Rise Above w/Lee Johnson (***REVISED Jan 20)

[deantaylor]

Lee updated this on 1-20-09 from your first set of comments. THANKS! Here is what he changed:1. less lead guitar overall...it was too loud 2. less room on drums 3. clarified kick and bass hopefully...kick should whack and bass should thump 4. vocal pitch ... need a time spot if possible (Vince?) ... I can clean these up more.5. harp muted at bridge and since lead guit is less at end we hear the harp there better too.Please let us know how it sounds to you now:http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7237628lyric is available there, tooThanks,Dean and Lee

[jwebbinspired]

Dean and Lee,Keep in mind, I am not a Film/TV expert. I like the harmonica...although it worked quite well without it. (at 1:05) The lead guitar seemed a little too hot or maybe it needed to be introduced a little more subtly...I think. It just jumped out at me. Maybe that was intention. This is a great song guys. I really like this. It seems to be a good quality recording.

[leejohnson]

Hey There jwebbinspired...I like your quote near your avatar...I'm actually in the middle of reading Jimmy Webb's book "Tunesmith" ....Talk about attention to detail right!!!!Thanks for listening to our song. We appreciate your feedback...I'll check out the guitar riff you mentioned and see if I can get it to be introduced more subtly and naturally. I can either re-play something different, or perhaps its more of a mixing/production thing? BestLee

[teleblaster]

Nice tune, kind of a John Hiatt vibe going on.Agree that the lead git sticks out in places -- the fills at 1:07 seem to be coming from a different 'space'. You've got a lot of room sound on the drums and verb on the other gits, I think the fills just need to be pulled back a couple dbs and washed out a bit more to sound like they're part of the same band. The slide stuff starting around 2:15 sounds great. I'd pull back the fills a bit at the end (2:50 and out) and make double sure that you're not trampling on the vox space -- nothing major just a few dbs and a touch of editing. Might be an opportunity to double track a harmony there too.Few other things you might consider. The bass to my ears just kind of sits there. It seems to hook up with the kick well rythmically, but not from a frequency perspective. Maybe you need to find that frequency relationship between kick and bass -- who gets the 'whack' and who gets the thump. I think they both might be trying to thump. Does that make any sense at all....Great tune, and some really cool slide git stuff. Best of luck with this.HTHErich

[devin]

I'd agree that the guitar playing is really nice, it's just a couple of tweaks from fitting in (as perfectly described above). I don't know how receptive a library would be...my guess is the suggested modifications will not hurt your chances.Make sure you let us know if it finds a home!Good job!

[jwebbinspired]

Lee, Oh man. That's a great book. I really, really enjoyed that one. Jimmy Webb is a perfectionist on every level. I didn't realize just how deeply intentional a song could be until I better understood his writing. Blows me away. Keep up the great music.Andy

[billg]

I like this song (think I told you that before) and I think the harmonica is cool . . . but is it my imagination or was there no harp at the end? I think the guitar should just stick to the slide parts, it would make the whole vibe more difinitive imo. But the tone of the guitar doesn't seem quite right , somehow it doesn't gel with the rest of the song's tone. To me the song pulls to a Neil Young/John Hiatt direction so I'd go with a guitar tone (drum sound too!) more along those lines.

[ideascapes]

Dean and Lee,Nice sounding recording--mix is well balanced and I don't hear any sonic problems. Agree with the comment about the guitar fills appearing from the blue. And it did seem too loud in the last chorus--washed out the vocal in a few instances.Only thing I heard that might keep a library from signing was some minor pitch problems in the vocal (probably in the harmony lines, but not positive). Remember that everybody is more critical when it comes to vocals!Nice job overall--love seeing these collaborations spring from the boards.Vince

[deantaylor]

Hey Everyone,Thanks for taking the time to listen and give us some feedback. We are mulling it over.Dean

[leejohnson]

Hey again everyone,thanks for taking the time to listen and give us some feedback...much appreciated! We agree with your suggestions, and will work on getting things to sit where they need to be so guitars and riffs don't come from out of nowhere (possibly getting a little too crazy with automation) I look forward to digging into this one some more real soon!Best,Lee