A belated recording blog... 

Shane Speal's Snake Oil Band - recording an album for C. B. Gitty Records

Day three of recording

Equinox Music and Arts, Dallastown PA

The video above was shot in the control room of Equinox as we were listening to the first few overdubs of Strung Out Drunk and Busted, one of my originals written for this album.  This was after we decided to eliminate "click tracks" from this album and record all the foundational tracks live. 

We spent all Wednesday working on this one song.  After we listened a few times, I went back into the recording room and added overdubs of four (!) bass drums pounding violently in the build-up part. 

Note the prison chants at the end.  That is an element that will run thru the entire album.  Every once in a while, you'll hear the chains or a different prison chant fade in.  To me, field hollers and prison chants are the essence of the blues and the great-grandfather of hip hop.  They're also a perfect element to add for extra rhythmic UMPH! 

Skipping ahead...

It's Sunday now.  We recorded Monday thru Wednesday.  By then, my vocal chords were beat up a little bit.  But then I had three more live shows to perform, including the one on Thursday with Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band.  Let's just say that my voice is shaky at best right now.  I'll be spending all day resting up, drinking hot liquids and preparing for another week of hard core recording and live shows. 

I think I may work on some more chain-gang percussion tomorrow in the studio and save my voice for the next day.  Although the world sees me as the cigar box guitar guy, I'm still the lead singer in this band and I need to protect my voice.  I'm still learning how to properly take care of my voice.

So here we go.  More boogie coming up.

Shane

This week's featured items from C. B. Gitty: