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EVIL CHILLUN We finally rounded up and tested out sufficient realtracks to put together a Western (or Texas) swing tune. I originally found this old public domain song on a 78 record many years ago and it sorta stuck with me. We tweaked the lyrics a bit and Janice worked the melody to her liking.
A bit of background. We both had the privilege of playing and recording (the three of us released a CD) for many years with our dear friend the great fiddler, Randy Howard. Randy who passed away at age 39 in 1999, was a 12 time National Fiddle champion and was grammy nominated. He was also a great guitar flat picker, mandolin picker and given half a chance a good banjo player. His CD “Survival of the Fiddlist” is an astonishing piece of work. Randy played on many studio albums including Garth Brook’s “Seven.” Chet Atkins once said that Randy was the only musician he’d pay to go see!
Randy just loved this style of playing and as a tribute to him I did my best to piece together, some times measure by measure, Realtrack fiddle and mandolin solos that at least hint at how he might have played it -- and that would be wild. RIP Buddy.
Instruments: All Realtracks
Vocal: Blue USB mic
Mixing/Effects: Garageband
Thanks for listening! critiques are welcomed.
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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bud - you do this better than anyone. put together so well. the mix is great. the choice of instruments, perfect. Janice - perfectly gorgeous, as always. you guys need to do less of that "outdoors thing" and do more of the recording thing.... really enjoyed it.
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Bud, Janice,
I know that song, think it has strong old rural church origins.
Both my parents were from south...Florida from 20's on.
Grew up with 1 avid active church mom and strong 10% supporter Dad.
Lotsa music, and their friends, mandolins, guitars, banjo's was
the norm. Its a shame I turned out to be who I am...LOL
Love the fiddle, its a good pick for this song. As you mentioned
earlier "I gotta use the mandolin", you did and its nice.
Piano coming in is also nice touch.
Janice, your vocals, especially for this type of music is fantastic.
Don't have the cojones to be a genre definer, but I take this song
to be part of the south. To me its a good thing tho.
Appreciate you folks, hard work and sharing the music!
Last edited by seeker; 11/11/12 04:53 PM.
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Bud, Janice,
Excellent. The vocal performance is just great. Perfect country voice.
The arrangement is super but the fiddle sounds a bit hallow. Maybe a little more EQ would help.
SD
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After listening, it's hard to believe that it's less than three minutes long; there is so much there. The recording quality is superb--I can hear the "wood" in the acoustic instruments. The solos have been beautifully edited. I can't say enough about the voice--others have done it better--but it suits the material perfectly. And you have the best ending/fade I have ever heard on a BIAB song. Much, much more power to you!
Richard
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Great country voice.
If I only knew what 'chillun' means. Is it 'children'?
Guenter
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"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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You really do well at creating those solos. The vocals are great, too. Super duper stuff all around. This is as good a sounding song that I have heard in these 'dem parts
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what they said! I almost expected Garrison Keillor to launch into a Prairie Home Companion story at the end of the song PS... have you met my kids?? if not, how did you know...? 
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Thank you all very much for the comments including the remark re the fiddle EQ - I'm gonna take a look at what I used.
Ryszard answered the question about "Chillun" being children. In the rural south "chillun" is heard in both black and white dialects. One of my grandmothers used hit. Many Southerners use soft "r" or if the can often completely avoid them.
Seeker got me to thinking more about the origins of this tune. I think that based on "chillun" and the structure of the verses that it originated as a black spiritual or possibly even a blues tune. Folks who are a lot more studious than me have tried to trace it's beginnings and the couple of Western Swing bands that recorded it in the 1930's gave it no attribution.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment.
BTW, for those of you not familiar with the Western Swing genre there were some hot bands back in the 1930-40's. While they featured lap steeps and fiddles as solo instruments they could hold their own and often swapped rhythm players with some of the renown jazz swing bands of the era.
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 janice great arrangement and mix vocals are awesome great blend of intruments 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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Well that's just mighty fine stuff there!  Greg
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Quote:
BTW, for those of you not familiar with the Western Swing genre there were some hot bands back in the 1930-40's. While they featured lap steels and fiddles as solo instruments they could hold their own and often swapped rhythm players with some of the renowned jazz swing bands of the era.
I'm not sure if Western Swing has ever been cited as a significant influence on the Allman Brothers. Anyway, I can hear it; can anyone else? Listen to "Ramblin' Man" and tell me if that doesn't sound like a fiddle duet at the start.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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It's all been said all I will add is thanks for posting this wonderful piece of music.
Later,
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Hi
I have spent a lovely half an hour listening to quite a bit of your stuff on soundcloud. I absolutely love everything about the tracks. What an inspiration. Thanks
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Bud and Janice, Excellent track from you two. The only thing - jmho and subjective - is I thought the fiddle especially at first was competing with her vocal and could've been mixed a tad left or right instead of centered with her basically on top of it. Not a deal breaker by any stretch and I thought you really captured that PHC G. Kellor vibe. Nice job on the lyrics too.  Great work.
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Hi Bud and Janice,
This is amazing. Absolutely everything about this song and it's presentation gleams. There is nothing that I can say that hasn't been said already. I'm heading back for another listen right now!
All the best,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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