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This is my newest song... started writing it in the last few days of the old year... finished it up as of today. I was changing lyrics in it this morning. It's an observation of life in this corner of the world. Recently, our small town (population 300) had the General Store close...owner retired. His grandfather opened the store in the early 1900's... and another of my customers is barely keeping the doors open. Down to one employee from about 10. EDIT: Per some commentary, I have posted Version 2... minor changes to the song... EQ high end tamed a bit, and some words punched Dust On The Floor Lots of detail work in this project. Hope you enjoy it. Comments and crits are welcome. Tracks in the song: Bass 1423 Piano 2049 (2 tracks) Acoustic Guitar 1 822 Acoustic Guitar 2 824 Electric Guitar 830 Mandolin 2043 Dobro 2116 (2 tracks) Fiddle 2119 (2 tracks) B3 689 Drums Nashville waltz Vocals (5 tracks) I was planning to add live acoustics to this but it would have been too full so I opted to leave them out and this is a 99.9% Real Track piece of work..... yeah, only the very last piano chord (F) was a Steinburg concert Grand. I needed it for a smooth artifact free natural fade.... I told you there was a lot of detail work in this. The hardest thing was working with 3/4 tracks and then when I wanted to add the B3.... there were no 3/4 B3 tracks.... but I decided to simply render it anyway and it turned out OK.... Lots and lots of envelope nodes in this for editing and production....
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 01/09/15 05:16 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Cool song!! I like the sentiment. David Wilcox has one about Ashville with a similar theme, and another writer I heard did a song called "I Miss Main Street". I think a lot of us old timers have these thoughts. Arrangement works great-really liked the mandolin/fiddle alternating solos. Nice vocal as well. Great work! Take care. Greg
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Herb,
Vivid imagery in this and I especially like the chorus. Great arrangement and vocal.
Josie
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It's an observation of life in this corner of the world. Recently, our small town (population 300) had the General Store close...owner retired. His grandfather opened the store in the early 1900's... and another of my customers is barely keeping the doors open. Down to one employee from about 10.
I gave a listen GH. You nailed the lyrical imagery for this subject....well done. Carry on....
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Herb, I enjoyed this song. It probably kept you busy quite some time but the result is fine. Sad story well brought. And the grand piano finishes it of in style  G Fred
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Cool song!! I like the sentiment. David Wilcox has one about Ashville with a similar theme, and another writer I heard did a song called "I Miss Main Street". I think a lot of us old timers have these thoughts. Arrangement works great-really liked the mandolin/fiddle alternating solos. Nice vocal as well. Great work! Take care. Greg Thanks.... I'm not familiar with those songs.... I know Alan Jackson did a song about the common man or something like that. Sad to see our little towns in decline..
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Herb,
Vivid imagery in this and I especially like the chorus. Great arrangement and vocal.
Josie every now and then I kinda get one right.... I like to paint pictures with words.... I thin this one got that job done.... thanks for seeing that as well.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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It's an observation of life in this corner of the world. Recently, our small town (population 300) had the General Store close...owner retired. His grandfather opened the store in the early 1900's... and another of my customers is barely keeping the doors open. Down to one employee from about 10.
I gave a listen GH. You nailed the lyrical imagery for this subject....well done. Carry on.... and again.... yes... thank you.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Herb, I enjoyed this song. It probably kept you busy quite some time but the result is fine. Sad story well brought. And the grand piano finishes it of in style G Fred Thank you....actually,this was a fairly quick write. I started the song in the last week of December and actually had it recorded and almost ready to go Monday of this week when I decided to make a key change and a major lyrical revision.... so I started from scratch...literally. That was one of those.... do I really wanna start over, moments......deleting completely the former version before starting over again just 2 days ago. I recorded the 4 backing vocal tracks and some changes to the main vox track today.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Herb,
This is excellent - my new favorite of your songs. Great lyric, vocal and overall production.
Bob
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Hi Herb,
As the others before me have already said, there is a great deal of detail in these images. It's good to hear song in waltz time. I liked it.
I mention the following because you asked for comments. One thing that popped into my mind as I listened was that, on my system, the mix had a great deal of high-end EQ. Because of this, the piano (in particular) sounded a little thin at times.
It's a great ending you devised for this one.
Overall, I enjoyed the ride!
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Wow, just a great song! Excellent lyrics to go with a super arrangement! Lots of space for everything to shine.
much enjoyed
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Herb
Sadly, a sign of the times. The song really tells the journey and destiny of a country store so well.
Thanks for sharing
Trev
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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Herb,
This is excellent - my new favorite of your songs. Great lyric, vocal and overall production.
Bob Thanks Bob.... each song I write becomes my new favorite.... this one included.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Hi Herb,
As the others before me have already said, there is a great deal of detail in these images. It's good to hear song in waltz time. I liked it.
I mention the following because you asked for comments. One thing that popped into my mind as I listened was that, on my system, the mix had a great deal of high-end EQ. Because of this, the piano (in particular) sounded a little thin at times.
It's a great ending you devised for this one.
Overall, I enjoyed the ride!
Regards,
Noel Noel, thanks for listening.... I will have to look into the EQ on the high end. In writing this, I normally opt for 4/4 but the groove didn't work in that so I switched to 3/4...I hate calling it waltz time because so much 3/4 isn't a waltz. 6/8 also has a similar groove. I added an extra measure to every verse and chorus in the song to keep the laid back feel. As I mentioned previously, I like to paint mental pictures in the minds of the listeners..... where you can see the paint on the window frames, and the weeks in the cracks on the sidewalks..... Again.... thanks for listening.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Not often we get treated to a song that follows the traditional map of a classic style country song but here it is. This one could have and likely would have fit right in the classic years if it had been released back in the day. It's not always how much time you spend on recording, mixing and producing a song, it's more how you spend the time. This is a good example. I like this tune a lot.
EDIT FOR VERSION TWO: The changes made an already excellent song flow a bit better. Also, the inference you took this 'classic' song would not be popular on today's country radio isn't due to this song lacking quality, relevance or emotion, it is because this song HAS all of those qualities & not the sameness of today's rappin' country where the music, lyrics and artist are all interchangeable. It's music like this that guides me to listen to CD's rather than radio and I'm not so sure that given the opportunity, music produced again in the 'classic' style could not enjoy a resurgence in mainstream radio popularity.
Charlie
Last edited by c_fogle; 01/09/15 05:52 AM.
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Herb, all your many skills are on full display with this one. Maybe your best write. Certainly your best vocal. A polished mix and great editing of the real tracks. This all adds up to a winner. ( very small, tiny, barely even noticeable nit- I would have changed the word "growing" to "grows". Flows a little better with one less syllable. Without question my favorite of yours so far. Tom
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Wow, just a great song! Excellent lyrics to go with a super arrangement! Lots of space for everything to shine.
much enjoyed I'm glad you like this... thanks for listening. I always try to create space and if there isn't space, and I can't make it, that part is not forced into the space. Make sense? Less is more...
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Herb
Sadly, a sign of the times. The song really tells the journey and destiny of a country store so well.
Thanks for sharing
Trev
I'm glad you listened and enjoyed the song. Yes, certainly a sad story that is replicated tens of thousands of times all across this country. It speaks to the general decline in this country.... lose the roots and you lose everything connected to the roots.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Not often we get treated to a song that follows the traditional map of a classic style country song but here it is. This one could have and likely would have fit right in the classic years if it had been released back in the day. It's not always how much time you spend on recording, mixing and producing a song, it's more how you spend the time. This is a good example. I like this tune a lot.
Charlie Yes, as I wrote this, I knew it's not what is popular... when was the last time you heard a song on the radio or TV in 3/4 time? But it was one that screamed out to be written. And so I did. Glad you and others are enjoying this song.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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