Original Song – Trainlines - Feedback Wanted

I’d have to call this a folk song – a throwback to the depression era except for electronic instruments – bass and pedal steel.

This song started life back in the early sixties when I recall hearing trains sounding their whistles at night as they bore down on crossings, and I discovered Woody Guthrie and folk music – in particular a song recorded by the Kingston Trio called Hobo’s Lullaby written by Goebel Reeves. Inspired by the new instrument I was playing (guitar) back then and thoughts of trains and hobos, I wrote my own “ride the rails” song and then last year revisited the lyrics and did this arrangement.

As always your thoughts on the song and production are appreciated.
Any balance adjustments needed? Production suggestions?

http://web.ncf.ca/ifraser/Trainlines.html - lyrics and mp3 embedded here should play after a second or two.
http://web.ncf.ca/ifraser/Trainlines_Aud_chvox.mp3 - for download if embedding doesn’t work.

Thanks for visiting. Ian

Hi Ian,

Great little tune. I really enjoyed it. The bass was adequate in my headphones, but seemed a little light in both of my monitor systems. That may be just me tho--I tend to like quite a bit of bass. lol. Let a few more chime in for a better reading on that. Everything else was ok to my (far from golden) ears anyways. I'm jealous-wish my voice was that mellow. lol Thanks for sharing.

Jim

Ian,

clever little tune! I like the fact that you also post the lyrics with your songs.. it adds something to the experience of listening to your compositions.

I grew up in a railroad town... both of my grandfathers and my dad worked for the Pennsylvania railroad... at various times I worked for the Penn Central and later in Conrail's heavy repair locomotive shops... so your choice of topic has particular significance to me. Plus, you picked a good style for that type of song, and your delivery was a good match too for a folky depression era rail tune.

I am curious to know where the line "there ain't no future in it" came from. The whole time I worked for the railroad, I believed it was going to shut down at any moment... so I quit in search of something that offered more security. Ironically, the place is still there, and for those who stayed there was a future in it.

Anyway, nice song! I look forward to hearing your next one too!

Hi Ian,

The mix sounded well balanced to me. I really like the minor/major mode thing that you had happening in this song. You've got a good sense of lyrics. I was carried through the lyrics by the images your words created in my mind. I also like how you have taken the metaphor of train lines and applied it to the concept of inner turmoil and chasing greener pastures that don't exist (at least, that's how I heard it!).

I thoroughly enjoyed the listen

Thank you for giving me the opportunity.

All the best with the next one!
Noel

Nice job Ian. Grandpa was a steam engine mechanic. I got to take the engines out of the roundhouse and onto the turntable and then to the siding, pull the whistle...I was 4 to about 10. Then they got 'weasels' and he said I called them when they first showed up. I liked the Pisss-in on the wheels", or said he said I said. In 1959 they laid off all the guys over 50, despite them being Vets they hired after the war. No pension. Just a train pass for CN rail.

I used to love taking the camping trailer to Cantley and hearing that steam engine going from Wakefield, the whistle in the dark and the chugging in the distance made me feel like a kid. Dad kept a train schedule in the glove box of our 53 ford and we went down to the CN tracks, where there's 4 lines and sit in our pj's a wait for a steam train to go buy. Mom rolled up the window if the wind was coming at us.

Lots of my friends work at the old GM diesel plant here. I think it's Electro-Motive that owns it now. They built a big one a few years back and were missing a deadline for the Irish railway, so they rented the worlds largest cargo plane, cause we have one of the world's longest runways, and loaded it in and flew it over. Thousands including me went down.

Great job with the website and embedding that, it was well done.

I'm going to do a video of my 'woodshed' practice and post it soon.

I hope that steam train is still running from Gatineau to Wakefield. I'd like to trek up and see that again.

We crossed the country in 66 on a train. The days of the CP train with the dome cars. Anyone who's not made the trip through the rockies on a train is missing more fun than they should ever have. Watching the front come out of the tunnel and being in the back is amazing.

Good tune and lyrics. I am listening on speakers and it might be a trifle light on the bass, but not too bad. Good writing and very enjoyable.

Kevin

Quote:

We crossed the country in 66 on a train. The days of the CP train with the dome cars. Anyone who's not made the trip through the rockies on a train is missing more fun than they should ever have. Watching the front come out of the tunnel and being in the back is amazing.

I hope before I die, I get to do this. It's on my bucket list.

Thanks for coming by Jim.
I guess my voice is mellowing out with age.

I think you're right about the bass - because of my less than "golden ears" - I do a lot of my final level determination via PG's RTA plugin. The principle being "if I can hear it, then it's too loud for everyone else."

Glad you liked it. Ian

I liked that, Ian. I really liked the guitar sound, tell me more about that.
Mix changes? Maybe a bit more gain on the bass and a lot more on the steel guitar licks when they come in.
Nice, clear recording. It was mono on my system is that right? The first 'embedded' link didn't work, maybe that's why I didn't get a stereo version?

John

Good morning, Pat - boy you were up early this morning.

Quote:

I am curious to know where the line "there ain't no future in it" came from.

I wish I could honestly claim some precognition, but this line I added in my recent rewrite. The idea being that there is no future in running or riding.
I was also looking for a "singable" refrain for the chorus - you'll notice that there are a couple of voices speaking/singing the refrain.

Thanks for telling me about how the song evoked your personal thoughts.
By the way, those lines near my old home are now 4 lane blacktops.

Good to hear from you. Ian

Morning Noel.
When I was a kid I had these strong pulls to get up and go vagabond - got them listen to trains, looking at the night sky. Funny thing is - I never really picked up when I was a student and packed over Europe. The mind would wander but the body was welded to the home ground.
I don't think it comes through in the chording of the verse but the chords were Em - C9 - probably would have been more obvious had I actually played guitar rhythm - could never seem to record acoustic guitar well.

The Depression saw many people running - the box car was the major mode - and the Rail Cos had these guys with clubs to keep the hobos off . . . and they'd kill you. Pleasant thought for a nice day.

Good to hear your thoughts - glad all of the "i"s and "t"s are in place.

Ian

Hey - good to hear from you, John and I'm glad the song brought back some memories.
The website took a bit of time for this "non-coder" to work it up. But there is still more to do. Glad the embedding worked.

As for you, sir, I really hope you are filing these anecdotes for posterity sake - great memories. Had to laugh at your mother closing the windows - that smoke was overwhelming. I had a rail line about three blocks from my home, ran along the Ottawa River - we'd go lie beside lines as the train went by heading up the valley across the country. . . I can feel the ground shaking, and see the ties rising and falling as the wheels ran by - they were just slowly building speed - we were nuts.

That Cantley line was used in the Pierce Brosnan movie "Grey Owl". Haven't heard if it's going to run this year or not.

Cheers - Ian

Quote:

Quote:

I am curious to know where the line "there ain't no future in it" came from.

I wish I could honestly claim some precognition, but this line I added in my recent rewrite. The idea being that there is no future in running or riding.
I was also looking for a "singable" refrain for the chorus - you'll notice that there are a couple of voices speaking/singing the refrain.

Thanks for telling me about how the song evoked your personal thoughts.
By the way, those lines near my old home are now 4 lane blacktops.

Good to hear from you. Ian

Words in songs serve different purposes to different composers. Sometimes they are chosen like poetry to convey a thought in the most picturesque way.. sometimes they are chosen because they rhyme, or the cadence fits... sometimes they are chosen for comparison and contrast... sometimes they are chosen to obfuscate the meaning so the listener has to participate in the interpretation instead of just listening passively. I was sort of curious to hear what your intent was, because your choice of words served the purpose of evoking a long forgotten memory in the back of my mind. If you can do that with your songs, that is a very cool thing to do. And if you can learn how to do it consistently, wow.

Good to hear from you, John.
Agreed, the pedal steel needs to rise a bit to the surface, as does the bass - it's picked so should have a bit more edge.

There are two guitars in the mix - both are XG voices played via an DB50XG daughter card on Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. The lead guitar is Nylon equiv of GM 25 and the lead parts were created with the BIAB soloist. It has about 40 PG reverb. The picking guitar is XG equiv of GM 26, LSB 41 (Steel Body Guitar).
The whole mix is set inside a Classic Reverb room setting.

The mix is not mono but there was minimal panning, nothing further than +/- 25 off centre.

Playing embedded files these is weird - although you can set WMP 11 to play MP3 or WAV, it WILL NOT play embedded MP3 or WAV. In Firefox you MUST have Quicktime correctly installed. Funny thing is that my on-line system is Win2K with WMP9 and it plays embedded MP3 and Wav no problem. Apparently WMP11 is hard coded not to play embedded MP3 or Wav among others.

Thanks for the input.

Appreciated.
Ian

Hi Kevin
Glad you enjoyed the tune and thanks for the input. I mix with Tannoy bookshelf monitors and there is always the risk of boom from the root bass frequency in my studio area so I tend to hold the bass back - "If you use EQ to boost the fundamental frequency, you simply make the instrument louder, and don't bring it out in the mix. Boosting the harmonic frequencies, on the other hand, boosts the instrument's tone qualities, and can therefore give it its own space in the mix. Bass Guitar: bottom (60 - 80 Hz), attack (700 - 1000 Hz), string noise (2.5 kHz)" . . . .this from an article I have. I haven't tried it on the bass so maybe I'll see if I can bring it out of the mix with the attack boost.

Thanks again - Ian

Great song Ian. The mix is very good IMHO. Super vox and great lyrics, again!

Ian,

I really like this tune and no problems with the bass (sounds like your taste in bass is like mine, we like a lot, so a little more would not hurt the production) good mix overall. One nit pick . . . the opening line "A kid I'd lie awake etc.", When I try to sing along I can't stop myself from singing "As" a kid I'd lie awake etc. but either way you got a good one going here my friend.

Later,

Having a little chuckle here Mario.

I was wondering how the "lead guitar" sound might survive your scrutiny.

I'm really glad for your input as always.

Go Sens Go. Ian

Thank you Danny for your comments. You got me . . .
You know . . . there is actually an "As" on my rough draft but when I recorded the vocal the "as a" seemed too busy to begin the song. Although I often give my lyrics a half beat push. So I dropped the "as" - pardon a bad joke but I guess you could say I created an "As"-hole.

And you sensed something was incomplete - it is a well-used phrase.
But I'll review my decision.

Seriously.
I'm flattered to think that the melody might be palatable enough to hum along to.

Cheers - Ian

Hi Ian,
This is a great song with good lyrics. I thought the mix was well balanced. I y=think you can still call it a folk song - would go down well in Folk Clubs. I enjoyed it very much - well done.
Jim

Thanks for dropping by Jim - glad you enjoyed it. Folk clubs seem to be a dying venue these days.
Used to be live music venues for 6 nights a week, now you're lucky to be able to find one night on the weekend.

For the newbies who cruise the different PG Forums, I should mention that the production "Trainlines" was done using only the three PG softwares - RealBand, Powertracks12 and BIAB 2010 - plus the odd additional freebie plugin.

Cheers - Ian