Lefty's Last Ride

Of all this year’s RPM Challenge tunes, this one’s got the most involved creation story!

Kenny invited David to come join us in the studio for the RPM recording sessions, so on 2/14, David brought his banjo, mandolin, and a fondness for Travis-style finger picked guitar. In the studio, he and Kenny worked out some chord sequences to jam on, then we recorded a couple of live takes of the two acoustic guitars and the bass. After listening to those takes for a week, we reassembled on 2/21 to re-record those foundational parts and added Kenny’s electric piano tracks. By this point, we were kind of in agreement that the song might work pretty well as an instrumental, but thought we might work up an alternate version with vocals, if anybody came up with some lyrics.

Before the next Saturday session, Kevin added drums and a sampled cathedral bell as a placeholder for the mission bell he’d been hearing in his head since the piano parts had been added, and Kenny and Kevin both were overjoyed to see David’s reaction the first time he heard the bell. See, he had been working on a Morricone-style tremolo guitar part to fit the song’s new title, and the bell played right into the theme. With the main parts recorded, Kevin just added some congas and tambourine, replaced the bell sample with some tubular bells in the correct pitch, and mixed the whole thing down.

This is easily the most cinematic we’ve been in a long time, and I (Kevin) thank Kenny and David for making it happen! Welcome aboard, Dave!

David Nolin – songwriting, acoustic and electric guitar
Kenny Tannehill – acoustic guitar, electric piano
Kevin Craig – drums, bass, percussion, recording, mixing