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Some of you may remember my friend Chris Raper. I met Chris when I took a couple of firearms related classes with him many years ago. After Chris had turned 70 he called me up one day to tell me he had just bought a Mandolin and asked if I knew anyone who could help him get started with the instrument. He eventually found a teacher and went on to play well enough to join in a gospel bluegrass band. His wife, inspired by what he was doing bought and learned to play a Uke. He even started a weekly bluegrass jam session where up to 12 people were coming to jam the the church fellowship hall for a couple of hours every Wed afternoon. He called me up to talk about songs and writing and told me he had written a song and could I help him record it. That was a song I posted here called He's My One. After we did that one, he wrote another and we set up a session to record that as well. He showed up with his wife and a girl singer named Isabel who was going to sing the new song and record a vocal for He's My One as well. A couple of hours later, both were done. On August 30, 2024, Chris passed away unexpectedly. His wife and family asked if I could please send them the songs Chris had written and recorded in my studio. So I remixed the songs and sent them to the family. This is the last one we worked on. A million laughs and a sad goodbye Singer: Isabel P. Bass 536 Mando 2121 Guitars 528 & 3174 The lyrics should be easy to understand. Enjoy
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,
What a tragic turn of events... So sorry for your loss.
Outstanding song with a great singer. So well written. The instrumentation and mix is excellent as well.
Bob
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Beautiful song, sparse but effective arrangement and really nice vocals.
Well recorded, I think it's a nice gesture to publicize his legacy.
My condolences to you and his family.
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Gee, both Chris' story and this song are sad but beautiful. Nice arrangement, and sparkling production. Isabel crushes the vocals. Sorry for your loss, good on you for helping to preserve Chris' legacy. Every day is truly a gift...
DC Ron
BiaB Audiophile
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Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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Herb,
What a tragic turn of events... So sorry for your loss.
Outstanding song with a great singer. So well written. The instrumentation and mix is excellent as well.
Bob Beautiful song, sparse but effective arrangement and really nice vocals.
Well recorded, I think it's a nice gesture to publicize his legacy.
My condolences to you and his family.
BD Thomas Gee, both Chris' story and this song are sad but beautiful. Nice arrangement, and sparkling production. Isabel crushes the vocals. Sorry for your loss, good on you for helping to preserve Chris' legacy. Every day is truly a gift...
DC Ron Thanks guys. I appreciate it.
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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An excellent write and production. Isabel interprets the song very well.
Ghostgum
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Journeyman
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Mighty pretty song, Herb... Sorry to hear about the passing of your friend.
Kajun Jeaux
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I love this style. Well done.
We have so few real friends through life and
music is a fine way to remember them.
Vic
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An excellent write and production. Isabel interprets the song very well.
Ghostgum Mighty pretty song, Herb... Sorry to hear about the passing of your friend.
Kajun Jeaux I love this style. Well done.
We have so few real friends through life and
music is a fine way to remember them.
Vic Thanks. Chris was certainly writing pretty decent songs.
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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So well done, Herb. Thanks for telling us more of Chris's story. Such a good write, and Isabel did a great job delivering it. Love the lyrics, and Chris surely seems like someone I'd like to meet on high.
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Good job by all.
Sad story.
Nice that you could provide/preserve these memories...
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Herb,
Everyone else before me has pretty much covered my thoughts.
Several weeks back I commented on one of your posts and mentioned how well you always make simple sound so elegant. This production puts a stamp of validity on that comment.
Love Isdabel's vocal!
It's all good!
Sad to hear of Chris' passing.
Alan
BIAB 2024 Ultra Plus-all StylePaks*Win11*32GB DDR5*Rhyzen 9745x*AT 2035 Mic*Peavey Nashville 112 Amp*Ibanez ART120* Acoustic/Electric/Washburn D200S Acoustic*Stromberg Monterey Jazz Guitar Loops: https://aldavidmusic.wixsite.com/bestmusicloops
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Great song. After reading your intro this is exactly what I expected and got! Really enjoyable mix and with great vocals.
Some favourite Waoist Adages:
#1: Play on the Way.
#13: Ask not for whom the flower blooms, it blooms for you.
#58: Bring consciousness to it.
#63: On the road to effortlessness, effort must be made.
#92: Be Love Now, the rest will come on its own.
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I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's passing. His untimely death is even more poignant with this being the last song you guys recorded.
Excellent mix and production. And the singer is so good.
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A sad song and a sad, but uplifting, story.
I love that the vocal is understated and unadorned - no histrionics, just heartfelt, tuneful singing.
The band is similarly restrained and it works beautifully. The song feels like it is actually being performed in church.
Mike
Mike Garry BIAB 2025/RealBand (5), UltraPak, Kontakt, EZmix, Ozone 9 Elements, Audacity, MSi PC, Windows 11, 64bit, 16GB ram, CPU: Intel i7. https://soundcloud.com/user-952388172
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Everything that I wanted to say already has been said!
Sorry to hear about you friend passing.
Fantastic song, super vocal, and mix.
Life is short so make sure you spend as much time as possible on the Internet arguing with strangers.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Herb, you reflected Jesus' love in your support of Chris and his music...which is very well written to be sure! It was a great team effort with Isabel's vox, Chris' song, and your audio engineering skills. Great job and sorry to hear about the loss of your friend!
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Hi, Herb. Thanks for sharing the story behind the song. Nicely done - excellent mix, well sung and solid backing band. 
-- 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 Herb,
That was really a very sad goodbye. What a sad, sad story.
And maybe I misread what you wrote. I read that both Chris and Isabel died, because of the word both.
That makes it even more sad.
But what nice you had the recordings.
And like all here, I heard a very nice song and mandolin play and good vocals.
Thanks for sharing this story!
Hans
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Thanks everyone for the comments.
Hans. Yes. You misread that. Isabel is alive and 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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