From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V9 #98 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, April 9 2003 Volume 09 : Number 098 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Bill obsessing about guitar sounds (WAS: RE: Happy's houseconcert) ["Will] Happy's concert ["Suzanne DeCory" ] Shirley Collins ["abaton" ] Set list from Vienna's show @ Kendall Cafe [Jeff Wasilko ] Re: Be Good Tanyas [Ellen Rawson ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 21:12:12 -0700 From: "William Mazur" Subject: Bill obsessing about guitar sounds (WAS: RE: Happy's houseconcert) Yes, I did mean to send it to you and the list. Thanks for the forward Meth! Thanks for the lowdown on Happy's guitar sound. Yeah, you are definitely right about Kevin's effects on his guitar work on The Keep. In fact, Carl is using effects on his bass as well. That whole album has a dreamy quality to it because of the really spacey approach they all, including Happy, used on their instruments. I am always curious to hear about how other musicians I respect approach different environments. Vienna can pull it off with just a piano and her voice. Her playing, singing and songs are so strong. However, her arrangements on the CD are great because of all the extra instruments and more evolved arrangements. I would love to hear her with a full band sometime as well. Another example would be what I saw last night with Duncan Sheik. He had an unexpected (at least to me) basic rock and roll set up. There were two guitarists, bass and drums. No keyboards at all. No orchestration. The one twist was that, most of the time, Duncan played an acoustic guitar versus a rhythm electric guitar. The arrangements of his songs were really interesting in the stripped down format. Yet the songs didn't lack for anything with these arrangements. The lead guitarist made interesting use of effects and guitar echo looping techniques to create atmosphere that normally a keyboard would provide. Because Happy has such an amazing vocal presence and her lyrics are so strong she probably doesn't need too much in the way of musical accompaniment to bring her songs to life. As a backing instrumentalist to a number of pretty talented singers, I am always looking for ways to make the music sound full even in a stripped down fashion. I always want to enhance their vocals. I am obviously very curious about Happy's guitar sound. When I play electric guitar I use many different effects to create different moods. When Phil and I play out live as a duo, he normally plugs his acoustic guitar directly into the board without effects (perhaps a little reverb) to get a more natural sound. I also play acoustic guitar but I put it through the POD to add chorus, DDL and reverb to add more depth to the overall sound. Our guitars tend to blend more that way and provide a fuller sound. I hope I am not boring everyone too much with all of this stuff. Thanks, Bill M. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-ecto@smoe.org [mailto:owner-ecto@smoe.org] On Behalf Of meredith Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 4:34 PM To: ecto@smoe.org Subject: RE: Photos from Happy's houseconcert (Bill, I'm assuming you wanted to send that last reply to the list too...) >Thanks Meth! From what I can see Kate looks very beautiful in the >picture. Happy looked beautiful in all of Jeff's pictures. Yeah, it's a nice shot of Kate. And Happy did look great in Jeff's photos (though #5288 absolutely cracked me up -- I think that's when she was making fun of Bob for trying to take a picture from his vantage point). >There was a cable coming from her Ovation guitar in one picture. >So based on what you are saying, Happy probably plugged the guitar >straight into the P.A. for some minor sound re-enforcement. Right. >Effects such >as chorus or DDL on her guitar which would make it sound more watery and >ethereal. Did it sound like straight acoustic guitar or did it have the >other quality I am describing? It sounded like straight acoustic guitar to me. She was having a little trouble with feedback in the beginning, but they got it taken care of pretty early on. >That effected acoustic guitar sound is >what she used on The Keep. Kevin also used quite a few effected electric guitar sounds on _The Keep_... =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://muzak.smoe.org NEXT UP: Sloan Wainwright, 4/13 =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 00:51:36 -0400 From: "Suzanne DeCory" Subject: Happy's concert I sent this out yesterday but didn't seem to make it. I'll try again.. Dear Ecto: I was one of the lucky attendee's for Happy's first living room concerts. I had a wonderful experience. How I wish many more of you and friends could have come. Happy was just glowing! She sounded better than ever. How honored I am to have been a part of such a magical gathering. Her guitar playing was supurb and first class. I agree, one would never even know she had surgery on her hand! Her vocalance, the most beautifully controlled and internally moving I have ever heard. I know I wasn't alone holding back tears at times. I would like to thank Meredith and Woj for opening up their home and hearts to us. Tony and I had a most excellent time. Just wanted to add to Meredith's and Foghorn's posts of the songs Happy played. (If I missed any, please add them in;) (The middle order is out of order though) For We believe Just Like Tivoli Feed The Fire (tribute version) If So Ashes To Ashes Summer Look For The Child The Chariot Ra is a Busy God Tragic The First To Cry When The Rain Came Down And 2 or 3 new songs that were just beautiful! And a Bee Gee's cover tune (although can't place the name) All in all it was just fantastic! I am still, in complete awe..... It was incredibly surreal. I hope many of you do get the chance to catch her this time around. It's well worth it! Tony and I traveled over to CT from Northport Long Island :) I am happily awaiting the new album along with everyone else here, I'm sure. It sounds to be just outstanding. lots of love, suzanne (email filtered and set to exclusive contacts) _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 00:59:41 -0700 From: "abaton" Subject: Shirley Collins As great as Sandy was, that title can only be applied to Shirley Collins. > Ellen writes: < Egads, yes. I don't yet have the new four-CD best-of that's been recently released over here, but I've heard marvelous things about it. She's going to be performing at some festivals over here this summer as well. > ....and David Keenan in Record Collector magazine says that box set (Within Sound) "feels like the most culturally significant document of 20th Century music since Revenant's Charlie Patton box, the only difference being that Collins is a living artist." mdabc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 00:58:22 -0400 From: Jeff Wasilko Subject: Set list from Vienna's show @ Kendall Cafe A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Vienna at the Kendall Cafe. I was there with a group of folks that were celebrating a birthday (most of them saw Vienna at my house concert). I haven't seen the Kendall this full since Jewel was playing there! Vienna played a short set (I much prefer her houseconcerts): Gravity The Tower Homecoming Enough to Go By Shasta Shine (that's what my notes say, but I don't remember what this was) Eric's Song Soon Love Soon Unwritten Letter #1 Vienna once again got everyone to sing along with Soon Love Soon, and it was amazing! You can see a snippet of it at: http://www.smoe.org/jeffw/video/vienna_teng/mvi_5112.avi Please, please go see Vienna someplace small before you end up seeing her in a huge room! - -j ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 22:41:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Ellen Rawson Subject: Re: Be Good Tanyas > I've heard it a few times on our playstock. Not much > stood out for me, other > than that I forgot that it was playing until > something else would come on. > Which might suggest that it's better for more > intimate listening than I was > able to give it. I saw them live last summer. Unfortunately, the sound was awful. (It was Union Chapel, which can vary a lot with sound.) At one point, Darden Smith, the opening act, unplugged his guitar and stepped away from the mike. I could hear and understand him better. He was upset about the sound. The Tanyas weren't thrilled -- Um, I'm getting feedback from a guitar I'm not playing... But I liked them. I tried to see them back in February, but the venue had a BAD leaky roof that night -- was leaking backstage, water was pouring onstage, etc. And the show was cancelled. Saw Erin McKeown do her opening act, though -- very nice and a good pairing with the Tanyas. Ellen ===== "Literature stops in 1100. After that, it's just books." - -- JRR Tolkien ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V9 #98 *************************