Morning folks, here is the latest from Christiane and myself, a rock ballad this time out:

Armed Angels

I initially developed the backing track using BIAB, but ended up just keeping the bass.

The band:
Drums: EZDrummer
Bass: 1592:Bass, Electric, Pop16ths Ev 065[double time]
Guitars: me
Vocal, Piano, and lyrics: Chris

Piano is processed through Addictive Keys Rhodes, thanks to David Snyder for the heads up on that!
All guitars are going through S-Gear.
Mixed and mastered using various plugins from Waves and iZotope, I can give more detail on that if anyone wants to know.

Armed Angels (Christiane Spruit, 2017)

1.V
Don’t cry my heart
no world will fall apart
don’t cry my sky
be diamonds in my eyes
Letting lose
one picture of you
falling for two

CHORUS
Me, and my wing high
into the night
into the darkness of the sky
Me
I will survive
I count on five
armed angels of the guide

2.V
Be still my beating heart
no world will fall apart
let us fill some wisdom to the jar
Musha rain dum a doo, dum a da
fading blue
all picture of you
fading blue
CHORUS

Guitar Solo

3V
Dum Dai Da
Dumdaidumdaida
2x
let me choose
which picture I use
which picture I use
CHORUS

About the lyrics (from Chris):

For me the 5 armed ARMS (Wings)are Love, honesty, trust, kindness, and awareness
We often sacrifice our innate wisdom
and rely on guides and not on the spiritual Knowning from our childhood , BUT
little bits of 'magic' do happens precisely when you need it to happen.
AND I rely on that :-)

Feedback on the mix (or any other aspect of the song) is welcome, I'm breaking in a new set of studio monitors here, first mix I've done with them.

Dave and Chris...

Terrific!

Nice opening. Sweet guitar. Super vocal - Chris' vocal seem to get more confident all the time - this one rocks! Good rock write.

The guitar work is excellent. Love the stab chord with delay/echo - nice! Solos are really nice (heard a couple of Jeff Beck licks during the solo!...) Great tone - Don Felderish... Sweet!

Several listens... Excellent! Great mix.

floyd

You guys did an excellent job here! I really like the dark tonality of this. It almost has a haunting vibe to it. It sounds very professionally mixed, and the vocal performance here is excellent. I think my favourite part though is that guitar work!

Thanks so much for sharing

Another Blues Masterpiece!!!

The Fender Rhodes sounds great!!

Awesome singing and awesome guitar as usual!



Get it man!

What a cool intro. Super vocal. Absolutely loved this track. Well done. Guitar was excellent the distortion and tone !!wow!!! Super mix.. Piano in the background was a nice touch

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that little Jeff Beck phrase! Good ears And hey, might as well steal from the best!

Thanks for the positive comments Floyd, I appreciate it and so does Chris!

Wow, wow, wow! This sounds insanely professional, and like it could have been on the radio! What is there to dislike about this song? The vocals are on point, the lyrics are emotionally charged. I could listen to this song over and over again. There's this almost haunting, sorrowful tone to the mood of the song as well which I think works really well.

Thanks for the amazing share! I'm still speechless.

Hi Dave,

I agree with Ember - this is totally professional.

A fabulously atmospheric song with brilliant performances from the vocals and guitars. (Tele?)

A wonderfully hot mix without being over compressed.

Loved the whole thing.

Cheers, ROG.

"And hey, might as well steal from the best!"

Sure, but you gotta be able do it convincingly and, man, did you ever.

Both of your performances are simply stellar.

Scorching guitar and a vocal that sits out front in the mix -- and sits perfectly in that elusive spot where a great vocal should reside.

You can add us to every superlative that has already been mentioned regarding this production.

Kudos!!!

J&B

OUTSTANDING song. Loved it

Yeah!

Bring it on David Gilmore.
Probably my favourite User Showcase song to date.
Very very well done.
Two thumbs up.

Could you expand on the 5 armed angels a little please.
(sets my mind of in all sorts of directions).

Cheers.

Super chorus

strong and wonderful vocals by Chris

man that guitar soars, caught the little Jeff Beck nod (Because We've Ended As Lovers?)

I think this is one of you guys best!

enjoyed!

Kenny

Dave & Chris

Wonderful song beautifully played and sung.
The guitar - (loved the Beck quote) tasteful in the extreme (great timing throughout), complimentary and exciting (can't do much better than that)
Excellent vocal and a strong arrangement. Really well done.

Peter

Dave & Chris,
Wow! This is tremendous on every level - vocals, guitar, backing & mix... but have to say the lyrics are what really got to me: wondrously abstract and moving at the same time.
This is my favourite of yours to date...Musha rain dum a doo!

Robert

Thanks Deryk, I appreciate it!

Thanks very much, David! And thanks again for the tip on that Rhodes VSTi

Thanks very much, Scott!
For the guitar tone S-Gear helps, it's a great amp sim, plus for the lead guitar track I fed the output of S-Gear to the CLA Unplugged plugin, to add some additional reverb and delay.

Super job by all. This really top shelf work in all facets. The vocal is fabulous and the guitar work is fantastic. What stood out to me is the quality and fine touch on the mix. This is a wonderful production.

As has been previously stated - radio quality and radio ready. The talent on this track is as good as any I've heard in a very long time. Thanks for a wonderful listen.

Wishing all you the very best.

Alan

This should be back up top.

Peter

Man, that has to be the nicest review we ever received! Thanks, Ember for making our day, Chris read it too

Thanks very much, ROG!

I actually used a Strat for all the guitars in this one. Next tune up will probably have at least one Tele part.

Hey BlueAttitude, excellent harmonies and layering with all the instruments in this! Well done!

Thanks Janice and Bud! Made my day when I read those comments

Thanks very much for your kind words!

Wow, very nice thing to say!

I updated the song description with an explanation I received from Chris about the lyrics.

Thanks, Kenny!

Yes, the little quote is from Cause we've ended as lovers. It wasn't planned, it just popped out when I was jamming over the solo section, it fit well so I decided to leave it as a nod to him.

Thanks very much, Peter, I really appreciate reading those comments from you!

Hi Robert,

Yes, I thought the lyrics would be up your alley! She has a real way with words, as do you.

Very nice things to say, thanks very much!

All the best to you and Di as well.

Thanks for stopping by, Joe!

GREAT WORK Dave!!! Everything in this reflects professionalism!! First of all the vocal is as good as it gets! I hope you realize how blessed you are to have this young lady singing your songs!! I'm sure you do! Next, the tone on that guitar is so good! I know that it took years to develop your sound! Also, I hear and appreciate all the subtle little touches in the song such as the work putting the percussion in just the right places and the faint/soft electric guitar I could hear panned left in my headset! You always produce excellent work and this is another fine example! Take care, Torrey

Thanks for noticing the subtle stuff, Torrey! I spent a lot of time working on that. And of course thanks for mentioning the tone on the guitar!

And yes, I do feel blessed to be working with Christiane, we have lots of fun working on these songs together.

However I should point out that they are not my songs, they are our songs. Lyrics and vocal melodies are always developed by her, and for this song she also played piano.

Thanks again, I appreciate it!

Yeah, love that Gary Moore opening. Terrific all round.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment Joanne, I appreciate it!

Excellent song.
Very nice style.
Super guitar and vocal.

Sergio

Thanks for the listen and comments, Sergio!

Christiane did a video for the song for anyone that is interested, here: Armed Angels

Agree with Floyd. Absolutely great!! Love the arrangement. I also picked up that fluid Felderish Hotel Cal vibe and the few riffs from Cause We've Ended as Lovers by Beck. This may be my new fave by you guys!!! Take care. Greg

Yes, it's my favorite of the ones we have done so far too.

Thanks very much for the kind words, Greg!