Monday, February 05, 2007

Oh Yeah Buddy

All the fans of the revoLEWtion can keep their eyes peeled for a new recording of "Oh Yeah Buddy," that is soon to be released. It's crazy to think that the Oh Yeah Buddy song almost didn't get recorded onto my revoLEWtion CD. Both the original and writing of the song have quite a mythology behind them.

I wrote the music to Oh Yeah Buddy long before I wrote the words. The music was probably the first finger picking music that I had written that I knew I wanted to put words to. I liked the music so much that I didn't want to rush to write the lyrics. I wanted the lyrics to be something upbeat and happy to match the music. One night while working third shift at the oh so fond hour of 3 A.M. I was playing the music and began singing the words, "Oh Yeah Buddy." Before I knew it, the lyrics just came to me.

revoLEWtion was recorded shortly after my first live concert. I had close to two hours worth of material and had an idea of what material I wanted to record, but was torn about recording Oh Yeah Buddy. It almost didn't get recorded until I was close to the end of the session and shouted back to the guys recording and asked, "do y'all think I should record Oh Yeah Buddy," and they respond back, "Of course man, you go to."

The 2nd recording of Oh Yeah Buddy was quite different from the first recording. The first recording was done in one taking with the vocal and music together. I was in the sanctuary of Westminster Presbyterian Church and Chris Coy was in the back with his laptop plugged into the sound board. We recorded pretty much everything with one take and then he burned it from his computer onto a CD and the rest is as they say "history."

My newest recording was quite the different experience. It was explained to the producer that it should only take 10-15 minutes and it didn't have to be profesional quality. It actually took closer to an hour and I think the producer was aiming for profesional quality although I was biting my tounge trying not to say, "no matter how much mixing you do, my voice will still sound really bad." It was definitely an awkward recording for me because I am used to recording vocals and music all at once, but the producer wanted me to lay down the music and then do the lyrics. This was a slight problem because I don't think I've ever played the song same way twice in a row. It still came out good and didn't take long to record (editing was the long part).

There were several humorous moments in this recording. Without a doubt the funniest was near the end of the recording and the head of the studio came in and heard the song and asked, "So, who is buddy?" There was also a moment when the producer said to me, "there is a certain charm to being out of tune..." I sat there thinking he was going to say I had that certain charm, but instead he begans to do some editing to attempt to make my singing sound in tune.

Speaking of people who say, amen and hallelujah...

"That's not what's important. What's important is that Lovie Smith and I are friends, that we're both Christians, and that Jesus Christ gets the glory."
-Tony Dungy in response to what it feels like to be the first African
American coach to win a Super Bowl.

No comments: