TRYIN'

I wrote some lyrics a few weeks ago with the notion of creating a 12 bar blues, then an 8 bar blues and finally a ballad. Floyd has been schooling us in song writing and was kind enough to suggest if I had a song for him to look at, send it on. And I did. And am I ever glad that I did!

Through a flurry of correspondence he used my lyrics to illustrate a lot of the techniques that he has learned/developed over the years. Floyd took some of our lines, restated some of our lines, added his own and out came this. What was to be a bit of learning became a real musical journey for Janice and me. We had not come up with a melody yet so Floyd provided this one for the exercise and things seemed to take on a life of their own. Bottom line? Janice and I are delighted to "own" a small piece of this effort. Oh, another thanks to Floyd for suggesting the strings. Did I mention he sings harmony? It took me several RealTrack "bands" to get to this four instrument set that, and I'm biased, really supports Janice's nuanced vocal. Thanks for listening.

Lead Vocal: Janice (Rodes NT1/Blue Icicle USB)
Harmony Vocal: Floyd
Guitar: RT 1814
Cello: RT 1856
Fiddle: RT 1760
Mandolin: Composite of multiple generations RTs 1875/2033
DAW: Garageband

I watched you walk out that gate    
and drive away with no goodbyes 
Taillights fading into the night    
love has no chance when no one tries
but I tried the best I could...     
 
I should have seen this coming
someday I may understand
some learn from their mistakes - some never learn at all
but, hell, I'm trying the best I can...
I'm trying the best I can.. I'm tryin'....
 
i'm tying - that's all i can do              
how do i get over you     
is this what love’s supposed to be about    
do I try to get you back              
or let you go and leave it at that          
will i ever figure this thing out          
oh, oh
I'm tryin'
 
tomorrow may hold the answer
if nothing else it's another day
a little distance might be all I need
to forget... or to find my way
and I'm trying the best I can.. I'm tryin'....

now that's nice.

I like the simplicity of 3 tracks.

nice collab job.

Well, I'll be! That is a great combo of three instruments and vocals. I might be tempted to try and move Floyd's harmony vocals out a bit wider (just as an experiment -- no guarantee it would improve anything), but that's about it. It is a mighty fine composition and performance.

This is a really nice tune and a nice co-write.
I'm very impressed how you micro edit the RTs. It works very well.
And Janice's vocals, not just on this song but every song you've posted: They're not just good; they are what you would order from the "Perfect Vocal Take" catalog.

Floyd Jane's harmonies add a nice touch.

Good Job.

John

Hi, Janice and Bud & Floyd !

I like the message, seems to
me people don´t really try hard
enough nowadays !:) And I hope
there will be a happy ending
after all that trying !:)
In any case a very sweet tune
with beautiful harmonies extremely
well sung !:)


Cheers
Dani

Hi Janice, Bud and Floyd,

a beautiful song with perfect voices.
I like the reduced arrangement.

Guenter

This is my favorite vocal by Janice so far. The sparse arrangement and harmony is pretty.

For me, the mix was very nice as always you get a great sound but everything seemed panned a little too close to center for my personal taste.

Nice collab as always.

Hi Janice, Bud and Floyd.

I have to say that the sonic setting created by those four tracks (guitar, cello, fiddle, mandolin) is an outstanding fit for every aspect of this song - the haunting melody, the reflective lyrics and the poignancy of Janice's exceptional vocals. Toss into that mix the sweetening of Floyd's harmonies and the whole presentation shines like 24 carat gold. In every possible way, this is music at its very best. What an outstanding collaboration!

Best wishes to all,
Noel

P.S. I'm incredibly impressed how you diced, sliced and spliced those two mandolin realtracks to create the mandolin!

OK, remember what I said about being an alien who could suck your talent until you were nothing but shells? Well that deal's off. Now I want the shells too. (You too Floyd)
Grind 'em up and make tea or somethin' maybe.

But seriously, that was such a professional sounding presentation, the thought occurred to me that if PGMusic ever sponsors an annual music festival, y'all should be headliners. I'd drive from NC to Canada and sleep in dumpsters along the way just for the opportunity to see this band of Janice, Bud and Floyd.

Even easier would be to drive from NC to GA, and Floyd could drive from FLA to GA for the forum jam session of the century.

PS: Janice, do you have any sisters who aren't married? (who can sing like you?) Just wondering.

First, thanks Guitarhacker, jphillips, dani48, bohem, Noel, Pat, Sundance and Kemmrich for all for the kind remarks. We worked hard on this one...but I gotta brag on Janice (she's modest to a fault). Other than the scratch Janice only sang two takes for the final vocal track and there were no punch-ins. I think she's of the school that each take "takes" a little out of the original feel. As much as I love to cut and paste instrumental tracks I've never had to do it with a vocal. And Floyd nailed the harmony in quick order.

Kemmrich and Sundance: Thanks for the suggestion -- I just now opened up the mix a little with a slight pan on the harmony and the guitar and mandolin. The cello and fiddle were already panned. I'm trying to set a pretty tight sound stage with the minimalist panning and reverb to give a bit of a "live" feel. Guess it comes from my years of standing behind our bluegrass band with a bass fiddle and a board nearby. We used to play with the band gathered around one or two mikes. But now with my DAW and RealTracks I can experiment away.

Pat: Janice has 4 happily married sisters; however, you seem like a nice guy so if something with one of them doesn't work out.......

Bud:

Just a thought: Since you do such a good job of micro slicing the RTs to make them your own, if you ever have the time maybe you could do little lesson on how you do your micro editing in the Tips and Tricks section, maybe with a few screen shots from your DAW. I think some people might find that useful.

John

Bud and Janice,

Very nice. I love your clean uncluttered recording technique. Nice touches from Mr. Floyd Jane as well.



Regards,


Bob

the good ones are always taken. ;(

Excellent work.

The mix and tracks are great, but Janice really knows how to sell a song and the sparse mix really lets here do that.

To be honest, it took a couple of listens for me to get into this. I'm just so used to bass and drums holding my hand that I had to put myself into a different frame of mind to hear it properly.

I 100% agree with everything Noel has said!

I've been tryin to listen to this for days, but Soundcloud wouldn't work... Apparently it was using a new version and that wasn't working for me. I finally rolled it back to the old version & now its fine.

Anyway, just an outstanding job!

Greg

Nothing to pick on here, great job in every aspect.

Later,

If you were here earlier for a listen, I would encourage you to go have another (listen, that is). There was a problem with the volume of the harmony tracks that I sent Bud for the original which made it impossible for them to get where they needed to be in the mix. We figured out how to fix that, so the recently updated mix is a "different listening experience".

This was a great experience. An enjoyable co-write and a real team effort, through and through. When the writing was finished, the song was not. Janice transformed it with her vision of the melody and phrasing that made it "her song". And Bud layered one of the most ELEGANT productions I've heard in a long time to support that incredible vocal. When I heard it, I pretty much begged them to let me do a harmony. Well, first I melted. Then I begged. I love to hear that woman sing!

I could go on (and on), but I won't... have another go at it...

floyd

Jphillips, thanks and I'll try and get a topic going regarding the micro-splicing.

Bob, thanks -- I really enjoy the final part of my BIAB productions which stripping out anything that I honestly feel adds nothing to the tune. It's a lot more challenging, for me, than adding tracks.

David C, glad you were able to let the drums/bass go for this tune. Trust me, as an acoustic bass player, it was hard for me to remove the bass track! Glad it worked for you.

Greg, glad SC finally came through for you. Thanks.

Dan, Thanks for the comment.

Floyd, I appreciate your diplomatic approach to the original harmony mix. Yes, your track with more gain facilitated the final mix....but the problem all along was my initial failure to grasp how harmony should work on a tune like this. After your suggestions and references, I finally had an epiphany and, I trust, did you a Janice right on the mix. Thanks for your help, advice and counsel from the get go on this project. I've learned more about song writing in the last week than over many years.

I have a picture of you guys working together. It's always nice to put a face with a name, don't you think?

That was a great movie. Only think I'd change to make it more apt for, at least my part, in this collab would be a much larger coffee mug!

What a beautifull song and arrangement! Very sweet.
The Janice voice and feeling is outstanding.

My congratulations to the Trio

A lovely rendition as usual. I enjoyed both yours and Floyds versions