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everybody loves a good old cowboy song..... right?

THIS..... this is the reason I bought BB all those many years ago. I wanted a good steel guitar.

I debated on whether to play guitar on this and decided to only play the acoustics..... two of the,m panned wide and low..... this was destined to be a steel guitar song. Fills are mostly mandolin.

The band is

Bass 2915
Drums Blues rock even
I kept the BB guitars and lowered the levels.... 2904 & 2930
Steel 2883
B3 686 ( I tend to use this one a lot)
Mando 3149
I'm on the Taylor acoustic. Double tracked and wide.
There's 5 tracks of vocals. Lead... down the center, doubled on the sides and low, and 2 harmonies down with the doubles.

Enjoy

High Sierra

And the lyrics.... just finished them in the middle of the vocal recording.....It hit me.... Oh wait.... these are better words....(in the chorus)

When the sun comes up tomorrow I'll be leaving
another crowd 200 miles away
this old rodeo, it's in my blood and in my veins
One day it might even be the death of me.

Cowboys aren't the kind that like to settle down
we always have some other place to be
Sunrise on a mountain top , or a starry sky at night
It really doesn't matter as long as we 're living free

High Sierra,
Where a man can know what it feels like to be free
High Sierra,
Where the evening breeze is blowing through the trees

solo

I've been way too long living in a city
I need to see the tumble weeds again
A campfire in the night, man that's such a sight
I gotta be where the wind is blowing free

High Sierra,
Where a man can know what it feels like to be free
High Sierra,
Where the evening breeze is blowing through the trees

Herb,

Nice sounding track. I like your vocal treatment. Good mix.

Everything fits well. Nice, even mix. The lyrics and music combine to take the listener 'on location.'

Sounds really nice Herb! Love the harmonies! It's odd not hearing your electric guitar playing but your arrangement and corresponding instrument choices are super! Really good Country flavored tune! Thanks, Torrey

Guitarhacker:

Generally I’m not the biggest fan of country, but you’ve got a good one here. I think good country, more so than other genres, really turns on the quality of the lyric—and this is a stellar write. Bolstered by great production, it delivers the goods in spades. Great choice to feature the steel guitar—it’s the star here . . . but your vocal is also very cool, very authentic for the feel of the song. Outstanding work!

All my best to you,

Deej

You are right, I always love a cowboy song. This is good. Good lyrics. I love the "High Sierra" part. Well done. Vocals are rich. Good work. That country band is pretty good too - you should hire them full time.

i'm not big on country...but i really like what youve done with this.
a very full nice mix. sounds really nice.
nice lyrics.
when you sing 'high sierra' i would suggest considering vocal doubling herb.
i like that lyric 'tumbleweeds again' etc.

best herb.
om

A really tidy production package.
there's an occasional crack like when you sing "be" at the end of a phrase where the vocal triggers a bit more reverb than expected but other wise this is really well done.
The melody vaguely reminds me of an old, (1972), Australian song that has a nice loping, relaxed feel too... Rock n Roll Lady

This is a super country song and it should be played on the radio today.

You nailed that country groove! Great vocal and mix.

Two thumbs up.

Jim.... vox treatment is doubling and some verb.... with harmony in a few places. Thanks.



Ghostgum.... thanks... Isn't that the ultimate goal of the song? To take the listener on a brief excursion into the magical place of the song. I'm glad it did that for you



Torrey, Sometimes I just have to take a back seat and do what the song tells me it wants. Thank you




Deej. When I can pull in someone who's not a fan of the genre.... I think I've done my job. I love to write story songs... some of the great country writers of the past excelled at this. THanks for your input.


JPT. I had a patron (read "heckler") in a club one night yell out hey... can't you play anything but country. I replied.... yes, in fact I can play both kinds of music.... Country and WESTERN.... and proceeded to play Home on the range.... the place went nuts. I love a good western song. Thanks. I did hire them....



OM... If you listen closely, there is doubling through the entire song and harmony in there as well. It's just that I run those really low to get more of an ambience to the background as opposed to obvious doubling. You can hear it clearly in a few places where I got sloppy at the mixing stage and didn't "fix" the stuff that wasn't perfectly synced. If it gets too loud in the mix it will cause comb filtering and that's undesirable. So I keep it low. You can figure that on everything I do, with rare exceptions, there is vocal doubling and often harmony. This song has 5 vocal tracks. And there's a dedicated vocal sub buss. Tumbleweeds.... it's all about taking you to the location and seeing it in your minds eye.




RayC... I had to listen to see what you were talking about on "be". I hear it. I think it's an artifact that happened from the MP3 conversion on Soundcloud. It's not there in the wave in the DAW. That's a damn fine audio catch. Thanks for pointing that out. I will investigate it closer.... but not this week.



Mario, thanks... but they're really not playing country music as we define it, on today's radio.... but I do agree.... this needs to be in the current national rotation.


Thanks to everyone who has commented..... be advised.... I will be busy this week so I won't have a chance to set down and reply to your comments..... Lilly and I are working on getting her HRD water certification this week and we'll be out of town from before sun up to well after sundown every day. I will try to check in when we're not in the boat or otherwise engaged in some sort of training..... We're going to be beat by Friday.

Ah, yes, Herb, the perfect Cowboy Song is one that sounds good with a full country band OR with a single acoustic around the campfire. This one is perfect. So well sung, and what a great band. That's cool how you were still changing the lyrics at the recording session. Can't stop the creativity churning in a passionate mind. Excellent lyrics.

Good stuff Herb. I guess we both like to write rodeo cowboy songs.

I just got my first Mandolin and I really liked how you used the Mandolin in this song. Most likely steal some ideas from you.

The vocal on the High Sierra was a cool way to form a hook.

Thanks for posting this.

Billy

Herb,
One of the best tunes I have heard by you. (to my taste). This got a perfect balance of Country rocker going to almost Folk like ballad. Very good write, arrangement and vocals. Only issue, I can hear, it has that "metallic" sound of the whole mix. Reading your notes, I think it might relate to that MP3 conversion you mentioned. Enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Nothing wrong with a good Cowboy toon.

Nice one!

moto

This is a very nicely done production.

The imagery is standout. All of the references to nature are easy to imagine.

The vocals well delivered the feeling and, yeah, that steel was the ticket.

Nice,

J&B

Yeah this is classic country man.

Really enjoyed it a lot! You should bring old country back.

The country needs it man.

Excellent song, Herb
Absolutely brilliant mixed
The sound sounds like one unit
Superbly done
Many greetings
Andi ;-)

This is a great song. Your vocal is full and rich. Mix is excellent. The melody throughout the song is a grabber.

Wonderful song Herb!! I always like the cowboy thing....wrote a song called Sailors and Cowboys about chasing the next horizon. Love the way you delivered this!! Really good writing, singing, production......the whole nine!! Take care. Greg

I'm Back...... what a whirlwind of a week last week. We, my dog Lilly and I, were at AMPWADA advanced water and land HRD training. Lots of fun and some frustration but we had a good time, met a number of other handlers and dogs, and learned a few things about ourselves and this thing we do of finding the missing and lost. Then... yesterday, we took our HRD land certification test with NCPDA. Lilly aced it and passed it with flying colors and we are good to go for another year. Now, to get caught up on the things that I need to do and maybe, by next week, I can get back to music.

In addition... last week, I found out that my buddy, Danny, my friend who wrote and sang Blue on Red, Old Tin Roof, and a few other songs some here have heard, is likely to pass soon. Hospice gave him a week or two. So I went to see him to say my goodbye to a friend, road buddy, and overall very talented guy.


OK... back to the thread.... In the interest of time.....

Thanks: Babu, Planobilly, Misha, Moto, J&B, David Snyder, Andi, Ezekiel, and Greg.

I appreciate the time you all took to listen and comment. Much appreciated.