A little old-school Country Rock.



HOLD ON TO AN ANGEL

you don't seem to understand
just what you've got
there's a moon and star thing happening
it's your camelot
she's really something special
she could be the one
you're about to blow it boy
acting like you're just having fun
   
   'cause you hold on to an angel
   just as tight as you can
   no matter what it takes
   you don't let that bond break
   you fight with all your might 'cause you understand
   you hold on to an angel

sometimes love doesn't work out
and you've gotta let it go
chalk it up to at-least-we-tried
and head out for another show
but let me tell you this time
you're making a mistake
you need to take a look deep inside
the heart you're about to break
   
   'cause you hold on to an angel
   just as tight as you can
   no matter what it takes
   you don't let that bond break
   you fight with all your might 'cause you understand
   you hold on to an angel

   you hold on to an angel...


The BAND bits...

RealTracks in style: 521:Bass, Electric, Pop Syncopated Ev 136
RealTracks in song: ~1025:Guitar, Electric, Strumming CleanOpen Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 852:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm NashvillePopClean Ev 120 (B:arp)
RealTracks in style: ~621:Pedal Steel, Background Easy Ev 136
RealTracks in song: 3505:Guitar, Electric, Soloist NashvilleRadioBalladDanny Ev16 075
RealTracks in song: 633:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopAmericanMuted Ev 120 (A:sync)
RealTracks in song: 698:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm ElecRockDirty Ev 120 (A:muted)
RealTracks in song: 3027:Vocal Oohs, Background Pop3-part Ev 085
Royalty Free Loops



Comments of any kind...

Thanks for listening.

fj

Hi Floyd,

A little old-school classic - very Eagles, but still Floyd all the way through.

Nice bright mix with jangly guitars and splashy cymbals.

Loved the drop-out at around 3.12. Just ten seconds to the pick-up, but SO effective.

Always professional, always with that signature vocal and sounding good on the monitors and the headphones.

Nice solo too...

ROG.

Here, the message of the song struck home, for some reason. Otherwise: what can I say that hasn't been said already? TOP voice, TOP writing skills, TOP production, TOP harmonies. You KEEP, each time, knocking it out of the park. Carry on, please :-) ... one day, I, too, will have that much wisdom in my voice :-)

Another outstanding classice!

Your vocal and lyrics are fantastic. You are a great songwriter, lyricist, and producer all in one package.

Loved it.

Yes, this does sound, in terms of backing, like FJ backed by the Eagles or Poco.
Lovely vocals, lovely song.
Danny did well.
Excellent..took me back to the mid 70s when I had no love for such sounds but I've mellowed since then.

floyd

First a superb mix. Excellent, and a very singalong with chorus.
The sort of thing the audience would join in with.

Great work on the vocals and backing vocals.
Nice use of the guitar RT's.

A totally professional and engaging package.

Peter

Floyd,

I love it! Takes me back to the 70's and I know a lot of people will think Eagles but I instantly started thing of the group Toby Beau from that era. It truly has a sweet country rock sound!

Everything fits like it should! The guitar parts chosen are perfect! Vocals and writing are pure Floyd excellence!

Enjoyed greatly! Thanks, Torrey

As always, great write, beautifully crafted performance.

Your vocals always shine, can you share a bit of your technique?

moto

Hi Floyd,

Sounds like a classic country song to me. You've managed to meld Glenn Frey and Mickey Gilley into this. Your usual polished mix with great vocals. Nice and easy listen!

Hi Floyd,

This is an outstanding song.

I particularly enjoyed your vocals and also the harmonies - do you do these yourself?

I recognize the harmony notes from some of your other songs.

Lead break is tasty and I also like the way you drop some of the backing instruments at 3:12.

Best Regards
Nigel

The drums and bass really lay down a cool groove to the tune. Very cool vocal and lyric. Pedal steel was a nice add. Loved the guitars

Floyd,

Great. Nothing wrong with old school man!

It is the best.

You do it well!!




I do have an idea for ya for the intro though:

"If I say you have a heavenly body
would you hold it against me..."


Just a thought

that one is on the house man.

FJ,
nice swing on this tune. Ace lyrics and main vocals. Strong composition and arrangement, cool solo.

P.S. I do think harmony/BGV vocal have a sort of "metallic" presence. Maybe it is my headphones/soundcard. I did reset soundcard, and changed the buffer, so internals are refreshed, made no difference, still hear that tone on BGVs. Maybe something happened to my headphones (or my ears :)). Don't hold me on it.

Thank you for sharing,
Misha.

Excellent song. Great production. The mixed vocal harmonies were well done. Outstanding use of the band.

Well constructed song. Although there were quite a few components, nothing seemed superfluous and everything meshed beautifully.

On the fourth line of your chorus you have the word "bound" (which is variously a verb or adjective).
I think you might have meant to use the noun "bond" (which is more like how it sounds in the song).

Great job, Floyd. Looking forward to your next.

Floyd,

Some really awesome country-rock here... This is a great sound.

Love the arrangement and your vocal. Excellent pro-mix as always.

Bob

Hi floyd jane,

It is a very pretty composition. The vocal is perfect. It's nice and very pleasant. Well done

Kindly regard
Derochette
alias JaniJackFlash

All of your old songs are forever in my favorite playlist, so I'm always so thrilled to see a new one to add. Dang, and always so thrilled to HEAR it. Such a special talent for writing and performing, not to mention your outstanding abilities to pick and guide the best band for each task, and then there's the mixing/mastering hats you wear that fit so well.

I only ostensibly mentioned the lyrics, but, man, you hold the royal flush every hand.

floyd.
nice vocals.
only thing i might suggest is the drums needed something
i cant put my finger on in terms of character.
best
om

This is great, Floyd!

Definitely hear an Eagles vibe happening in spots.

Great vocal and harmonies, and of course the production and mix are top notch.

Love that guitar solo! Perfect fit for the song.

Nicely done, enjoyed!

Hi Floyd,

I think the Eagles get jealous if they hear your Angel song...
Very nice vocals (lead and bg), a nice tempo on the song and Angel-like lyrics!
Personally I am no big fan of pedal steels, but in this 'old school' song they fit perfectly.
But that is because country is really your thing. A perfect FJ-song, thumbs up!!

Hans

Thanks, ROG. As soon as I started this I knew it was leaning towards Eagles territory, so I played that up throughout... Not a bad template to start with, I think...




Thanks, a bunch, James!...

country-rock at its best
love the hook You fight/with all your might/'cause you understand/you hold on to an angel
well done !

Thanks, Mario. Nice of you to say....




Thanks, ray. The Danny lead is a good addition to the RT soloist list. Putting together an appropriate lead for a song is one of my favorite parts. Sometimes a challenge, but not often. I've seen a number of people complain about leads being too busy (even called "crappy" ) but I've produce 200+ songs using BIAB (starting in 2012) and have been able to create good, musical leads for most of them....

Thanks, Peter...appreciate that....





Thanks, Torrey. Had to look up Toby Beau - not sure I had heard them before. They are definitely "so '70's!!" HA!

Love that prominent bass in the opening verse.

Chorus has an engaging melody.

"you don't seem to understand
just what you've got
there's a moon and star thing happening
it's your camelot"

Now that is a good lyric!

I started to listen on the computer and hit stop. nope nope nope.... not doing this one on the computer speakers..... I pulled it up on my phone and used my buds. Very nice mix. Fat and full.

The definition of EAR CANDY.


This is one of my favorites from you in quite a while. Nicely written, good choice in the style, band is country rocking it. The harmony is full and not overwhelming and tastefully placed. Nicely done. The production chops are quite nice on the song. I like how the steel starts sneaking in low before the solo.

The guitar is properly edgy on the solo....It sounds like he lost some energy towards the end, the momentum of the groove decreased. But really creative to that point. (not a crit... just a guitar player's close observation) He didn't take me where I was expecting to go.
The only other crit, if you want to call it that is the guitar at the end.... should have stopped with the band when they held that last chord. It was distracting from the mellow place the song took me and where I was expecting to be left. Again.... just a personal thing.

All in all, this one is a good song that really does it for me. It's got the complete package.

I really like this one.

What a nice job, Floyd. Had me hooked to the end of the fade.

Another beauty, great use of BIAB, thoroughly enjoyed several listens

Thanks, moto! When you ask about vocal "technique" I'm not sure about what that might refer to - the technique of singing into a microphone? or the technique of processing the vocals (or the addition of harmonies and how they are processed and mixed in).





Appreciate that, Bawb....





Thanks, Nigel. The harmonies are a mix of sung and generated. I sang two of the high harmony tracks (thirds). The low harmony is generated using the harmony function in RealBand (the only thing I ever use RB for). The older version - Realband 2020...the Realband 2021 dropped the TC Helicon plugin for something else. I still need to test that more thoroughly. My first attempt, I liked the older version better. This song also includes a generated high harmony, too (I don't usually use those). They can get a bit robotic sounding. I made the mistake (on this one) of adding a Nectar preset. That amplifies that robotic sound. I don't usually add any processing to the generated harmonies, but I remixed this quickly before I posted it and while adding the Nectar (to my sung harmonies) I also included it on the generated ones....

Root and fifth bass, major sevenths in the verse, catchy chorus with strong harmonies, well sung - all excellent.

But... I found that shaken tambourine on the chorus really distracting. At least, I think it's a tambourine. I switched over from my speakers to my headphones just to make sure there wasn't something rattling in the system.

200+ songs and still going strong!

I could listen to you sing till the cows come home . . . and Bud said that would be okay, but first we need to buy some cows.

As always, you've got an excellent band to go along with your excellent vocals and the sweet lyric (Janice's lyric description) and fine mix.

A bit of the blast from the past but what's wrong with that?
Nothing in our book.

Production wise your high bar retains it's highness!

J&B

Thanks, Scott...




Thanks, David.

That one has already been done...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjNuNhJo8kU

Of course, these days, the boys are into other money-making endeavors...
https://musicrow.com/2020/04/bellamy-brothers-launch-old-hippie-stash-with-cannabis-company-trulieve/

Thanks, Misha. The "metallic" thing likely comes from the fact that some of the BGVs were generated - and most likely it is the higher generated harmony that has that sound. I decided to re-mix this right before I posted it (the vocals and guitars were a bit muddy before). When I was changing the vocal processing, I used a Nectar preset and then added a different one to the harmonies that I had sung (2 3rd-above tracks). I also threw that on the low harmony and another high harmony (both generated). I don;t usually add processing to those generated harmonies - because it accentuates that "mettalic" sound of a generated harmony (especially the high one). So that was a mistake. I chose not re-mix (at this time) - because I consider this song a "throw-away" in the scheme of things. I do appreciate you mentioning it (so I'll avoid that error on the future).





Thanks, Sean....





Thanks, Brian. I corrected the spelling mistake - thanks for pointing that out....

Thanks, Bob!




Derochette - thank you....





Appreciate it, Marty....



om - I can't imagine what it might be about the drums that don't work for you (if you can't define or describe it). Thanks for dropping by....

Good title and nice friend-to-friend advice built around it.
Great pop intro with very good drum groove, bit Eagles there. Nice chord progression, especially in the verses. The solo fits very well. Good vocals as always.

Janne

This one is top notch from every possible angle. I'm a sucker for a good pedal steel guitar and the way you used it here was very tasty. Enjoyed my listen.

Charlie

I listened to lot of country rock in my teens/early twenties so have quite a soft spot for the style. This is a really fine example, well written and beatifully sung. Great work as always, Floyd.
Regards,
Leon

Thanks for your continued support, Dave. Much appreciated....




Thanks, Hans!!!




Appreciate that, Bernard. Thanks for stopping in for a listen....




Thanks, Scott....(that is a favorite line for me....)

Herb - thanks for the very nice review. Appreciated. Have to say, this is one of my least favorites. For several different reasons. But I'm glad it resonated for you....




Thanks, ed.

Hi floyd,

This is great.

Everything about this from writing to final mix is beyond the ordinary. You have a well-honed knack for polishing productions. Every time I listen to one of your songs, I am consistently hypnotised by your abilities.... singing, writing, arranging, mixing.

Brilliant. Again.

All the best,
Noel

Thanks, TM....




Thanks for the listen and comments, David!! There isn't a tambourine in the mix at all, so I imagine what you are hearing is the (very loose) open hi-hat. I'm not a fan of that sound myself (and often complain about it in other people's mixes). The drums are a stereo mixed drum track (from Drums On Demand, I think...I have so many lying around, it's hard to keep track of where things come from at times). There is also a ride cymbal that I am not fond of in it. And when I re-mix (right before posting) I got that track a little too "hot" (with an EQ plugin) - keying more on the snare sound, neglecting the sharpness of the cymbals/hi-hats (and, these ears aren't getting any younger, so I may be making more mistakes these days).





Thanks, y'all!! Moo!!!!!





Thanks, Janne...

Thanks, Charlie (for the continued support, too....)




Thanks, Leon. Always nice to hear from you....






Thanks, as always, Noel!! (we've been doing this for a long time now - you much longer than me!!!)

Floyd,

Another tight tune, with all the right elements exactly where they need to be. Nice job on the harmonies in the chorus; great mixing to get them sounding like that. Cool 70’s-like country rock tune. Killer solo on this as well. Great work on this!

All my best,

Deej

HEY FJ,
A little late getting back on this but.......
I'm interested in your entire vocal recording/processing.

Primarily, what's your tracking set up? Any special mics, preamps processing on the ay in.

Secondly, how are you processing your vocals, are you mixing your own work?
Everything always sounds clear and present.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks
moto

This delivery is outstanding, but reflects the classic Westcoast sound of the '70's that is absolutely tireless.

Another winner.

Trev - Always nice to have you drop by for a listen! Thanks!!



moto - I'd be happy to describe my vocal chain and processing, but a Showcase thread seems the wrong place to do that...
So...

I'll work up a discussion to go in the "Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production" section of the forum (so watch for that) - and perhaps others can join in and talk about how they do vocals, too. We might all learn something - and it is less likely to get "lost" as it would here (in this thread)...

Might take me a little while to get to that and write it out....

Wonderful song!!!! Very pretty melody and lyrics?......well, you are a master!!! Groove makes it SO easy to listen to......and that guitar solo sounds custom!! When did you become fj2? Is that basically FJ 2.O?? If so, the magic is still there in the new version!!!! Love it!! Take care. Greg