Thanks guys.

This whole thing is an ongoing experiment to use one song to purposely and methodically *test* the commercial market from many different angles to see if the “professionals” have anything useful to contribute or whether it is a waste of artistic time to listen to “commercial-music centered feedback.”

I have learned a lot and the process of experimentation and alternate takes is not over. I am actually doing more as part of the experiment. I listened to the country music mixing YouTubes Floyd recommended and also took Charlie’s great advice on the use of compression and normalization in Audacity on certain individual tracks before mixing begins. Great suggestions.