New Track-Homemade Plank-Lap steel Guitar

Rydin` Thru The Snow

About The Recording
All parts played and recorded live and layered in multi-tracks using Cubase H2O in Smutbots Studio. All instruments played by Colin Merry, except for Tom Few-6 String Cigar Box Resonator Guitar(Slide) and Second Vocals and Smutbot-Bass guitar.

Some people may hate our use of technology, but I think that when the Resonator Guitar was invented, that was cutting edge technology. Those olden day Blues guys were not up-tight about it and would use anything that they could lay their hands on, to enhance their music. We can play a very good live version, but it does not have all of the bells and shakers, but the whole feel is still there. We try not to record anything in a way that we can not replicate Live, I always hate it when you see a band that does not live up to it recordings!

Smutbot is our Studio and Live Sound Engineer, we have been working together for a year now, he is a big help with arrangements, mixing and records us, as well as playing Bass from time to time. Smutbot is like the third band member and a good friend. Please check out his music on myspace, he makes cutting edge Dance, Hip Hop and Drum n Bass music, nothing like ours. www.myspace.com/smutbot You can down load this track for free, along with all the tracks from our first album Smutbots Room from www.reverbnation.com/stumblecol

The Instruments
Plank-Lap Steel (home made by me)
6 String Cigar Box Resonator Guitar (home made, not by us).
Mandolin factory built)
Bass (factory built)
Stomp Box (home made by me)
Harmonicas (Hohner Pro Harp in G & C)

Shakers (home made by me)
Symbol (sample)
Bells (from off of my back door curtain)

We live in Cambridge and Soham, Cambridge is just over 10 miles from Ely and Soham is a couple of miles from there. This area of the UK (East Anglia), is known as the Fens. The Fens are the flat lands, below Sea level and used to be under water. Ely was once known as The Isle Of Eels. Ely Cathedral is known as The 'Ship of the Fens' because it can be seen from so many miles around, standing tall like some great ship.

Charles the 1st King of England paid the Dutch, in the 1630`s to drain the Fens to reclaim this land from the Sea and the Fens as we know them were born. The landscape of the Fens in unique, flat, you can see for miles, not just to next hill, there are no hills! Famous for it whistling winds and floodlands, some would call it bleak, I would call it dramatic and beautiful, but I guess you have to have lived here to love it.

It is this Landscape that is the inspiration for this song, when it snows heavily in the Fens you loose all of the landmarks, all you can see is fields and fields of Snow. It is hard enough just to see the path that the road takes. I have driven along 10 Mile Bank with the Bank braking behind us, putting your foot down to make it, ours being the last vehicle to get through until the flood waters subside.

Many thanks,

Col