Hi Josie,

This is so good that I'm speechless. You've really taken songwriting and production to a whole new level with this one. Your musical treatment of the chorus shows some really clever arranging. As has already been mentioned, the lead vocal might benefit from being lifted by a decibel or two. Other than that, though, there's nothing else that I can add so I'm just going to go an have another few listens

All the best,
Noel

Josie,

Put me in the same boat as the rest of the folks with the positive comments above. I really enjoyed this song, I mean everything about it! In particular the harmonies were top notch and I think someone has already pointed out the strong message communicated in the chorus. You should be very proud of this one lady!

Greg, Powderman, John, Pat, MIchee, Noel, and Danny, thank you all for listening and your comments. I am so relieved that you like it. It was a fun song to do with all the harmonies but it was a hard arrangement to mix. I won't even admit how many times I remixed it - grin. I got concerned that making the vocal louder and bringing in more air made it a bit harsh to me but I will try that.

You've all made me feel good. (It's not every day I can leave Noel speechless. LOL!) Seriously, thank you guys. It's easy to get intimidated with all the great production ya'll do around here.

Hey Josie,
Great song. I loved the message and the arrangement. Bring the lead vocal up just a tad it will be radio ready. You have a knack for arrangements. Are all the harmony vocals live? Great results!
Marty

Great song and great sound Josie!

Once again you've done great Josie! Wonderful from top to bottom!

Dan

It’s all been said.

Great job.

Two thumbs up.

Hi Josie,

Great job. I agree with all the above, and would also like to mention that I really enjoyed how you started the vocals. I was expecting them to start on the one chord but you cycled through a couple more chord changes and dropped them in on a minor. Nice bit of ear candy there in my opinion. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

Jim

Marty, Dan, Mario, Jim, and PETER - wow - thanks for listening and commenting! I'm glad all my effort worked. grin. I knew I liked the song but it's great when others especially other musicians and writers you respect like it too.

Jim, I'd like to say oh I planned it that way but actually that's just how the raw emotion came out. grin.

Marty, the harmonies are three parts live and one harmonizer track. The vocal and harmony was sung on my old faithful sm58.

Neat idea. I like the arrangement. The trio on Oh Me Oh My is well done.

The message is sound and well written. I love the keychange into the last chorus.

I wish the chord would resolve at the end to the 'root' but it works just as it is.

The instrumentation works very well. All in all a very well done piece. Congrats.

Thank you for listening and the kind words CMJ.

Hi, Josie:

I finally caught up with this track and am very glad I did... listened to it three times now, and agree with all the good comments and praise above.

I know you spent a lot of time on this... it shows. Not a huge problem, but I thought I heard a bit too much instrumentation in the vocal range. Others have recommended boosting the vocal, but you may get a better sound in EQ-ing some of the instrumentation, which would put the excellent vocal more up front, and avoid the midrange competition. As, maybe it's just me, but I thought the panning could be a bit broader... this would also serve to separate the instrumentation.

But I'm not an engineer, and wonder if others, with more experience, would agree. I'd like to know.

You best work that I've heard to date. Excellent!

Daisy

Nice work. People have already pointed out the good stuff in the song, and they're right.

I like the way you used the electric guitar to create a solo on the intro. It's too bad there's no "Mellow Acoustic Guitar Soloist" yet. Have you thought about using the Soloist Dire Ev 140 here? Soloist Blue BB Ev 085 also sounds good.

You might want to consider lowering the guitar once the first verse comes in, and wait to until "Like a soldier..." and build to the chorus.

Speaking of build, I like what you've done to add some variety and build to the song. For example, the drums on the intro, and the change in guitars on the bridge. These are things that really help keep the song alive.

I think the vocals can be brought out better, especially at the beginning. Adding a boost around 1600Hz and a small cut to the bass helps. Even then, some vocals - such as "Working in ways I cannot see" are still too quiet in the mix.

As Daisy alludes to, it's best to place everything in its own sonic range with EQ. This often means adding a slight EQ boost for something like vocals at frequencies you want to emphasize, and adding cuts at those same frequencies to instruments that overlap in those frequencies.

I'm not a huge fan of songs with too many rhymes - the kill the "naturalness" of the language. And you've got a chorus filled with -ide rhymes in the chorus. Of course, that's a personal preference. I don't think many here agree with me.

Life can be unkind doesn't really add anything. Do you expect that life isn't unkind? Are you expecting that the problems of life disappear if you're a believer? If not, then why include this line?

My God will provide Is another cliche. What will be provided? The tools to win a battle? A way to grow your faith? More faith?

A little nagging voice of doubt/Rising up to shout Is it a "little" voice" or a "shouting" voice? Changing "little" to something like "constant" would resolve this.

Deliverance will come/The victory is already won is another cliche. You seem to be mixing two different victories - the anticipated victory over your crisis of faith, and Christ's victory over death. But how are the two related? If victory is "already won", then why do you even need to wait?

Although I really love the sound of the chorus, why Oh me, oh my? That line is typically used as an expression of woe. What's it doing in this song? I haven't a clue. (But the harmonies sound great).

It seems to me that you've set up a sort of "feel good" song, with the message: Have faith that your weak faith will eventually be strengthened. So the solution to a crisis of faith is... to have faith?

You're heavy on generalities, and short on specifics. That bugs me. (But apparently, not many other folk. Consider that when reading the comments that follow! )

Personally, I'm not sure that a crisis of faith is a bad thing, and something that needs to be overcome.

I'll make the argument that you don't need to drown out your doubts. Those doubts will always be with you, and the size of your doubts isn't a measure of your faith. Rather, what little faith you've got is enough.

And he says to them, Because of your little faith: for truly I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Be moved from this place to that; and it will be moved; and nothing will be impossible to you.

So, I think I disagree with your thesis. But good job anyway!

You're on the right track Daisy.

I made no comment on the mix of this tune because I don't know if you're even into that end of it Josie. I think it's a good song that needs serious mixing to make it sound it's best. If you're into mixing, you put forth an effort to really learn how to do it. And that effort is a huge one, taking years to get better at. And it involves way more than any little suggestions I could give here. There are wonderful books and audio courses to look into if mixing is your thing. Suffice to say, great song that could sound better. But the vision comes through enough, all the same.

Dan