REWIND ME
(Lyric video - an audio only link is provided at the bottom of this post)

Hi folks, this is our first J&B post in a couple of months. Having big fun with collabs and going through several different versions of this tune has taken most of our music time of late.

I recently bought Janice a cajon and talked her into introducing her playing on this reggae tune. Yep, reggae is definitely an interesting rhythm to learn percussion on! Janice has always played rock solid rhythm guitar and I’ve noticed and heard her tapping out rhythms for years so I figured why not play some real percussion?

I wrote this admittedly simple 12 bar blues lyric for her to experiment with - vocally and with the cajon. The production started much more bluesy, then became an acoustic version and finally settled with this funky wah wah version thanks to PeterF. Peter and Janice were working on a blues collab and he graciously played some lead and rhythm guitar on this song. So it has become, I suppose, reggabluesfunk

I took the reggae RD track and removed all of the kick drum and most of the snare leaving primarily the ride and timbale. Janice then filled in with the cajon “kick,” “snare” and other sounds. She is certainly a novice and I’m new at attempting to mic and mix the thing but it was interesting project. BTW, we added the handclaps to emphasize that important reggae third beat. I certainly don't mean to imply that we know much about reggae but we had fun.

Thanks to all who take their time to listen and comment. We greatly appreciate you!

Janice: vocal and percussion
PeterF: lead and rhythm guitars
Bud: audio and video things
Stuff used: Biab, Logic Pro X, Alloy 2, Ozone 6, Waves TruVerb, Nectar 2,
Rodes mic, MXL mic and Focusrite interface

Percussion: Meinl Cajon (mics front/rear to separate tracks)
Bass: RT 1157 Reggae sw
Drums: RD Reggae sw (all kick and most snare removed)
Organ: 1159 Reggae sw
Piano: 1160 Reggae sw
Handclaps: Bud, Janice and loops - thanks fj (6 tracks)

And a big thanks to the several forum members who offered me guidance on this project!

Bud

https://soundcloud.com/mootsman/rewind-me

First Janice and Bud in a few months?? Man, that trend needs to CHANGE! They should be... um... weekly? Yeah, I'd like that!

So many things to say:

1) Did you take the picture of the cassette that's on the YouTube page? If so, I like the fact that the tape that's pulled out has been kinked into a heart (I'm guessing that was intentional)

2) I like the way you developed the metaphor of a cassette tape as compared to a relationship... that thought wouldn't have crossed my mind in a million years! And beyond the idea itself, your application of each aspect of tape to the relationship really holds up! Clever lyrics all around!

3) I thought the use of video to present the lyrics was a great idea, and I'm kind of surprised we don't see a lot more of that

4) I really liked Janice's delivery on this .. the way she played with the timing added interest above and beyond the interest contained in the words

5) VERY impressed by Janice's first percussion track(s)! Apparently she's one of those people who can do anything she sets her mind to. Gotta respect the willingness to try new things and the talent to pull it off the first time!

6) Of course I though the rewind snippet at the end was a clever way to conclude the tape... especially because I listened to it multiple times, and every one of them left me feeling like I was actually rewinding a tape! ;-)

7) PeterF, man, it didn't take you long on the forum before you started collaborating with the heavy hitters! And I must say it was a collaboration that worked out well for everybody! Your guitar playing added a very appropriate groove for the song, and I liked the wah effect!

Hats off to everybody involved with this project!

AWESOME!!!! Janice that was some Incredible Sangin!!!!! Very Nicely Mixed!!!!

1. All the photos are public domain mostly from pixabay. Having an idea of what photo might represent a lyric image is the easiest part. The difficulty is finding a PD image that is high enough resolution to be cropped to 16:9 and still look good. I don't use any that don't fit these two self imposed criteria. After finding the photos I then use various editors to give them a somewhat similar look in hue and texture. And for some of our vids I have shot my own photos when unable to find them in the PD. I used two of mine in Mystic Chords and one in Ways of Forgetting.

2. Glad you liked the lyric. The ONLY style of lyric that comes to me with some relative ease is the 12 bar blues format which is almost invariably nothing profound and requires less rhyming

3. The lyric video is a good way to get a song on YouTube when, if like me, one is unwilling to venture into the land of video clips or not talented enough to create your style of videos.

4. Janice thanks you. I just hand her a lyric and she riffs away.

5. For 35 years I've noticed her tapping out little rhythms while listening to music...don't think she's even aware of it. So I decided to tap into it...awful pun, yep.

6. The snippet was Peter's idea and a good one!

7. Yep, the wah wah finally gave a direction and feel to the song after much experimenting with other approaches.

Thanks Pat, as always, for taking your time to listen and make such thoughtful remarks. We cherish them!

J&B

Hi Janice & Bud and Peter,

so interesting and entertaining!
Great vocals and guitar. The percussion is unique (including the claps).
I liked the video and the ending.
Great collab altogether!

Guenter

Thanks Tommy!

J&B

This is great!!!

Keep watching this over and over and over again.

Yeah! Me too! It's like I got caught in the "LATHER - RINSE - REPEAT" loop and I can't break out!

(Except its the "LISTEN - REWIND - LISTEN" loop...

;-)

(When Janice is singin' that's easy to do anyway...)

Really a good Blues/Reggae combination u have here Janice and Bud ! Very well arranged and performed... I usually don't like reggae very much, but this one was enjoyable for me to listen to....

Thanks Guenter! It was interesting learning a little about reggae percussion. There is a name for the reggae third beat emphasis (the claps) that I forget.

J&B

GREAT loved EVERYTHING about it!!
Love the Cajon, used one in my last song - way to go in actually going out and getting one instead of settling for a loop - some user tracks perhaps??? How did you record/mic it?
One of your best mixes and videos to date Bud.
Janice and Peter excellent performances as well.

Hi, Bud & Janice & Peter !:))


This is just AWSOME !
and Janice´s vocal is
as sweet as ever !
One of your best for sure !:))

Cheers
Dani

Blues meets reggae. Nice combination.
A+ as usual.
Rob

Thanks David. We appreciate it.

J&B

Well said Tommy C!! AMAZING vocals!! Really fun idea. As great as digital is, cassettes, magnetic tape, and LPs will always hold a special place in my heart. This is really a clever and fun write, and delicious presentation of reggae blues. Peter F pretty much knocked the cover off the ball with that guitar playing. Wonderful job by all!!! Take care. Greg

well this surely is something else!
a very nice reggae blend with top-notch vocals and guitar.
And the videos are getting better all the time ;-)

Thanks!! If you are doing that then mission accomplished!

J&B

Thanks Pat
Certainly was an enjoyable project - great to be asked to join in.

Well done, hats off to all! Silky and a great genre blend!

Hi J&B.

Hey, the track really worked out well.

Very much a reggae sound, but smooth and polished at the same time. More sophisticated than the early Jamaican sounds and beautifully complemented by Janice's cool, relaxed vocal delivery.

Some great guitar from Peter and an excellent mix just top it all off.

Loved it.

ROG.

Hahahaha! I felt that way while trying to sync the lyric in the video!

Bud

I'm always amazed by drummers and percussionists being rhythmically challenged myself. I'd love to be able to do what Janice did on this...but I'll just stick to guitar, tambourine is about my limit.

jj

Thank you! Glad we got you to listen to some reggae. We appreciate you listening and commenting.

Hello friends,
I'm listening your song to loud volume: it makes me want to dance.
Beautiful rhythm here. Great production.

Sergio

Bud - Y'all keep stretching the boundaries. Without seeming to realize it....This is very innovative. Reggae+...adding something new - the J&B twist.

Janice - you are indescribably good.

Peter - nice guitar work on this.

I couldn't shake the feeling that Janice Joplin might have been doing something like this today. I know, that might sound weird...(but, Mrs. Merritt has been compare to so many other greats - this is no stretch)

Unique.

Cool.

A fan.

Hi Janice & Bud,

Wow! I like the song very much! Rhythm, vocal, guitar play, cajon play, and lyrics!

BTW, the cassette operations in the lyrics as well as the picture of a cassette tape reminded me of the time when I was crazy about the cassette decks. I feel it was a long time ago. Sorry for mentioning something unrelated to the song itself.

Hiroshi

Greg, it's very cool and gratifying that you like where we took this song. It went through a lot of variants before Peter came in and nailed the groove. Cassette tapes were a big part of our musical journey. Our bluegrass CD was recorded on a Tascam 8 track cassette recorder. Things have indeed changed.

J&B

Greg
It was a pleasure to add some guitar to the track thanks for the generous comment.

Thanks! Appreciate you mentioning the videos but they are a LONG way from what you do with video clips. I do not have the skills or patience for that.

Glad you liked it!

Bud

Awesome tune. Very cool beat. Vocal and guitar work was excellent

Thanks. Glad you liked it. We had an interesting adventure putting it together.

J&B

Thanks Rog and we appreciate your input on the production.

J&B

Hello, Janice & Bud

Very nice reggae sound with bluesy guitar and very good vocal.
I agree with Rob. Nice combination of Blues and Reggae.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best Regards.

Shigeki Adachi

The lead guitar REALLY takes me back to the 1st Wailers tracks rerecorded with Island. they pulled in a great session player to add guitar licks over the top to bring the songs further into the sphere of western ears. It worked then and does with this track. Well done Peter F.
The realtrack bass isn't bad but it lacks the Sly & Robbie synch.
The song is cool given its origins and certainly slipped into reggae well enough.
Cool stuff.

I think Janice has a wonderful voice . . . every time I hear her there is a tension that I as a listener feel . . . let me explain:

I feel like at any moment she could go "full on" Janis Joplin which is one of my favorite female singers of all time . . .

So when I listen to the dissonance in her voice, I am on the edge of my seat waiting . . .

good song you guys did . . .

blessings!

Thanks Sergio! Post a video of you dancing!

J&B

Cool tune.... liked the comparisons to an old cassette.

Nice things can happen when you add live instruments to the mix. Experiments sometimes yield good results, and you got that job done in this song.

Thumbs up

Really fine, love the laid back feel of this. nice video too.

Kenny

I nearly skipped this one. So glad I didn't. So much of the time I find reggae music to be very cliched for my taste. This is terrific and is really in you guys wheelhouse. I should have known you would put your unique touch on it. Bud, your mixes are always top notch and your production ideas really worked on this tune. PeterF's guitar is in the mix just right. Janice's vocals and percussions are spot on. Like many others, i'm going back again and again. Rewind me again, back for another listen. Enjoyed this one a lot. One of your best in my opinion.

Man, stuff scrolls off the front page so quickly these days.. I'm bumping this! I don't want anybody to miss this one!

Thanks mr jane -- we appreciate it and are really happy that you think the boundary stretching worked.
We don't think it's weird at all to consider that Janis J might be doing things like this now days. She was already
mellowing out a good bit on her last album...wish we knew how it would have played out -- and with Jimi also.

Thanks again,

J&B

Glad you liked it and thanks for mentioning the cajon. Most all of us were crazy about cassettes at one time or another...no problem bringing that up! That's why I used those cassette images.

Thanks for listening and commenting!!

J&B





Thanks Scott....yep, Peter played some cool guitar for sure!

J&B

speaking of the cajon.. this year at Merlefest I noticed that a LOT of the bands were using them! More than last year! Janice is on the cutting edge of a new trend!

Thanks! We're happy you like the "reggablues!"

J&B



Thanks. This is our third attempt to meld reggae with another genre. We did a reggae some with bluegrass instrumentation several years ago and a couple of years we did one with one of the Blues Rock RT's. Because the Reggae rhythm is sparse (which I like) it is easy to introduces varied elements. Glad this attempt worked for you. I felt like Janice's phrasing and Peter's guitar really nailed it.

Bud

Thanks for listening and commenting! There's a great new Janis Joplin documentary currently airing on PBS. Well worth watching.

Glad you liked the song.

J&B




Thanks! Glad the experiment worked for you. Until Peter came in I had my doubts but he nailed the funky vibe. Cool that you liked the cassette references. There's a generation now that would not get it

J&B



Thanks Kenny. Glad you also liked the video.

J&B



We much appreciate that Charlie. This went through many permutations and I'm glad it ended up somewhere that has some appeal to folks. I've listened to reggae on the side off and on for years but have never thought much about the nuances in it. Rhythm wise it's interesting and different but as you alluded to it has become somewhat cliched. I think Peter's guitar broke it out of that mold. Thanks again. We appreciate your support!

J&B

Thanks for the kind words - I just added some colour to what was already a great song and performance. A most enjoyable experience.
Peter

This is a great blend of genres. Blues guitar always woks really well with Reggae. Just ask Clapton. The blues player Donald Kinsey from the Chicago band The Kinsey Brothers played for a while with Bob M and the Wailers. Great job with the wah Peter. Janice shows off another skill with some perfectly placed rhythm and Bud continues his high standards of writing and producing. A great listen. Hats off to all three. Tom

Great to see you back! Thank you for the nice comments. We appreciate it and Janice was particularly excited that you noted and liked her percussion. That should help to encourage her to try it again!


Bud

What he said. Very well done.

Regards,

Bob

Thanks Bob. Cool to see you back around.

J&B