These Times

These Times (2019, Christiane Spruit)

How we look, unbelieving , everything turns out fine?
No one feels for each other, raise against the tide
we are ruled by bad preachers,
swallow their lies
blind and sold-out souls
with no way out of these times

Did we subdue the earth, as the Bible says?
Deprived of power and gold under the Fall of Man?
we were taught by bad teachers ,
all money can buy
blind and sold-out souls
with no way out of these times

BRIDGE
down to empty phrases
all that money can buy
you can have all these diamonds ,
just tear down the sky


Paying fools, we are the soldiers of an empty sky
tomorrow's rain will come and wash away the stain of crime
we rely on bad leaders
for money they die
blind and sold-out creatures
with no way out of these times

The Band

RealTracks in song: 2615:Bass, Electric, FunkPumpingQuarters Ev 100
RealTracks in song: 3099:Organ, Rhythm AmericanaSlow16thsMike Ev16 060
RealTracks in song: 573:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Blues BB Ev 085

I used EZDrummer2 for the drum track and I'm playing the lead guitar parts.

The mix

Mixed in Reaper, mastered with Ozone8

I have CLA Drums on the drum track and the EQ section of Neutron2 on the bass.

Lead guitar is a strat style guitar I built myself using parts from Warmoth and other places. It's the guitar I use the most for the rock type songs we do. It is going through the Mercuriall Tube Screamer plugin (free), then through S-Gear and CLA Guitars.

I'm using the Ozone Nectar3 plugin on the vocal, second time I've used it, and it has replaced a huge signal chain I used to use on vocals. I'm also using the Waves Vocal Rider plugin.
I don't use the built in reverb, instead I send the output from the vocal track to a separate reverb bus that has Neutron2 followed by Nectar2. Nectar has the reverb set at 100% and I'm also using the saturation module.
I also send two instances of the vocal output to a separate delay bus which has the Waves MannyM Delay module followed by the Reaper ReaComp compressor. Second output from the vocal track is controlling the side chain input of the compressor, so the delay is ducked while the vocal is actually active.

As always I would be grateful if you give our song a play, and comments on all aspects are welcomed.

Hey Dave & Chris ...

Man, this is just so good! There's a lot of truth in that lyric! Chris' vocal is spot on, as usual, and your guitar work is first class all the way. You play a mean Blues guitar, my friend! I hear a little Gary Moore and maybe a touch of Stevie Ray. But mostly I hear the signature sound of Dave Bell ... and that's a good thing.

You guys put out first class music on a regular basis ... you're a great pairing! Totally loved my listen. You guys rock ... or should I say, you guys Blues??!!

My first listen of the day and what a start! Wishing you both the very best!

Alan

Really strong song. The way the verses both repeated and changed was effective. Chris sounds good and convincing. The progression is excellent, dark and gritty. Loved the vocals at the end.

I listened once on phones at mid volume, then kept them on and cranked it up a couple or three notches. Really clear in both instances. I like the way you limited the band to one guitar, essentially, with the edits and panning choices. It was a somewhat surprising choice not moving your lead section more center, but a good choice I think to get that small combo feel.

I really like this.

Dave & Chris,

You do such tasty openings. Always.

Love your guitar in this. You play like a seasoned studio pro - the right things at the right times and nothing "unnecessary". Nice solo.

Your songs are always worth (at least!) two listens. Three actually. One to pay attention to all the fine production details and the playing. One to pay closer attention to the lyric and the vocal. And finally to simply enjoy the package as a whole.

A well written rock song. It has a Airplane vibe to it - enhanced by Chris' excellent vocal.

The vocal sits in the mix really well. I did think it was almost too "smooth" (the processing) - velvety. Thought it could use some edge (and I mean the processing, because Chris is giving it the vocal edge...).

Drums sound great. Bass sounds great. Excellent mix.

Turn back the clock 30 years (to when people paid attention) and you guys would be tearing up the charts.

fj

We listen to and dabble around producing songs in multiple genres...but our hearts reside in the blues.

Whether blues, blues rock, rock blues, delta blues, Texas blues, Chicago blues or BlueAttitude blues we love it all.

We have no difficulty in placing your productions in the top tier of our blues listening. Pro stuff all the way.

Your drums and bass always lay down such a fine foundation sounding like a couple of players who've worked together for a while.

This song is no exception. Chris sounds great and she delivers the write in convincing form.

Your fills and solo have the ability to sound distinctive yet so well support Chris. A great combo.

Yeah, we like it

J&B

GREAT guitar tone to kick off.
The guitar=organ balance is nicely done.
Vocals are ace.
Everything sounds period perfect except for the kick drum.
The kick has the ultra modern thump free sound that is preferred in modern metal.
I's not impossible to EQ carve & boost to get some vintage thud n thump.
Excellent solo.

I really love the way the guitar sounds in this! Great job. Thanks for sharing.

Dave & Chris

Loved it and so very tasty! Excellent vocal and delivery. Superb guitar parts loved the repeating riff and a wonderful solo.

It all sounds great to me.

Peter

Dave and Chris
Tasty is the word. Nice vocal and lyrics (I particularly like the line 'you can have all these diamonds, just tear down the sky') and outstanding guitar work.
Regards,
Leon

Had a nasty bite to it that I loved and was perfect for the lyrics. Solo was right there and the singing was tops.

Reading comments like that make my day, thanks!

Great to see you back here, Alan, the showcase is a better place when you are here and I mean that sincerely.

Hi Tangmo!

Normally I would have a rhythm guitar panned and a lead guitar closer to the middle. But I decided I only wanted one guitar in this so it made more sense to pan it, as you surmised, to give it that small band feel.
It is very easy with BIAB to add in lots of tracks, but I think with the music that Chris and I do that often less is more.
Thanks for the listen and comments, happy you liked this one!

Nice work! I'm getting some strong 70's vibes on this one. Delightfully catchy. I think it flows really well, and the vocals on this are top notch.

Thanks for sharing

Dave & Chris,
What a riff to open with- Mercuriall Tube Screamer- couldn`t have put it better!
On first listen your guitar fills are so good the lyrics ( which have a nice edgy poetry, as Chris` often do)take second billing. Going to take in the vocal and strong message there now.
Retro hard rock at its best.

Robert

Another high quality production from the blues masters!! Chris has developed into such a great singer, and Dave has wonderful tone and style!! Fantastic bluesy tune guys!! Take care. Greg

Awesome, great song!

Hi, Dave, Chris and Christine !:))

What a wonderful tune
so professionally sung and
played !:)) A most superb
production that i hope will
go very high !:))

Cheers
Dani

Ok, this will be an embarrassing story; but since it's a compliment to you; I will allow my own embarrassment.

I was at Walgreen's waiting for my prescription to be filled. It was going to be a few minutes; so I went to walk around the store a bit. They had some pretty killer music on; much to my surprise. I thought "this makes the wait worth it." I couldn't place the song; but the band sounded familiar. Really good too! After a bit it was bothering me that I couldn't figure it out. I wanted to know who the band was; but also the name of the song. I figured I would add it to one of my playlists. I went to grab my phone out of my back pocket and...the song was coming from MY phone! It was YOUR song! It took me a minute to figure it out. I had your song lined up to listen to and somehow bumped it to play.

I guess telling this on here wasn't so embarrassing; but realizing I was leaving the line and walking around the store with "my own music" was a bit of an embarrassing realization. Oh well. It's not the worst.

That being said, I was so enamored by the song that I was going to look up the artist to hear the song again. I liked it that much! As it would turn out, it sounds even better on a proper system.

Chris sounds great, you sound great...the mix, the write, the call and response...everything.

How long before PG has "Blue Attitude-Dave" real tracks?

Hi floyd,

Man, you say the nicest things!

Thank you very much, it means a lot to both of us.

Re: turning back the clock, Chris and I have talked about that before, being born in the wrong era with the music we both love to listen to and create.
But we do it because we love it and as long as a few other people like what we do, I'm good with that

Very good song Dave and Chris. Loved the intro. Panning the guitar was very nice add to the song. Super vocal and your guitar was just smokin. Well done... Very interesting on how you mixed the song.

Dave & Chris
Super catchy and magnetic tune. Grabs attention from first seconds.
Performance from both of you is A+.
It does have a different sound feel from the latest, and I think it is excellent. I like that you are not shy from trying out new approaches. In my opinion it makes music more colorful and interesting.

P.S. Even in my crappy travel headphones this sounds like silk. That tells me it was done with love.

Thank you for sharing!

Misha.

Thanks as always Janice and Bud, I really appreciate the support you have given us over the last few years!

I need to learn more about drums I guess. To me they sounded fine, but when I passed your comments over to Chris she said she was thinking the same thing about the kick drum. I'm just using the stock drum kit that came with EZDrummer2, maybe I need to look at upgrading that.

Thanks Ray, always great to get that sort of feedback, I appreciate it!

No Worries.

Lead guitar is a strat style guitar I built myself using parts from Warmoth and other places....Absolutely priceless.

As always I love the sound you put out always a pleasure to listen to and comment.

The vocals and the guitar are professionally complimenting each other as you would hear from Fleetwood mac style etc.

But that's what dedication, hard work, commitment does in music, it shines through in your overall sound.

Thanks

As before, I am in awe of your guitar work, and you have such an instinctive knack of complementing the vocal with your fills. I read you production comments on Nectar 3, which I use too, and it sure has saved me a lot of production vocal headaches.

Yes, the song pretty much got built around that riff.

Thanks, Peter!

Great to see you here, Leon! I'm a fan of your work with Peter.

Thanks for the kind words!

hi dave and chris great work 0n this I like the lyrics and the mix is big and done very well thanks eric

Excellent. The guitar always gets out of the way nicely for the vocal. I love her tone/timbre - fits really well for this type of song. Enjoyed the listen.

Hi Dave,

Once again, you and Chris deliver the goods.

Your production chops just keep on getting better and better and better -- and they have ALWAYS been top shelf! I don't know how one gets more top shelf than top shelf, but that's what seems to be happening.

What is evident in listening to you and Chris in this one is teamwork. Both of you have been creating music together for some time now and it shows.... Chris writes to anticipate and complement your guitar playing and you match what she does like icing on a cake. You're both a very powerful song-creating force!

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this... the song, your playing, Chris's singing, the whole production! As it usually does when I click on 'play' with one of your songs, the first word that came to mind as yet another "Wow!"

All the best,
Noel

P.S. Dave, thanks for going into so much detail regarding the production, too. I love reading about this stuff and it helps me, and I'm sure others as well, understand how you achieve such a brilliant sound.

'Blue Attitude' and Ms. Spruit...

W-o-w. The caustic, challenging lyrics sung so declaratively by Ms. Spruit are mercilessly driven home by some scalding, lashing 'lectric gee-tar work from 'Blue Attitude'! The "Real Band' certainly keeps the momentum going with its stomp-down funkiness. The song sounded like someone was tracking me down.

These Times is dramatic, provocative music-making for sure, folks! It's 'the blues', all right, but with some teeth snap-snap-snappin' at my soul.

- bluage -

Really strong and cheerless lyrics of the current state of the world. And a blues song is a good choice to express that state. Great production, I like the B.B. King style dialog between the vocalist and the solo guitarist.

Janne

Thanks, TuneMonger!



Thanks for the listen and comment, Deryk!



Could be I have the guitar fills too loud if they are taking away from the vocal, the vocal always needs to be the star. I'll revisit it down the road if we decide to do more with this song, thanks for mentioning it!

And retro is what we do best I think, it's the music we both love.

Thanks for the listen and comments, Robert!

Appreciate that, thanks, Greg!



Thanks for stopping by, Bangsey, and welcome to the forum!



Hey Dani,
Chris and Christiane are the same person, Chris is her nickname
Thanks for the listen and comment!

Performance and production are spot on. Engaging with a nice edge in the vocal and that "Strat".

much enjoyed!

Wow, this is exceptional. Fabulous vocal delivery, and clearly a big effort went into the production.

Knockout guitar work puts the icing on the cake.

Sensational.

Possibly the coolest comments we have ever received on one of our songs.

Thanks so much, you truly made my day when I read it

Hi Dave, hi Chris,

very impressive !!!! Great, great, great lyrics (I think that we might need more of that kind) wrapped in a wonderful blues arrangement.

Chris, you're an awesome vocalist, and Dave, I said it before - I love everything you're doing with your guitar. Very nice tone and brillliantly played. Top-notch all the way.

Love it.

Take care,

Stefan

Thanks, Scott!



Always trying to get better at the production side of things, and there is always something to learn.

Thanks, Misha!

Thanks very much, I appreciate it!



Doing the back and forth thing with the vocal is my favorite thing, lots of fun. Thanks for noticing!



Thanks for dropping by, Eric!

Thanks for the listen!



Wow, thanks, Noel!

The production side of things is something I spend a lot of time on and I'm always trying to learn more and get better at it.
My skills in that area have improved quite a bit over the last couple of years and that has a lot to do with hanging out here and getting advice and feedback from some very talented people. floyd is one that helped me quite a bit when I first started posting here, Tom Adams too.
There is still lots to learn, but, it's fun!

Thanks again, I appreciate it!



Your reviews are always an interesting read! Thanks for your comments, I appreciate it

Well, it's not a love song, that's for sure!

Thanks, Janne!



Thanks for stopping by, Lawrence!



Thanks, I appreciate that!

Thanks very much, Stefan, I always enjoy reading your comments!

Hey Dave,

Trying to get caught up on the forum man. This song is really great. The vocals and guitar are outstanding as always. Loved the tracks you used and the mix.

Excellent!

Another wonderful collaboration...
Chris surely sings those thought provoking lyrics very well...
And your guitar playing complements then so perfectly...
You both certainly make a great songwriting team!