Evangeline
(I can't remember if I've already posted this)

https://soundcloud.com/lawrence-olivier/evangeline

BIAB Americana 16 groove, Nashville Even 16
Guitar solo me on my Les Paul (Once upon a time I could play)

Before I moved to Texas (2005 following Katrina) and discovered songwriters like Towns Van Zandt, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, I was looking for my lyrical voice.

I was writing and submitting poems to a poetry website, when I began to ask a few poets if I could compose music to their poems. One of the poets, who went by the name Lady A., let me write music to this poem:

Evangeline, by Lady A.

It's ten at night, the night is raining tears
And I can't find my way back home
I stand forgotten at the corner below the broken sun
And wait for dreams that never come

I've lost my name inside the sea
Of blood that's lying at my feat
And somewhere deep within my soul
Hides the person I have been

Do I lose mind, myself, my soul
In the search for life the way it was
Or do I reach to stop the rain
Pray until the sun comes back again
And risk myself, myself to find

Ten at night the sun is gone from here
The rain is drowning me
Ten at night what will I find?
God what is there here to find?

Who am I, what are you?
How did I get here anyway?
Can you take me home again?

Lady A knows how to write!

Love your vocals, I dig the guitar solo too.

Good song, enjoyed!

Lawrence,

A really nice production. Beautiful vocals.
Nice guitar.

Your Lady A isn't the original Lady A is she?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_White

(certainly not the "new" - Country - Lady A)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_A


Good to have you posting again. Stick around!!

fj

Thank you Dave. Thank you Floyd. No they are neither

I think I'll be around for awhile. I've got some things I want to accomplish.

Top notch vocals... I enjoyed listening to this... very well done track!

Thanks a lot for sharing!
Will

Thank you for listening.

I like it. The music is an excellent vehicle for the lyrics and and the melody line fits in very neatly. Good mix and blend of instruments.
Liked to vocals too.

Lawrence

Excellent all round, lovely vocal and dramatic write. Nice guitar solo to top it off.

Peter

Hi Lawrence,

A very nice, sensitive melody, beatiful lyrics and very good vocals.
In one line that's how your song comes to me. I enjoyed it a lot!

Did you use BiaB-instruments and is it a recent song? I'm just curious, that's all ;-)

Have a nice day,
Hans

Lawrence,
A different side to your music than I`ve heard before ( vocals both smoother and more processed sounding, which works for the song).
A good write, especially the opening verses.
The wash of synth I found a little distracting.
Its cool to hear stepping stone tracks from songwriters` backpages;I`m a fan of the voice you found!

Robert

That's a good production. It's not often that you can take a poem and put it with music and have it work first time. This seems to fit well with the music.

Nice guitar solo... could have stood to be quite a bit louder in the mix. It was quite good.

What vocal treatment are you using on the vox?

Nice work

Wow what a nice changeup Lawrence. Very cool intro. Built a great anticipation of what was to come. It did not disappoint. Awesome vocal. Very cool effects on the vocal. The upper register stuff wow... Excellent guitar solo. You can still play bud !!! Well done...

Lawrence, we can now add a fine guitar performance to your always top notch vocal performances.

If lush was your objective you achieved it in spades.

The juxtaposition of a somewhat upbeat sounding production with the dark lyrics was very effective. Somebody once told me that is a great method of delivering a lyric like this.

Epic and cinematic in feel.

Well done!

J&B

Lady A can write fantastic poems but it takes a master musician to put it into a song. You did an excellent job on this. Great vocal, lead guitar, backing tracks, and mix.

Extra fine lyric. Demonstrates, among other things, that rhyme can be over-rated, especially when forced. Your voice and harmonies are splendid. The real star of this show, for me, though, is the production. Fantastic movement in dynamics in the arrangement refreshed this over, and over, and over and kept me glued to the speakers. Excellent.

Nice melody, excellent arrangement, great work on the Les Paul and really enjoyed the vocals. Personally I could have done without the synths (particularly the intro), but that's a very minor nit. Top song, much enjoyed.
Regards,
Leon

Lawrence,
Wow, such a cool sound, so diverse! Vocals are super. Bass stands out. It was interesting how the solo guitar entered with completely different character. Everything works very well. Enjoyed it.
Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Wonderful.
Some vivid imagery in those lyrics.

Great song!

moto

Hi Lawrence awesome job love the lyrics great vocals good stuff thanks for sharing Eric

Thank you for listening Ghostgun. Peter thank you for the kind words. Hans, I wrote this in 2005 before Hurricane Katrina. I played all of the guitars and the bass and piano and all of the rest I played on a Korg X3. A few weeks ago I found all of the stems and MIDI tracks on an older computer and replaced my midi drum track with BIAB drums. I auditioned a few other BIAB instruments but wound up sticking with my original parts. Thanks for asking and for listening.

Robert, yes my head was in a different space back in the early 2000's. I've spent the last three years working on a way to combine what I was doing back then with what I've doing since 2006 - a more American/folk writing vibe. As well as merging my synth production style with BIAB. I think I'm almost there. Thank you.

Herb, I was doing a lot more processing on my vocals in the early 2000's. I was late to Jonny Cash/ Rick Ruben American Recordings. I was immediately drawn to that more intimate sound so I changed my approach. On this recording I doubled the lead vocal and added Waves Doubler to one of them. Then washed everything in reverbs. Thank you for asking and for the kind words.
Scott, If I remember correctly, on the highest harmony (panned center-left) I used Melodyne to get it that high. As to the guitar playing I haven't practice since then (2005) and my chops are gone. Thank you for your comments.
Janice & Bud, I wish I could take credit for the juxtaposition aspect but I don't recall doing it on purpose. When I listen to that guitar solo now I don't know how I did it lol. I can hear some Santana and the tapping from Eddie Van Halen. I can't do that anymore . Thank you for listening and for the kind words.

Exceptional production, finely textured and so ear pleasing. I love Lady A's poetry.

Big, lush production. harmonies are great.

Very cool listen.

Lawrence,

A really nice production.
Great vocals and guitar.
The atmosphere by synth at intro is wonderful.
It makes us feel that something special will happen.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Thank you Mario.

I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Your description describes what I was after with this.

Thank you Leon.

Misha, I do like how different musical elements evolved out of the Lyrics. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Eric.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for listening David.

Thank you very much.

Hi gruverider,

Superb intro, beautiful orchestral layer. Your voice is superb and the lyrics too.
The mix is ​​well done. Nice solo guitar playing (a little too much forward, I think). The tone of the very clear piano is superb. I appreciated.

Kindly regard
Derochette
alias JaniJackFlash

Gruverider:

Beautiful melody enhanced by great production work—really rich and soulful. You did a lovely job on the arrangement and production. I wasn’t too enamored with the opening, thinking the synth was a little too harsh and maybe a tad too long out of the gate—but once the piano and percussion came in this really took off. Nice job on the vocals as well. Good work on this!

All my best,

Deej

Hi Lawrence,



This song is so awesomely brilliant that everything about it and its presentation jumps the "truly spectacular" bar.

You mesmerised me from the start with the lush sound and the slow autopan on the strings. Then, when your singing kicked in, there was no turning back. I was hooked.

Incredible listening. Absolutely incredible.

All the best,
Noel

Derochette, thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Deej, I'm glad you got through the opening and were able to enjoy the song. Thank you.

Noel, thank you for your generous comments! Very glad you enjoyed it!

This sounds really good!

I think I have heard it before and remember the title, but if it was a second listen, I guess I loved it again.

Lawrence, this is incredibly beautiful and touching...

Outstanding vocals and performance. Love the arrangement and mix.

Bob

Thank you for listening.

Thank you Bob. glad you enjoyed it.

I love the melody used for
"I stand forgotten at the corner below the broken sun"
The backing vocals sound very treated...what did you do to create them?
Lyrically this is cool but the 1st line bummed me - the use of night twice clunked in my ear.
The solo is cool - not keen on the tone but the playing and construction are ace.

What a beautiful match. Man, Lady A. wrote it and you brought it to life, Lawrence. She must be submitting poems to you on regular basis now. Such a good recording. Yes, the solo is tasteful and very well played.

Incredibly beautiful!!! Love the groove, love the harmonies, the melody, the vocal............EVERYTHING!!!! Great stuff Lawrence!!! Take care. Greg

Ray, thank you. The harmony vocals are treated with multiple reverbs and that's about all.

Thank you Marty. This was the only song we collaborated on. Hurricane Katrina saw to that. My life took a total and complete change after that.

Thank you very much Greg.

I really like the band on this, the chord progression and instruments create a great soundscape for the lyrics but, I can imagine that working for so many other things.

Lyrics come together nicely and the guitar bits are great.

moto

Superb vocal and a very good song. Really, really enjoyed it, one of the best tracks I've heard on the user forum of late. Way to go!

Thank you moto

Thank you Tunemonger.