FIRE THE NEXT TIME

Apologies for posting two songs today but they are both short and we want to move on to something else. If I post them I’ll leave ‘em alone!

Janice and I originally posted a bluegrass version of this tune...that we were never completely satisfied with. It always seemed like a blues treatment would be better given the theme. After exploring an electric/drums version or three, we decided on just a bass, dobro, rhythm guitar and rhythm mandolin. Unfortunately a solo blues dobro is not available so I attempted to make up a short 8 bar solo out of rhythm snippets. Not to sure about how successful it was but it makes the song sound less tedious than just verses and fills.

The song is based primarily on three old PD African-American Spirituals, “God gave Noah the rainbow sign,” “I’ve got a home in that rock,” and “There’s honey in that rock” including some lyric tweaking of our own. So much white gospel and folk music can be readily traced to Black Spiritual tunes with a little research. A debt that is often not credited, BTW.

There is a famous line in all the versions of this song and it goes “No more water, the fire next time.” James Baldwin used this as the title of his Civil Rights book “The Fire Next Time” published in 1963. Some writers say that the spiritual was a “slavery code” tune and used to communicate with the Underground Railroad. I haven’t verified this. The phrase “honey in the rock” is thought to mean that there is some good in the toughest of places.

Janice: Vocal, Rodes NT1 mic interfaced via Blue Icicle to my iMac
Mixing/Effects: Garageband
Bass: 536 Pop
Guitar Rhythm: Rock 692 (syncopated version)
Mandolin Rhythm: Country 610
Dobro: Blues (rhythm) 585

Last edited by Janice & Bud; 07/03/13 12:41 PM.
J&B Videos
J&B Soundcloud
J&B Website