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DownTown Blog – Live & Shadow Walk

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2 years ago in September 2021 I released the DownTown Demos. The premise for this release was that I would release demos that featured the songs Live and Shadow Walk and then go in the studio and re-record new versions of them. Then listeners could compare them, like before and after photos. It was a bit unusual to do it this way but I wanted to show the natural progression of the songs going from demos to finished product.

A few months later in January 2022, I was in Shorefire Studios with drummer Steve Holley and bassist Paul Page to record the tracks that would become AmeriKarma. Included in these tracks were Live and Shadow Walk. It had been a number of years since we were in the studio together and we picked up like it was just the other day. Both Steve and Paul were very enthusiastic about recording these songs and the initial session proceeded along in a timely fashion. That is until we tried to record the basic track for Shadow Walk.

Paul, Robert & Steve

I knew in advance that Steve was knocked out by the demo because he called me about it a few days before the session. I say he was knocked out because I had never heard this kind of reaction from him for one of my demos. This blew me away. When Steve Holley talks, people listen! Lol I had very straight forward kind of rockers planned for Live and Shadow Walk because I wanted them to be different from the demos. One of the other reasons for putting out the DownTown Demos was because I didn’t think I could ever duplicate them. They were one-of-a-kind recordings. It seems that Steve had other ideas.

I had taken it for granted that Steve & Paul would listen to the demos I sent them and do their thing for the recording like they had always done in the past. Then we’d run the track down in the studio and find the right groove and tempo for it. Paul was in the pocket as usual but on Shadow Walk, Steve was intent on recreating the demo. WTF??? I really hadn’t anticipated this from him because I thought he’d hear it the same way that I did. I didn’t think there was any way a band could reproduce the demo.

Steve Holley

Steve wanted to try and try he did. There was something he was hearing but it was eluding him behind the drum kit. Paul and I looked at each other in bewilderment. Neither one of us were going to say anything to him. We plodded along until we had something on tape that we could listen to. It was the perfect point to stop for the evening and start fresh tomorrow. Let’s sleep on it and come back with fresh ears.

The next day I arrived at the studio knowing I had to take charge to get the approach I was looking for. We gathered in the control room with engineer Joe DeMaio and listened to the playback of our previous night’s work. Being the consummate pro that he is, Steve thanked me for giving him the time to try out his ideas but this was my session and he’d play what I wanted him to play on Shadow Walk. I told him the approach I was looking for and we cut the track in a couple of takes. However, Steve was not done yet.

After finishing the track and listening to it, Steve wanted to try one more idea. There was still something gnawing at him and he wanted to try an overdub on the verses. Now he goes in and takes out his tympani sticks and uses them to lay down a part on the toms. It seems totally out of left field, but when Steve is done playing, he’s created the part that nails Shadow Walk! Like I said, Steve Holley is the consummate professional and that part he played proves it. I don’t know anyone who would have thought of playing that but that’s why he’s Steve Holley. As far as I’m concerned his overdub really put the finishing touch on Shadow Walk. I know THAT wasn’t on the demo! LOL

With the basic track out of the way, the real work could begin. There are a lot of guitars on Shadow Walk and that was by design. I wanted to make them as atmospheric as possible and I would put my Jimi Hendrix knowledge to good use with a bunch of backward guitar sounds. But I needed something for the instrumental solo. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Luckily, I had an ace in the hole—Joe (hold) DeMaio to be exact! I had heard that, besides being a talented engineer, Joe was also a talented guitar player.

Joe DeMaio and SG

I had to put him to good use, so I asked him if he would try putting down something for the solo. Joe was up to the task and laid down a beautiful double slide part that sounds like the guitars are melting to me. Just a perfect sound! With the solo done we moved to the out choruses and the guitar frenzy that builds in the background. I didn’t want them to be upfront over the vocals. This sets the stage for the ending solo and once again I turned to Joe. I had brought in my 1968 Gibson SG for the job. We had been talking about Clapton and Cream and his use of the SG. Joe plays a killer solo on the end of Shadow Walk that sounds like Clapton in ’68. Even Clapton doesn’t sound like that anymore, but Joe does 🙂

The recording of Live went fairly smoothly. I knew the demo had been a bit on the slow side, so we went with a bit more energy. Paul’s bass part really sets the stage for the song, so much so, that I decided to feature it at the start of the song. The tricky part with the bass is the depth of sound you get. Pushing it to the forefront, I had to make sure the listener can hear what Paul’s playing for it to work. Then there’s the mastering process to consider because the bass sound can, and probably will, change from what we already have on it. This would be my 1st time working with Leon Zervos, who’s a world-class mastering engineer, but new to me. 

I had already recorded my lead vocals when Steve came back for a day to do harmony vocals on a few songs. When it came time for Live, we stacked his vocals and then he went into the studio to add percussion where needed. He brought out an over-sized cowbell, the name of it escapes me, and proceeded to play throughout the track. Steve would have made Christopher Walken very happy with the amount of cowbell he laid down as only Steve Holley can. 🙂

The plan was now to send a track to harmonica wiz Jerry Fierro down in Florida to record a harp track on Live. It had been 25 years since Jerry had come to Showplace Studios in Dover, NJ to cut his iconic track on Brian Jones. That had been a day of destiny for me. A harp track was the final piece I needed to complete the song and on a chance meeting at someone’s birthday party a few weeks earlier, I was asked if I could ever use a harp player. As soon as I heard the word “harp” (cool slang for harmonica) I knew I had the final piece to the puzzle that was Brian Jones. That harp player turned out to be Jerry.

Jerry Fierro

Joe DeMaio sent the track to Jerry, who sent back a sizzling harp track. The only thing left was to record a guitar track to bounce off of Jerry’s harp and add to the bluesy vibe of the track. I went with my 1964 Fender Strat to play on the track. This guitar sounds so good; it will pretty much play for you. Once I had my part, it was time to mix, and I knew this mix would take some doing.

Unlike the demos, the final mixes for both Live & Shadow Walk took months before we were ready to master. Live took around 40 mixes to complete and Shadow Walk about 30, but I think the proof is in the final product. I think that we delivered great versions of the songs that really show an evolution from the demos. A big heartfelt thanks to everybody involved. U guys ROCKED it!! 🙂

DownTown Blog – The DownTown Demos

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It seemed like an odd choice to release The DownTown Demos. I really didn’t think the sound of the demos would stack up against previous releases, mainly because they weren’t recorded in the studio. Well, technically the tracks were recorded in a studio to begin with, with the exception of Live. I did go into the studio to experiment with the Bong Bros. and cut close to 15 tracks. The results varied but I did have a blast working and recording the tracks. It was kind of like being the star of my own musical fantasy camp. Just me and my guitars alone in a recording studio, laying down as many tracks as possible.

When I was finished recording, I came home to listen to the results. There were a few tracks that I thought were very cool and decided to flesh them out a bit more, recording bass guitar and some extra guitars. I did this on my Tascam 8-Track Digital recorder, putting the studio mixes on Tks 1 & 2. This gave me 6 extra tracks to work with. Once I was finished overdubbing the extra tracks, I mixed the 8 tracks down to 2-Tk stereo. The last song I recorded was Live and that was the only song not recorded in the studio. I did it all on the 8-Tk.

One afternoon I decided to record something using the MP3 I had with beats. I got a killer guitar sound on my Stratocaster and recorded the instrumental version for Live, originally called Stratoblaster. All of the tracks sat around for a number of years until I decided to try and write lyrics and put melodies to some of them. I eventually would finish 3 of them by arranging the tracks of each song into verses and choruses. Then I would splice the parts together creating the entire song. Once again, I put the mix on Tks 1&2 of the 8-Tk, and then recorded my vocals. When I finished doing the vocals, I mixed them down to 2-Tk stereo.

1964 Strat

It was at the start of 2018 that I decided to finish writing the lyrics to The Wish, which in turn would be the starting point for the Better Day album. While working on the lyrics to The Wish I went back to my instrumental tracks and tried writing lyrics to a few of them. The 1st one would end up being Live. I thought the lyrics were very positive and life-affirming. Little did I know that about 10 months later I would be diagnosed with MDS, short for Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a pre-condition of Leukemia. As I’ve already chronicled here previously, I got a Stem Cell Transplant in May 2019, which is a cure for MDS.

The strange thing about the song Live was that I thought I wrote the lyrics after my transplant. It wasn’t until I went into my workbook when I was writing the lyrics to Shadow Walk that I saw the date for the lyrics of Live—January 2018! Talk about life imitating art!! They say that truth is stranger than fiction and here’s a case that bears that out. Somehow my subconscious was telling me I needed to have a positive frame of mind for something that was coming my way.

Shadow Walk is the other song with vocals on The DownTown Demos. I was originally going to call it Lucifer but thought that might be too provocative. I was having a bit of trouble with the lyrics until I realized the title of the instrumental track was Shadow Walk. I really like that title and in a way, it turned out to be what a song about Lucifer would be about. And no, I do not believe that Lucifer is Satan. That’s an old wive’s tale—The Fall of The Angels. He’s the Archangel with bad PR, made to be a scapegoat.

Now I know what you’re thinking because you’ve been taught that Lucifer is the Fallen Angel known as Satan. Remember, the Bible was written and compiled by humans. The fall of the angels is a metaphor to show how Lucifer lets his pride bring him down. But there’s something about the story that doesn’t ring true, which is that angels weren’t created that way. It’s a contrived story for the purposes of Religion. It’s humans who make judgments. It’s in our nature, not that of angels. The angels give selfless service to humanity. That’s why they exist. But there’s this one bad apple who rebels? Really?? I don’t think so. But I digress…

The other thing about writing a song called Lucifer was the problem of not wanting to say his name even though it’s written from his perspective. It then occurred to me to approach the song like The Stones did with Sympathy For The Devil, when Mick sings “hope you guess my name”. This gave me the idea to start the chorus with “do you know my name?” I wanted to conjure up the feeling of dread that would be present in a “shadow walk” with the music and lyrics. I try to end the song on a positive note by saying he will guide you back with his light. Lucifer means “shining light”.

If you look at the people I thank on the sleeve of the DownTown Mystic cd, you’ll notice I thank Viceroy & A Band of Angels on it. Viceroy is another name Lucifer goes by. Even he doesn’t want to say his own name because of the connotations associated with it! Shadow Walk refers to the dark side we are all capable of having. A “shadow walk” could refer to an addiction or a troubled soul. As I see it, from my experience, the Archangel Lucifer is there for humans on their “shadow walk”. He’s the Archangel of Fear and Despair, not something the other archangels raise their hands for. He holds a place for us without any judgment so that when we are ready to accept help, he’s there for us. Think about what he’s seen. It’s a scary place for sure, which is why the music is so foreboding. When it comes to the existence of “The Devil”, my sources in the Spirit Realm say it’s not so.

KoolSkool is a fun track. I had asked the Bong Bros. to create an old-school hip-hop beat for me and then played a rhythm to it on my acoustic guitar. There’s a song from years back by the Irish singer/songwriter Donovan called Goo Goo Barabajagal, which is strange enough. For some reason, the groove on KoolSkool brings Donovan’s song to my mind. When I listened to the track at home I thought I’d experiment with some lead guitars. The interesting thing for me on KoolSkool is the fact that I recorded 2 separate guitar parts that harmonize in spots with the exact same phrasing! It’s really wild because I don’t think I could have planned them that way. I remember feeling very fluid that day and just wanted to get my playing recorded. It was hearing the playback that blew my mind! LOL

The other instrumental is AcousticHeart. This is probably my favorite track from the recording sessions with the Bong Bros. and one of the few ideas I brought with me in advance. It’s a different kind of groove but it works so well, building as it goes. I’ve always liked the music and wanted to create a full song from it. After a number of attempts that fell short, I finally figured out a way to write the song. The new song is called When The Angels Sing and it’s quite special to me. The next studio album will be Biblical for sure. 🙂