856 tracks by Robert James
This one is okay. Nothing special. The whole stream of conscious lyric writing approach got a little screwy here when the second verse went really dark but the chorus was kinda up and happy. Oh well.
I kinda like the chorus here. A few…
Uploaded
A nice, bouncy little ditty, eh?
This has two tie backs to the 1980's. First, the lead guitar. Back in the late 80's I was not a guitar gear junkie at all. That addiction only developed a few years ago. Back then it was Les Paul -> Wah…
Uploaded
I think we have a winner here.
I already had 50 songs in process for the 50/90 challenge and I was starting to feel like I was going to finish with time to spare. Then my wife and I were having a Facetime call with my step daughter who is…
Uploaded
I keep waffling on whether I like this one or not. Right now I'm okay with it, but sometimes I just want to junk it. I think I'm too close to all of this stuff to know what's good and what isn't.
The star of the show here is clearly the Garageband…
Uploaded
Okay, this one is all about being a guitar gear nerd.
Wet/Dry. You play through two amplifiers. One amplifier gets a dry signal and the other gets all of the effects. The idea is you can crank up the effects without having to worry about…
Uploaded
The lyrics were off the top of my head so if you're wondering how I really feel, or what I'm talking about... let's just say there's a lot of stupid out there right now and a lot of it has important jobs. Dig?
Kinda funky. Not bad. Maybe…
Uploaded
If my song writing comfort zone lives at about 70 beats per minute, it's nice to double it now and then. This one is 144. A fun change of pace.
I like this one. I don't love it. I doubled the voice in the chorus because I wanted to add…
Uploaded
Sometimes when I'm working on rhythm guitar parts I have to make sure I remember Robin Trower's third album (For Earth Below) where he put a ton of distinct rhythm guitar tracks on most of the songs and most of those rhythm guitar tracks are flooded…
Uploaded
This is one of only two songs from this year's 50/90 that was started on guitar rather than bass. It's also one of three where the vocals were recorded on a day where I couldn't sing in tune to save my life. It's also one of three where the…
Uploaded
Generally speaking I like this one, but there are some catches.
1. The vocals for this song, along with two others, were recorded on a day when I just didn't have it. I couldn't hit a pitch if you painted a big target on it.
2. I recorded…
Uploaded
I almost like this one. I was into it while I was putting it together (percussion overload, babie!) and playing the rhythm guitar parts was kinda fun. I had a really hard time with the vocals. I just couldn't find the pitches anywhere. Singing…
Uploaded
I don't like the chorus in this one at all. Everything else is okay but the chorus... let's just file it under "it seemed like a good idea at the time" and forget all about it.
Guitars are all Gibson ES-335 Pro. Amps on all guitar tracks…
Uploaded
I don't hate it outright... but I don't really like it either. The chorus is okay, the groove is okay... maybe I just need to re-record it and play better. Maybe just tone down the grunge a little. I don't know. It's not a complete loss, but…
Uploaded
Nothing special about this one except that it broke my one songwriting challenge rule: I rewrote part of it. The lyrics. I wrote the melody and a set of lyrics that fit late one night and even before I conked out for the night I knew it was…
Uploaded
50/90 runs from July 4 through October 1. Three months. When I work on it I tend to break the project up into four pieces. Songs started and finished in each of the three months, and songs that cross between months. This is the only cross…
Uploaded
I managed to work on 16 songs for this year's 50/90 before I did something strummy in 6/8 time. I've started working on another 21 songs since and I've yet to do another one. That will likely change before today ends. Sorry, strummy songs in…
Uploaded
I don't like this one. There are no redeeming qualities here at all.
Except for the last three bars.
There was one rhythm guitar here but it was played through two amplifiers. The right speaker is a Fender Bassbreaker 15. The left is…
Uploaded
I like the melody on this one, and the vocal harmonies work pretty well. It could have benefitted from a competent singer, but I didn't do too much harm. Back in February during the RPM Challenge/FAWM I did a lot of messing with GarageBand percussionists…
Uploaded
74 beats per minute. I don't consciously write music in the 70-75 bpm range, but somehow it just always... happens... to... me. It's like my binky. It's like my happy place. There's another personal cliche here too. Back in the early 90's…
Uploaded
The Great Quest to Write a Heavy Rocker in 3/4 Time Continues. Kinda generic, but I like the vibe and the vocal harmonies aren't terrible. I used a couple of different tones for the leads which was also neat.
All of the guitar parts are a…
Uploaded