The Little Drummer Boy is one of my favorite Christmas songs. it was originally know as “Carol of the Drum” and was written by Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941.
This is version was recorded in my home studio using Reaper software. It’s really just a practice exercise to try to do a song from start to finish in just a couple days.
In my typical method. I used cheap guitars and a 2006 MacBook to do the record. I used either stock or free plugins for effects.
Most of the settings are presets except some minor EQ tweaks.
Then I uploaded the file to Landr for mastering – also free.
Yes folks. A whole Christmas song for your listening pleasure and free download.
My good friend Neal Hutto passed away around this time of year back in 2010, My thoughts often go back to memories that we shared hanging out… Talking about music and the state of the universe and all that…
He used to MC the open mic nights at the Eclipse club back in the 90’s. He made the entertainment! He would introduce me and I’d stumble drunk up on the stage and sing about abusive youth church camp leaders and such… It was fun!
Yeah… Neal was kool… I was a thug.. There were other artists and punks heckling other losers. What can I say? It was some of the best times of my crazy youth… Well I was pushing 30… But ya know
Dang I miss that guy.
I didn’t make it to his funeral but I found a copy the full eulogy of Neal on Facebook. His friend Will knew him much better than I did and said all the right things. He mentions Neal’s Riverside Drive Tape that he recorded back in 1990. He talks about some of it being digitized but I have never found it on the net..
Neal was sleeping at my pad one summer and we were checking it out and I told him “lemme get a copy of that” So I simply dubbed one over….And I still have it…
I hadn’t heard that stuff in a long time… Wow! I don’t know the names of the songs but it’s quite a good little musical journey that record. Some really trippy ambient music there…
Simple and effective lyrics
“love is here to stay..I ain’t bullshitting…. Love is here to stay”
The (trivial) setup in Reaper (Photo credit: Roo Reynolds)
Back in the music lab again…Recording my latest and greatest masterpiece… It is yet ‘untitled’ Maybe I’ll just keep that name for the record. Uh……..?
I must begin by saying that getting this 6 year old macbook is improving my lab tremendously. I have sought out to do some DAW recording now that it’s the computer age…But the PC hassles just seemed to be too much… I had recorded other songs.. Like one that my friend Neal wrote.
It was recorded on a PC using Reaper DAW software. It came out pretty good.
At any rate… I was having to many troubles at the time… And no energy to fight the computer issues…
I actually have video of some songs on my Youtube Chanel. . Including the one above… If your interested. I may blog about each one of them one of these days… – Whatever
All I know for sure is that those tracks can never be finished because I had the files stored on an external hard drive that was stolen by a past acquaintance. Hey… I luv them dudes and dudettes from my past… I just can’t chill that way anymore…
Why?
There’s to much life left in me… Ya know what I’m sayen?
So.. I have a 2008 Macbook… A Shure SM58…. An LP worth of electronica that I worked up with Acid years ago…And a fresh copy of licensed Reaper installed. And I’m laying down tracks… Cause Macbook and Reaper is where it’s at.
Hey…What else is there to do? I got something to say after all!
Do YOU?
Send me some files of you saying silly stuff… I put it on top of these techno tracks… Ya know? Blah blah blah…..
Back in the early days here in Tulsa OK my friend Gary Hunt and myself shared a house over by Tulsa University… We
Biblioteca McFarlin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
were *like* college kids…But didn’t go to school at TU. You know what I’m saying?
Yes folks…We were right there on campus.
We were a bunch of kids thinking we would make a difference in Tulsa pop culture.. We were the underground music kids. We were busy working out our sexual frustrations and tortured youth with a Fostex 4 track recorder.
We drank beer, wrote songs, drank beer wrote songs, drank beer, wrote songs.
Do you see the pattern here?
We talked about art and dreamed big… And, you know? Had fun!
Are you interested in learning more about it? See here:
That is an old static html site I designed years ago that talks a bit about that period… It has several songs for download if your into that sort of thing… They are all LoFi stuff of course. – To us, back then…They were HIGH FI
We were cutting records after all… Ya dig?
image (Photo credit: davestuff7)
Demented Dave – My Solo Project
I recorded a short EP of songs I had written during this period. I believe it is rendered a a little better bit rate than the songs offered on the D&G pages:
Eminem, in 8 Mile, plays a Detroit post-teenager who dreams of becoming a rap singer, who both has black friends and receives hostility from blacks who don’t like his career intentions. For all its hokiness it’s a good movie, chiefly because of its depiction of working-class life in an American city. Scott Silver’s script is fragile, but Curtis Hanson directs it with flair and know-how. Eminem’s acting is hollow but the other performers shine. E.g., Mekhi Phifer is urban tough but nonthreatening as one of Eminem’s friends, he who asserts he intends to square things with the Lord but never gets around to it. Kim Basinger gives a nicely complex performance as the white rapper’s mother, and the late Brittany Murphy effectively plays, er, an affable slut. It’s not much of a role. It is not even clear that Silver is aware she is a slut.
Another problem: the obligatory embarrassing sex scene. And another: rap music. The one Eminem rap song I have heard in its entirety struck me as trivial and unfunny, and the tripe spewed out in 8 Mile is no better. One wishes we had Duke Ellington and Scott Joplin around to teach this white kid a lesson.
This post goes out to my good friend and musical colleague Neal Hutto. We were hipsters back in the day and remained good friends throughout the 90s and beyond till his death in 2010.
Our History
To occupy the resources of the Federal Agents I now offer the Filibuster.
-Neal
Neal and I went to Carver Middle School together here in Tulsa Oklahoma. He was a talented musician then…And a hipster… I was a dork. But with his help and the influence of other hipsters I sorta became hip myself.
We drifted apart and I did not see him again until the early 90’s when he was the MC of an open stage night at the Eclipse club in Tulsa. I used to get up on that stage every Tuesday with my guitar and cheap beer and sing my little heart out.. Ya know? Memories
Neal had always been the free spirit kinda guy….. He lived out of his car for over 11 consecutive years… And was fine with that. He lived within his means and always had money and the stuff he needed… His car was insured and he was totally legal. This was the life he chose and he enjoyed it, folks… His method of living under good Karma was his code.
A lot could be said about Neal. His concerns with government interference in his life were quite the puzzle to me…Still, his stories and adventures in his car were always quite entertaining and it was always a good time when he would roll by my house to see me and do some jamming.
Hutto Hippies
Hutto was a talented guitar player, singer, songwriter, and piano player. He would often get up and do a set at the Eclipse himself and was always a hit with the crowd. His music was exciting and complex. I have recently found a demo of his songs and am in the process of digitizing it and will share that on my music site.
In the 90s we attempted to put a band together and wrote a few songs… We could never seem to get out of the basement stage of the band but did manage to get a few things recorded. It would have been fun to actually get out and play some shows… But our lifestyle at the time seemed to prevent this… If you know what I”m saying?
Free Download
I have recorded a song that Neal wrote with our band back then. I am offering it here to honor Neal and our great friendship his talent and legacy. It was fun recording it and I hope I do his song justice. Actually, it was co-written by K-Lor over at Funjob. A mutual friend of ours.
The Lyric
Why won’t you deal with me? Instead you… Flee…. That’s fine……
Rest in peace Neal P Hutto… You are missed my friend… See ya on the ‘other side’ YOU DIG?
