First time I was recorded playing my new BR Tenor

hollisdwyer

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I don’t know if this is the correct thread to post this in but...

I told a friend about a version of Tom Waits Jersey Girl that is sung by Dave Van Ronk. He’ A folk/blues singer that I used to go see in Greenwich Village in the early 60’s. She plays Sax, clarinet and Uke and I thought she’d like it. She also plays in a quartet that plays French music from the 40’s-70’s. We made a home recording on Friday. It was only our 2nd or 3rd run through but I thought it sounded nice.
It was a good opportunity to try out my new Satin Box/Yellow Cedar Tenor that Allen McFarlan (Barron River Ukuleles) just built for me.
Here’s a photo of the group:

249F3E12-7EBD-456D-A6EF-ABA34FF298C1.jpg

Here’s a link to the MP3:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-d7FfHFFoWdlQAHSAu_yidVTwApqYCgz/view
 
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Dang, Hollis, all I can say is "Whew that was good". Congrats on the BR! There's nothing like playing a custom made to your specs. Allen gave it life, you'll give it soul.
 
Great piece. Good sounding group. Your lead singer has a nice voice. I'm gonna have to listen to it with earphones to catch more of your playing Hollis.

I know Tom Waits, I'm afraid I didn't know Dave Van Ronk. Now I do. Interesting voice. I'll have to listen to him some more. Folk is a genre that I grew up with and sang a lot of. More so than early rock.

Thanks for posting the link.
 
Great piece for the Virgin Blondes first recording. I will second the comment about your female singers voice being very nice. Good mix of instruments and I was able to hear your new ukulele and you must be extremely pleased. Good stuff here Hollis
 
Dang, Hollis, all I can say is "Whew that was good". Congrats on the BR! There's nothing like playing a custom made to your specs. Allen gave it life, you'll give it soul.

Great piece. Good sounding group. Your lead singer has a nice voice. I'm gonna have to listen to it with earphones to catch more of your playing Hollis.

I know Tom Waits, I'm afraid I didn't know Dave Van Ronk. Now I do. Interesting voice. I'll have to listen to him some more. Folk is a genre that I grew up with and sang a lot of. More so than early rock.

Thanks for posting the link.

Great piece for the Virgin Blondes first recording. I will second the comment about your female singers voice being very nice. Good mix of instruments and I was able to hear your new ukulele and you must be extremely pleased. Good stuff here Hollis

Thank you all for your kind words. I really added very little to the sonic landscape. The other Uke player, the lead singer, strummed and I did the finger picking. Because of that it’s hard sometimes to pick my playing from that of the electronic piano. The BR Uke has very bell like tones. I had a direct input via my LR Baggs sessions preamp and I added a touch of Reverb through my Kelley Caverns Reverb/Delay pedal. There were only two mics. One for the lead singer and the other on the saxophone/ harmony singer. It was an interesting experience as I’ve only ever performed live amplified outdoors.
 
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That was great! I could easily listen to music like that for hours. Congrats, on your new uke. You have put it to good use.
 
Excellent playing and sound. Your recording is my 2nd favorite performance of Jersey Girl. Of course my favorite version is Springsteen’s. ;)
 
That was great! I could easily listen to music like that for hours. Congrats, on your new uke. You have put it to good use.

Thanks for the compliment. You should check out the repertoire of Dave Van Ronk. It’s quite large and varied. The Coen Brothers film, “Inside Llewyn Davis” was loosely based on DVR.

Congratulations on your new BR. Allen built me Soprano a few months ago, it is one of my most prized ukuleles. Your recording is fantastic. Two enthusiasts thumbs up!

Thanks. It was just a home recording done in a living room but I agree that it turned out well. Particularly as there were very few rehearsals. Although my part was understated I was happy how the BR performed. It rang like a bell.
 
Ha! I listened to your recording using earphones and I can easily hear your playing Hollis. Really nice picking. Loved it.

I was amazed at how extensive DVR's recordings are. With even a Smithsonian collection! And yet, I never heard of him. Good to know that about the "Inside Llewyn Davis" film. I wondered who it was loosely based upon. Now I know that too.
 
Ha! I listened to your recording using earphones and I can easily hear your playing Hollis. Really nice picking. Loved it.

I was amazed at how extensive DVR's recordings are. With even a Smithsonian collection! And yet, I never heard of him. Good to know that about the "Inside Llewyn Davis" film. I wondered who it was loosely based upon. Now I know that too.

Thanks Ken! If you are interested in Dave Van Ronk, who the Sax player calls Dave Van Plonk because she can never remember his correct name, there is a book called “The Mayor of McDouggal Street”. It’s about DVR and the Folk scene in the Village in the early 60’s, just when I started playing around the fountain in Washington Square Park.
 
Excellent playing and sound. Your recording is my 2nd favorite performance of Jersey Girl. Of course my favorite version is Springsteen’s. ;)

Hodge, thanks for quite a compliment. I like all the versions of that song that I’ve heard so far(Tom Waits, Dave Van Ronk and Springsteen) as they all have different interpretations (even different lyrics). I’ve been a big Dave Van Ronk fan since I was 15 and started to hangout in Greenwich Village in 1960 so understandably chose that one to go with.
 
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