I'm not 100% sure if I have posted this here before or not.

It's a tune that was written back in 2009. Long story behind it, but it was written for a local crisis pregnancy center to use in their marketing and fundraising.

The singer was, at the time 16 years old and I had no clue that she could sing. She was a good friend of my daughters. The child singer towards the end is my niece who was 7 at the time.

Give Me A Chance

Tracks are:

Cassie: lead vox recorded in my studio
Sydney: vox in ending recorded in my studio
Drums: Nashville 8 real track
Bass: real track
Acoustic strum & finger pick: real track
Electric: real track clean dreamy
Strings: Alchemy pad patch
Choir: Kontakt female choir voices
Mandolin: me playing live recorded in my studio
Piano: RT 2045 solo-acomp country pop (new track to the mix)
Dobro: RT 2169 reso- country rob

fiddle and steel were removed from the original mix on this version. The older RT's did not have numbers on them. There are 7 vox tracks but not all of them are used all the time.

Hope you enjoy this remix.

Heavy subject. Great mix.


Josie

Yes is is Josie, thank you for listening and commenting.

Very competent vocals for such young folk, especially for delivering generally in a minor key.

The lyric is great, thought provoking, and the guitar work is excellent, with nice balance. And the backing vocals towards the end of the song introduce a well thought out dimension.

Enjoyed the listen
Trevor

Hi Herb,

nice song which reminds me of Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" in parts.
That girl can sing.
Thoughtful lyrics and nice arrangement.

Guenter

Herb,

Nice, well written song. I like both of the vocalists. Heavy subject, but good message. Very well done, and great mix to my ears. Thanks for sharing it!

Steve

Trevor, Guenter, and Steve,

Thanks for listening and commenting... I've never been one to avoid a controversial topic.

No doubt the girl can sing..... great voice. She's off in college now studying theater I think.... she really was involved in the local drama/theater groups and in the high school chorus with the things they did.... she generally got the "good parts".

extremely well produced and mixed

and the lyrics are smooth, which I always find difficult when trying to articulate any subject so directly.

well done all around.

Herb...

Very nicely done!Both voices were great! Super mix and great job all around! Best to ya...

Al & Di

Herb, Wow this is good. The singers are great the background singers sound great at the end . Well written on a sensitive subject. The dobro is a perfect choice and perfectly edited. The mix is spot on. You and everyone involved can be proud of this one.

Gruverider, Bumperboy, Al-David, and Tommyad,

Thanks for listening. And thanks for the kind words. Here's some more on the back story on this tune.

The director of the Wilson Pregnancy Center and I were talking one day and she expressed to me how difficult it was for them to find and legally license music for their projects and fundraising.

I offered to try to write something for them, no obligation on their part. If they liked it fine, if not, hey no biggie, at least we tried.

I contacted my co-writer and presented the idea and so we started to write based on a title/idea (In the eyes of a child) and that was kinda moving along nicely, but really not saying anything new or important, actually going nowhere fast. She pointed out there were other songs with that or a similar title, so we abandoned the project, which had a few good lines. Out the door, into the trash. Delete, gone.

And we started again, fresh, kicking around some ideas, this song came as a result.

You will often hear me talk about rewriting and changing things around and deleting and reworking structure in a song. When I say these things to other writers, it's because I know that they work as part of the process to get the song to be the best it can be. It's not me simply being critical of someone's work. This song, for example, was bounced back and forth between my co-writer and I, somewhere around 6 to 8 times. Each time it bounced, there was something changed in the song. It might have been one word or it may have been us deleting an entire verse and starting again by writing something totally new. We were still making changes on the fly to the lyrics as I was recording this song with Cassie and Sydney.

The point I'm trying to get across here is, don't be afraid to make changes, even big changes, to a song that you are working on. To me, in the writing process, nothing is sacred. Nothing is too good not to be changed to something else if the song calls for it to be changed. Its with rare exception that I insist on keeping certain lines. In one song in particular, my co-writer wanted to dump one line, I insisted we keep it. Later, when people listened, that one line kept coming up in commentary as the line that they particularly liked and remembered.

Every now and then, a song rolls out that is exceptionally pleasing. Between the music, the melody and the lyric, and this, to me, was one of those songs.... but it certainly did not come to be this way easily. It took work and willingness to throw out good ideas, and good lines of lyric in exchange for better ones.

My co-writer cried when she heard the studio version with Cassie. Same story when Cassie played it for her family and friends. In the end, the WPC loved it and we did in fact license this song to them at not cost for them to use in their fundraising and other activities.

Herb,

A solid lyric. Best you've posted. The melody is quite repetitive, but that works well for this song/message.

Opinion: The piano is mixed like a pad-type instrument. Off in the background. As if it has a volume knob and you've turn it down to an "unnatural" level (for an acoustic piano). If that is what you are after, an e. piano would work well - or a pad, for that matter. A "real" piano (live) could never sound like that. Similar to the way a lot of people turn drums down to an unnatural level. The piano is a percussive instrument. This would work really well as a "piano song" - with the piano carrying it - front and center...

Your mandolin part is nice. For this song, I thought the dobro (solos) was trying too hard to take the limelight. The vocal (and message) should have remained the star here. A subtle cello might make a nice substitution. The drums and bass parts are nicely mixed.

The vocalists do a terrific job. The soft instrumentation for the child part is really well done.

"Days are turning into weeks" could have been "Days turn to weeks" and avoided the extra syllables and be a smoother sing. Eliminating "from Him" would also help. It is already implied.

This is a good one.

floyd

Floyd, all good advice.

I have actually been thinking that very thing about the piano part being too low in the mix. I don't like e-pianos (except in smooth jazz and funk), so I just need to let the acoustic find it's proper place in this mix. I have a synth pad down there too so bringing the piano up is the most likely choice.

One thing I try to avoid is tinkering with a mix too much at any given time. It's too easy to keep tweeking something and end up messing it up. So I mix, and listen to the song, let it set and then go back after I have formulated in my mind what I need to adjust.

Thanks for your observations and comments.

Well done sensitive rendering of a tough subject. A really good write and perfect vocals for the tune.

Great song, heavy. It's all very good of course, but you knew that:) The singers should be proud.


(Is there something different about the lead vocal after the child's part? It seemed to fit better in the mix to me, with less high-end maybe? But, I'm listening with buds.)

Beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye Herb. Cheers.

Hi Herb,

I'm embarrassed that I'm so late in getting to comment on this song.

As others have already noted, these are heavy duty lyrics indeed and you've handled the theme sensitively and thoughtfully. I really admire that.

Also, the production and the interplay between instruments is outstanding. It sounded like a great deal of time and effort went into getting this one to sound 'just right'.

All the best,
Noel

Beautiful song very moving.. Singing and playing were awesome

hi herb all been said just the right amount reverb on vocals this is fantastic production all the way thanks eric

Just when I think it's all been said.....


Thanks for listening and commenting folks