breaking the rules

I added a guitar accompaniment to By The Grace of God's gorgeous a cappella country waltz.

This doesn't exactly fit the MeFiMu challenge because it's not, strictly speaking, a cover. I just added to the original track.

BTGoG mentioned in her original post that she envisioned instruments coming in one by one as the song goes along. If anyone has hammond B3 chops, gospel piano, or, say, a saxophone quartet or, perhaps, an entire New Orleans Brass Band at your beck and call, by all means keep adding layers to this. I can send you the uncompressed file.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by umbú (11 comments total)

Dang, this is great. Sittin' on the porch, sippin' iced tea... I'm there.
posted by ORthey at 9:22 PM on June 16, 2008

Man, do I ever love her voice. Nice work with the accompaniment, it works very well and definitely adds a level of "completeness" to the song, despite the fact that her amazing voice stands up so well on its own and doesn't need any help.

P.S. By The Grace of God, if you're reading this, please, please post some more recordings of your lovely voice.
posted by maniactown at 2:05 AM on June 17, 2008

This is great. I hadn't listened to the original--which is just outstanding vocal work--but this adds just the right touch. Not too busy, doesn't get in the way, but definitely gives it that little something. I dig it!

(And I wouldn't want to hear anything else in there, except yeah, maybe a Hammond just barely creeping up in the background.)
posted by uncleozzy at 5:48 AM on June 17, 2008

Thanks. Anything BTGoG sings works by itself, but I was too tempted to play along, even if I had to try to stay largely out of the way.
posted by umbú at 1:34 PM on June 17, 2008

I can imagine it must have been really hard to add music to an a capella track. More so because it sounds like you only played behind it, instead of editing the voice track to make it adjust to the music. If you ask me, that was a wise choice. It retains the beautiful organic ambiance of the original and adds to it, instead of turning it into something else (which can be good too, of course, but more and more these days seems like the only way people go).

I can't help imagining a large, ample, wooden house with a terrace. A woman singing on the porch and a man pickin' the guitar on the bench, without really trying to play together, just letting the music come out, and then go.

Beautiful work, umbú.
posted by micayetoca at 1:52 PM on June 17, 2008

I'm listening again and I have to say I am really impressed with the skillful addition of guitar on this track. It's really expertly done, and completes the song perfectly.

and BtGoG, shivers, I tellya! down the spine!
posted by ORthey at 2:54 PM on June 17, 2008

Holy fucking shit, this is awesome. umbu, thank you so much for doing this! it sounds damn great.
posted by By The Grace of God at 12:25 PM on June 19, 2008

The ending totally eats my brains by the way.

I think this is the opening credits to BANNHAMMER: TEH MOVIE.
posted by By The Grace of God at 12:31 PM on June 19, 2008

Really well done, umbu. As others have said, it really completes the song, even without the other dozen instruments imagined. I like the sparseness of it myself, rather than adding anymore. Maybe some very light percussion.
posted by Corduroy at 9:49 PM on June 19, 2008

Holy crap, man. This is on fire! Not only do I love your guitar on this but BtGoG is really dynamic and you just waltzed right along with her. AWEsome!
posted by snsranch at 3:05 PM on June 20, 2008

I was doing some surfing of old posts and this is really awesome. I remember hearing Grace's original of this and I thought it was really pretty, this takes it over the top. It fits really well, like you both were in the room playing together.
posted by BrnP84 at 10:37 AM on July 24, 2008