I think this is the first song I've released for the public to hear that came out of BB 2014.

This is a song written back in 2009 by 3 writers. Pat wrote the main idea, Dena reworked the lyrics a bit and I came in to the collaboration to work on the music. This makes the 4th remix (IIRC) and likely the last. The others were adult contemporary in nature but I do believe this song works best with country instrumentation.

In A World Without You

Tracks include:

Vocals: Dena (recorded in her studio)
Acoustic guitars: Herb Hartley (me)
Acoustic guitars: Tom Britt (RT)
Bass: Dow Tomlin (RT)
Drums: Brian Fullen (RT)
Piano: Miles Black (RT)
Steel Guitar: Steve Hinson (RT)
B3 Organ: Gene Rabbai (RT)
Strings: Avery Bright (RT)
Cello: Matt Nelson (RT)

We hope you enjoy the listen and comments are always welcome.

Pat, Herb, and Dena. At a restaurant just north of Nashville Tn.

Herb,

Great job, I can already imagine hearing this one on the radio.

PS: Tell Dean she has another fan in South Louisiana!

Later,

Beautiful work in all categories. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Herb,

I enjoyed the listen. Your production is super. Deana has a great voice and she showed terrific control singing the chorus. There are not a lot of places to breathe comfortably but she managed it superbly. Kudos to you all.

Congratulations on getting that first song for the new version posted!

Regards,
Noel

Herb, I can' t imagine this being anything other than the style you are using. Nice mix. All the instruments are separated and clear. The steel sounds good. It was nicely edited. As usual an all around top shelf production. Tom

Well done really nice to hear.

Herb...

If you haven't alreaqdy, you can tell Dena she can breathe now! This is great in every way...the song, the arrangement, the mix, the delivery...everything. Very, very nice! Thanks for a marvelous listen!

Al & Di

Danny C: that girl can sing ... however, she is pursuing a different path in life now and hasn't sung in years (on studio stuff). She's a mom and living in Hawaii right now... new priorities in life. I encouraged her just the other week to not give up on music totally.... to stay involved at some level.

PG: glad you enjoyed this song

Noel: The back story is amazing.... she had just moved, had at least one child at that time, was a single mom, going to class and working, and recovering from surgery just a week or two earlier..... at the time she did this vocal track..... back in 2009. I had to edit out all the breaths because she sounded like a runner.... close up to the mic, every breath and lip smack was clearly recorded and was distracting.

Tommy: This is, I believe, version 4 since it was first demoed in 2009 without BB/RT. We were trying to make it adult contemporary/pop.

Wade: thanks for listening.

Al & Di: she was really moving on with that vocal delivery wasn't she? The biggest issue for me in reworking this was trying to find space and time for the fills so as not to step on her vox. Glad you took the time to listen


Thanks all....

Herb,

The production and mix are nice. Consistent throughout.
Listening without the lyric (which I always do first time around) - it was difficult to understand some words. After a few tries, I had to look at the lyric. In the bridge and the soft instrumentation following it, the vocal stood out great.

floyd

Hi Herb,

a fine production.
Congratulations to the three of you.

Guenter

Floyd: I hear ya on understanding the lyrics thing.... I was pulled into this collab to work on the music and by that time, the lyrics were done and to be totally honest, I had to get a copy of the lyrics to understand Dena's words as well....

Boehm: thanks... it was a fun project to work on. Interesting story on this song collab. At the time we wrote this and worked it up, none of use had ever met. Everything we did was across the internet. Pat started the song as a song about her sister who had breast cancer. She sent it to Dena who rough demoed it after rewriting it to be a more universal love song. I heard that rough demo and worked with D on the music. It was several months perhaps a year later that my wife and I took a short vacation trip to Nashville as tourists while our girls were in church summer camp. I mentioned my upcoming visit to Pat in an email and she said she was coincidentally planning to visit her sister (now recovered from cancer) who just happened to live in a Nashville suburb. I knew D lived near there as well so we set up a day that was convenient to all and met at a restaurant near Clarksville TN so D could get there easily on her lunch break. We had a good time, ate a good meal, and I got to meet Pat's sister Lorraine about whom the original song idea was written.