Down That Long Road

my daddy worked​ in these appalachian mines​
same as his daddy did before​

but now the mines are empty​
and so are all the stores
nobody's workin' anymore​
​
    their jobs have gone away​
    down that long road​

daddy dug up coal​ for cheap electric power​
made those northern generators turn​

but when natural gas was cheaper​ for those power plants to burn​
the bottom line​'s "financial return"​
​
    so they wrote us off to go​
    down that long road​
​
i never dreamed​ of leaving daddy on his own
but i can't wait around watching him die

corporate vultures​ stripped us to the bone​
bought up the land and bled it dry​
​
    'till there was nothing to go​
    down that long road​
​
[instrumental]​
​
early morning​ woke me from my sleep​
looking around​ my lover's gone​
​
he heard the raven ​calling from the tree​
he slipped away first light of dawn​
​
    following that damned crow​
    down the long road​
​
[verse 5]​
i feel the soft tears​ fallin' down my cheek​
i know it's time to for me leave
​
i hear the raven​ calling out to me
he knows there's nothing left for me

    it's time for me to go​
    down that long road​

Instruments
~592:Bass, Acoustic Bluegrass Doc Ev 100
~593:Fiddle, Rhythm Bluegrass Doc Ev 100
~597:Guitar, Acoustic, Soloist Bluegrass Doc Ev 100
~598:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Bluegrass Doc Ev 100
~599:Mandolin, Rhythm Bluegrass Doc Ev 100
~596:Fiddle, Soloist Bluegrass Doc Ev 100
2545:Banjo, Clawhammer, Rhythm OldTime Ev16 110
3385:Fiddle, BackgroundSoloist OldTimeBonfireAndy Ev16 110

Vocals
Lead Vocal: SynthesizerV (Solaria II)
Backing Vocal: SynthesizerV (Quing Su 2, Felicia 2)

FX Chain
Mix Buss: Curves AQ, Lurssen Mastering Console (Americana Loose, Warmer), Kramer Tape Stereo
Lead Vocal: HorNEt The Normalizer, Curves Equator, Curves AQ, Room 360, Leapwing Al Schmidt (Modern Vocal)
Vocal FX: LX480 Essentials (Vocal Plate Medium)
Backing Vocals: Waves Vocal Rider, Izotope Doubler, Room360, Al Schmitt (50s vocal)
All Other Tracks: Room360

The Short Story
I wrote a song. Feel free to listen and comment, or whatever. smile

The Long Story - But Shorter Than Usual wink

I found a style I hadn't used before, BGS_FGS.STY (Bluegrass Quartet w/ Guitar). I played around with the chords, but intentionally kept it simple. The verses are in Dm, and the instrumental is in F for some contrast. The instrumental was originally going to be a long chorus, but things change.

I rendered out a backing track, and imported it into SynthesizerV, where I worked out a melody.

There's a spinoff forum from VI-Control called Songwriter and Producer that is just getting started, so I figured I'd use the song as a sort of guinea pig. You can find that thread here. I'll summarize it here so you don't need to click the link. laugh

I wasn't sure (as usual) what direction the song would go. The verses were dark and brooding, so that suggested a classic murder ballad. The chorus was bright and cheery, with a sort of gospel feel. The two parts didn't fit together at all.

It was suggested that I write a goal for the song instead of my usual blind fumbling, so I went with:

"A traditional bluegrass song using classic archetypes evoking a sense of loss in the verses, but despite that - or because of that - a stoic optimism in the chorus."

I then started doing some research on the Appalachian region, and ran across this tidbit:

Community members regularly experienced punishment as a reprisal for speaking out against their employers. In his study of culture and poverty in Appalachia, Dwight Billings suggests that this has resulted in a fatalistic attitude in the Appalachian people, based on a history of political corruption and disenfranchisement, leading to a sense of powerlessness.

So much for "stoic optimism". Coal had been a major industry in the region, and was used primarily as a power source for generating electricity. but with the advent of fracking, natural gas became a cheaper source of fuel. This led to an increase in poverty and the flight of people from the region, going elsewhere looking for jobs.

Now there was enough material for the song, along with an inciting incident.

But that caused a bunch of problems for the narrative - mainly, how to present the story without it becoming an information dump. Long story short, I ended up with this version after many iterations and helpful suggestions from forum members. The poor raven was originally the title of the song, then virtually disappeared from the drafts, and then found its way back in again, but now as a once-titular character. wink

I then added the harmonies because harmonies are fun. Again the suggestion of forum members fixed those harmonies from cool and dissonant to hopefully something that is more appropriate to bluegrass.

The mix went through a bunch of iterations as well. I'd been using a bunch of effects trying to get a vintage sound, but there was a complaint that the instruments sounded like they were in different spaces. I had bought the Room360 plugin recently, so I pulled it up and put all the tracks in that. That simplified the FX on the tracks, as I wanted to stay with a fairly unprocessed and natural sound.

At the last minute, I did some due diligence to see if the ch in "Appalachia" was being pronounced correctly, and read that the local dialect pronounced it "Appa-latch-ia", so I hopefully got that right. sick

As always, comments of any sort are appreciated! cool

Last edited by dcuny; Yesterday at 05:33 PM.
-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?