musically inclined

so about nine years ago, after seeing a Don Dixon show in Charlotte, i went home and wrote a song with his wife, Marti Jones, in mind. she has a gorgeous singing voice, quite different from mine, and i wanted to write something that would work for her specifically. i'm pretty happy with the song, but never really bothered to do anything about it. i mentioned it offhand to my friend Mark Williams, who engineered my demo and now produces such bands as Hootie and the Blowfish and Southern Culture on the Skids, and he said he'd be interested in hearing it. (he's a good friend of Don and Marti's, and has worked with them on almost all of either of their records.)

i had a really crappy mp3 at the time, but didn't want to send it along because it sucked so much. so today i got a bug up my butt about it and decided to try again, and got a recording which, while of fairly poor quality, at least presents the song to moderate advantage (but makes my voice sound pretty awful). and i've sent off the URL to Mark.

at this point, i suspect Marti's more interested in raising kids than in recording, so it's probably too late to do any good, but hey, what the hell. maybe someone will use it, and i'll make a few bucks.

anyway, here it is, if you'd like to hear it. as always, this song is copyright meredith tanner, all rights reserved, blah blah don't upload it to napster or sell it for a soap commercial, etc.

and so

i did some experimental recording this afternoon, working out how to set up the audio gear, which equipment i can use without adding noise, etc. finally got things set up to my semi-satisfaction, although i've come to the conclusion that i can't actually work on the CD until i've got another good mic to record the guitar -- once i've gotten a couple of checks from my client, that will be ok.

anyway, re-recorded "so long". got a fairly decent take except for the note i missed near the end and the clipping during the coda. settings have been tweaked accordingly, but then i spent a couple of hours on the phone with my ex-husband, and now it's too late to do any more music tonight. mustn't disturb the good neighbors.

i am filled with nostalgia and melancholy. it was good to talk to prs again. i feel very old, now, though. thinking about how long it's been, thinking about the good times, thinking about what might have been had we not been so young and whacked in the head. he was the love of my life. i told him that tonight. he said he felt the same way.

so hard to hear that after so much time has passed. life is so much more complicated and difficult than i imagined it would be. it makes my heart hurt.

i'd completely forgotten

...but apparently when i packed up prs' stuff for him, i slipped a little gift into one of the boxes. see, i used to collect antique sheet music.

the one i left: "Oh, How I Laugh When I Think How I Cried Over You".

thanks, prs, for reminding me. that's probably the funniest thing i've ever done.