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THE RAINBOW SIGN After several blues tunes we figured it was time to get back to some basic (very basic) hard driving Bluegrass. If you haven’t listened to much or any Bluegrass, after listening you may want to call your local “First Time Exposure to Bluegrass” support group for help! We based the tune primarily on three old Black Spirituals, “God gave Noah the rainbow sign,” “I’ve got a home in that rock,” and “There’s honey in that rock” including some lyric tweaking of our own. As is, unfortunately, typical variations of the words and melodies were claimed by several artists over the years as their own - most notably the Carter Family. It is really stunning to discover the degree to which so much white gospel and folk music can be readily traced to Black Spiritual tunes. There are several pretty cool websites that help one understand the origins of many of these tunes. We arranged and recorded the tune on MLK day and I’d hope to post it then but didn't mix it until this morning. There is a famous line in all the versions of this song and it goes “No more water, the fire next time.” James Baldwin used this as the title of his Civil Rights book “The Fire Next Time” published in 1963. Some writers say that the spiritual was a “slavery code” tune and used to communicate with the Underground Railroad. I haven’t verified this. Anyhow, it’s just a couple of minutes long. We threw in a II chord to try and make it a little more interesting than the other renditions. Oh, I did research the phrase “honey in the rock” and it is thought to mean that there is good in the toughest of places. Bass: RealTrack 427 Guitar: Composite of RealTracks 597 & 431 Banjo: Composite of RealTracks 433 & 426 Fiddle: Composite of RealTracks 430 & 434 Mandolin: RealTrack 432 Vocal USB Blue Mic Mixing and effects: GarageBand
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Hi Bud and Janice.
Well, that's given my feet their exercise for today! Wow! Even my computer monitor was rocking along (or should that be bluegrassing along?). This composition/compilation was outstanding on every front from the honey-smooth vocals of Janice to the perfectly arranged and compiled mix. As far as my ears could determine, everything was in exactly the right place to create the best showcase cabinet for the song.
It's always a joy to listen to your songs.
All the best,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Apprentice
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Apprentice
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Very nice bgrass. Enjoyed it a lot. The sound and vocals are very good.
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Bud AND Janice,
WOW. WOW. WOW... do you need it again?... WOW!!!!!!
Y'all must be some re-incarnation of the original musicians who created this in the first place.
If anyone could tell that this is NOT "real", I would eat my banjo - or my mandolin - I've got both.
ABSOLUTELY STUNNING.
floyd
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Beautifully done Bud and Janice. 
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Thank y'all. We appreciate it. Oddly enough given that I played in 4 Bluegrass bands I find it the hardest genre for me to mix. I used to multi-track our bands for years and mix our CDs but now with RealTracks I have to make the decisions on what the lead instruments are playing, i.e., think like a fiddle, banjo or mandolin picker. It's very easy to generate and regenerate tracks with BIAB but the tracks while in perfect time and key may not always fit with melody. I end up putting together solos that are made of snippets of many generations of the same RealTrack as I'm sure many other folks do. Bluegrass is improvisational but the solo needs to at least hint of the melody and that is what I try to achieve with all of the cutting and splicing. And while it may not always be melodic it doesn't (or so I hope) distract from the melody. So I typically end up with, for example, one fiddle track for the final mix. And that track is spliced up from a rhythm RealTrack and many generations of a RealTrack solo. Actually, the backup or rhythm track is often segmented so I can get the right "fill" or guitar run where I want it. I'll regenerate a rhythm guitar track repeatedly to get a certain run that I can use in several places of the mix. Yep, it'd be easier for me or Janice just to play the rhythm track but I find it a fun challenge to create everything with RealTracks. It's an amazing technology. And what is extra cool is that we know several of the folks that created the Bluegrass RealTracks. Fun.
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Quote:
Hi Bud and Janice.
Well, that's given my feet their exercise for today! Wow! Even my computer monitor was rocking along (or should that be bluegrassing along?). This composition/compilation was outstanding on every front from the honey-smooth vocals of Janice to the perfectly arranged and compiled mix. As far as my ears could determine, everything was in exactly the right place to create the best showcase cabinet for the song.
It's always a joy to listen to your songs.
All the best,
Noel
A BIG +1!
All I can add is WOW!
Love is grand.
Divorce is twenty grand!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Yes, I liked that II chord in there, gives it a unique feel..beautiful performance..was any of the playing live? Good memorial on MLK day!
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MarioD and Tano Music, thanks a lot for the comments. Tano Music, on this tune all tracks are RealTracks. My wife and I always work up tunes on guitar (she plays guitar/mandolin and I play Bass Fiddle/guitar). However, I like piddling with RealTracks so much that I tend to use them even though it often takes longer than just recording one of us. I just dig the challenge. We played live in several Bluegrass band and one blues band over the years and recorded for years on a Fostex VF160 but now days I like doing it all with her voice, one mic, PG Music and my iMac!
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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As always, solid work all around.
As you mentioned, the parts have been "puzzled" together so well they flow seamlessly. There's nothing in the mix that would make the think this was anything but live playing.
Very well done.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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hi bud and janice love your stuff very well done guys thanks for sharing eric
AMD (TM) 5950 4.9 GHz 16Core Processor 64 bit 32 bits of ram windows 10 pro 64 bit os. sound card Antelope ZenQ guitars Ibanez 2202a 1968 les Paul Custom and Cavin ae 185 Guitar boss Gt-100,GT1000 pedal Yamaha HS8 studio monitors
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Enthusiast
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MOST EXCELLANT! I loved Janice' vocals and that rhythm section belongs at the Ryman.
Sounded like a Scruggs family reunion... Well done!
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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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You are fantastic. Every thing about this is 1st class. I used to play in a bluegrass gospel band and this is one of the songs that we did. Thanks!occ
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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