Upon Returning to the New Hampshire Fall

A song about my return from the Northwest this summer to my New Hampshire homeland, who has been deserted by all my peers. No banjolele, but harmonies and fog and mirrors percussion. Also a standard tuned guitar playing with a DAADAE guitar.

As always, thoughts are more than appreciated.

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posted by Corduroy (5 comments total)

Lyrics:

You're back in the Frostbelt,
Tighten it up.

You have been bloated.
Should I be worried?

It's a lot of dead trees,
but it's a sweet, sweet smell.

And the breeze,
O the breeze!
It has me floated,
it has me floated.

Should I be worried?
posted by Corduroy at 11:03 AM on October 31, 2008

What's the percussion? It sound like flicking something against a banjo head or something. And then around 1:34, it sounds like you're...slapping yourself?

As much as I like those sweet harmonies, I also really like the post-harmony repeat of "should I be worried" the first time (at around :40). Interestingly, I think the previous harmony serves to make returning to solo for the following line more...I dunno, it makes it it stand out in a way that I wouldn't have expected.

This is pretty atumnal.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 1:14 AM on November 1, 2008

The percussion is all rapping on a tin can and clapping. But it's funny you should mention slapping, because that's what I tried first. I got the idea from a autistic fellow I know is very proud of his side burns and will slap his cheeks to show them. But I discovered that the sound wasn't terribly consistent, and to make it consistent would require harder hitting. So even though it would have been indie-fabulous to "face slapping" percussion, fast hand clapping sounded about the same.

I'm glad it sounds autumnal!
posted by Corduroy at 5:37 AM on November 1, 2008

Wow, what a random inspiration for the percussion.

This is great. My one thought, after listening to the song only once, is that although I appreciate your discipline in waiting for all of the different layers to come in until right near the end, I liked them so much that I wished they were present for a larger portion of the song.
posted by umbú at 6:10 PM on November 6, 2008

you're so good at that lullaby material.
posted by IngeChiles at 8:53 PM on July 6