Fire The Next Time
© 2020 Trad Arr Bud Merritt, Janice Merritt & Peter Fulham

We arranged the lyric based, in large part, on three 19th century African-American Spirituals, “God gave Noah the rainbow sign,” “I’ve got a home in that rock,” and “Mary, don’t you weep.” Much later gospel and folk music can be readily traced to tunes like these with a little research - a debt that is frequently not credited.

Our title is taken from “no more water, the fire next time” a line found in some versions of these old songs. And, more significantly, James Baldwin used it as the title of his civil rights book “The Fire Next Time” published in 1963. BTW, The phrase “...home in that rock” may reference “honey in the rock” that is traditionally thought to mean there’s some good in the toughest of places.

This is a completely new production retaining only the lyric from an acoustic version we posted seven years ago. A big shout-out to Peter for the guitar tracks/arrangement input and to PG Music for their products and this community.

As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.

Be safe.

Janice: vocal, melody and arrangement
Peter: guitar solos and fills
Bud: lyric compilation, tech stuff and arrangement

Vocal: Rodes NT1 mic > Scarlett 212 > Logic Pro X > Logic EQ > Waves CLA Vocals
Guitar (Peter): solos, fills including wah wah fill
Drums: RD BluesRockSlowEv^1-a:SideStick , b:Snare > Waves CLA Drums
Conga: RD CongasEv8 Waves > CLA Drums
Gongs: EMT Plate Reverb sim (thanks to Peter for samples)
Rhythm guitar: RT 3164 Baritone Electric > Waves CLA Guitar
Bass: RT 2903 Acoustic > Waves Bass Rider > Neutron 3
Piano: MIDI SuperTrack 3004: Piano, ElectricVintage > Logic Pro X Wurlitzer Classic sound
(Neutron’s “anti-masking” used on most tracks)

Mastering: Ozone EQ > Ozone Dynamics > Ozone Imager > Ozone Maximizer > Ozone Tonal Balance > Logic Pro X Loudness Meter

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