Showing posts with label Country Blues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Country Blues. Show all posts

Monday, May 26, 2008

SONG WRITERS' WORKSHOP




REVIEW OF SONG WRITING WORKSHOP
Category: Music

REVIEW OF SONG WRITING WORKSHOP

I went out to the Black Board tonight, and all this week for a free songwriting workshop.
SONG WRITERS' WORKSHOP
The workshop was put on by Tom Rockwell, business manager at Trout's Nightclub, and the proprietor of the Blackboard stage and basement where the workshop was held. Rockwell (as he is known by all) is always on the move making sure everything is going right, to him everybody is important and everything that is going on in the place is meaningful. I am but a rank amateur at music but I love writing songs as a hobby, for fun and I tell you my skills were modified 10 fold by this exiting 3 day workshop. Some of the finest country music song writers in the world came in and helped out, including Red Simpson.



Rockwell did an outstanding job and was there filming and or recording the class the whole time. We each took turns in the "hot seat" where we got real world stage experience in front of the class and interested on-lookers. I admit I had some bad stage freight, but everybody made me feel right at home and by the end of the third night I was fairly confident, lots of encouragement… unfortunately I was just too tired to perform my tunes. I did get some good performance early in the week though, so I came out of it feeling pretty good about my stage experience. I learned that song writing is a lot about writing and rewriting lyrics over and over until you get the product you desire and then working out the music with other musicians. Some of the Blackboard Playboys were there with high degree of musical expertise and were very helpful in this process.. This was like an inspirational work shop for song writing! A fun, and highly recommended, experience. That's-a-foe-show---


Watch the Trout's' Blackboard calendar for future free workshops

ySpace URL:

http://www.myspace.com/hankraycountryblues

HANK RAY'S Musical Journey In Bakersfield


Bakersfield guitar and vocal. Country Blues. Hank Ray only started this playing guitar again about a year ago to kill time at lunch break, hadn’t played for 20 years . He felt compelled to record a song for his younger brother’s funeral in July and did the other songs for fun. It was a last minute thing, the only recording facility willing to squeeze him in was “Electric Cowboy Records” of Bakersfield. Kelly White Vice President of Electric Cowboy Records was intrigued by Ray’s raw (sometimes down right crude) style and shinny chrome resonator guitar . Since it was for bereavement, and Kelly was generally curious, he made a slot for Ray and gave him the “bereavement fare”. Hank Ray was on A.M. 1560 on the 20th, 4 days after the recording session ,The Jaz Mckay show did a blues program at 2PM and they got down with some Hank! Jaz said "I love that Blues shit, it's friggin' great! This after playing "Bakersfield Blues" on Hanks demo record "Streets Of Heaven" on the Bakersfield Kookoonauts own Indy label "Rodent Sandwich Records" this is like home spun but gives it the underground country flavor. Recorded at: Electric Cowboy Studios in Bakersfield, Ca. (www.electriccowboystudios.com) The recording had only been made on July 16th (radio on the 20th) and was done as a live recording and took about 2 hours for all 5 songs (including set up, a quick mix of the tunes and 2 beers), I guess it shows in some of Ray’s fumbles and stuff, but Hank is coming to town dudes, traditional country blues is not dead here in Bakersfield!