Monday, December 16, 2013

The Mysterious Origins of Nola Blues video

Here is a video I made to demonstrate my post on the Secret, Mysterious Origins of Nola Blues.
You can hear these songs on PWCarr Music.
Enjoy!




View this video on Screencast

Saturday, December 14, 2013

The Secret, Mysterious Origins of Nola Blues

If you have ever heard "Nola Blues", you know that it is an acoustic guitar based Delta blues song.  Did you know it actually started out as a song played only on keyboards?

I wrote a whimsical keyboard instrumental called "Traffic Light" that was so-named because it reminded me of the sights and sounds you might experience while stopped at city traffic light.  It was recorded in Ableton Live, and has only five tracks - drums, bass, and three piano tracks - all played on midi instruments using my Alesis QS 8.1 keyboard as the midi controller.

However, I am a die-hard blues lover, so I took the bass and drum tracks from "Traffic Light", added a few bars to the verses, and started playing some guitar blues over them.  I added a lead guitar part and a harmonica solo in the bridge, and "Nola Blues" was born.

Several people have commented that they really like the slide playing in "Nola Blues".  I take that as a compliment, because there is no slide guitar.  There is just one rhythm guitar and one lead guitar that is duplicated and delayed slightly to add a little fullness.

But here is another little secret.  The rhythm guitar, played on my mahogany Guild D-25, is done in a tuning that probably few people in the universe have ever dreamed of.  It is so rare, I don't even know what it is called.  I call it a D5 tuning, and I have used it on several of my songs, including "Put Yourself In My Place" and "What's Gonna Happen".

As for the name "Nola Blues" ...
it could be a girl's name,
it could stand for No. La., as in North Louisiana blues,
or it could be N.O.L.A. for New Orleans, Louisiana, where I first started playing professionally.
You decide.

I'd be willing to bet that if you heard "Traffic Light" and "Nola Blues", you would never know that they are the same song.
Check out the clips of them on the PWCarr Music web site, and see if you can pick out the similarities and differences.

Note that you will have to stop the music player to hear the clip of "Traffic Light", then you can use the player to hear an extended clip of "Nola Blues" and the other two songs I mentioned.

http://www.12path.com/blog/songs/


Get your copy of any or all of Pat Carr's songs at the Music Store.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Stuck With Chuck recording video

Here's a little video I made to go along with my post about recording Stuck With Chuck that gives a visual representation of how I did it.
Enjoy!


Recording Stuck With Chuck on Screencast