LEE LUCAS
The Campfire Sessions 2013 (Jul - Dec)
The Campfire Sessions are a series of videos recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Group on Facebook. The group consists of mainly artists from Soundcloud who like to take part when they can by posting their live performances of whatever instrument they play and sing along to.
Sometimes the group will have theme or a draw, the theme could be that you are required to do a mainstream artists song such as Bob Dylan or whoever it is that week as an example, that was chosen by the members in discussion in the group. The draw is that each members name goes into a hat, and is drawn out in pairs, and the two drawn out or paired together will have to do one of the other persons own written songs, so it makes it an interesting challenge.
You can of coarse just decide to do something you want to do yourself such as one of your own songs as an example, and no pressure is put upon you to take part in what the other members do in the group, but I feel it's a good thing to join in and keep the spirit in the community of the group, and it's great to see how others go about doing their fine live renditions.
Crazt World (A Song By Steve Manuel Acoustically Arranged)
Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night 15th October 2013.
Crazy World is one hell of a great song by Steve Manuel and must admit with all the goodness of fine instrumentation he has got in the studio version including his great voice, doing an acoustic version of the fine song is never really gonna cut the mustard. But here is my acoustic interpretation of it.
Not so much of the Creaky Floorboards on this one, and they were perhaps like me a bit stiff (LOL)
Crazy World (Words & Music by S. Manuel)
This Hole In My Heart (Original Song)
Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night Campfire a day late on the 23rd October 2013.
This is a song I wrote back in 1995 and is one I never ever recorded before, not even as a demo just so I could remember it. It's a simple song and the words are very fictional, though they may well have been inspired from various friends relationships that had broke down around the time.
I am quite amazed I still remember the words for this one, as I have not played it in donkeys years, and the lyrics I only had written down on a piece of paper very much disappeared in the same year I wrote them. So today it gets its first airing.
This Hole In My Heart (Words & Music By L. C. Lucas)
My MY Hey Hey (Oit Of The Blue)
Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night Campfire 29th October 2013.
Another one of Neil Young's classics this week and a great acoustic song that kicks off his great 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. Neil has wrote many of class songs over his career and done some truly great albums and this one of his is on the top list of my faves along with the albums After The Gold Rush and Harvest.
Devil Baby (Mark Knopfler Acoustic Cover)
Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night Campfire 5th November 2013.
Devil Baby is a fine song from Knopfler's 2002 album The Ragpicker's Dream. Mark has done some solid albums since his days with Dire Straits and although his material is perhaps less raunchy it's never the less still well good. What I often find about his solo material is that he has put a lot more into his lyric writing and many of them are very well crafted with fine stories.
Hearts (Iain Matthews Cover Arranged)
Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night 8th October 2013.
Another song from Iain's 1971 album If You Saw Thru My Eyes. I actually recorded this one last week and on the morning of Tuesday 1st Octoberalog with the Creaky Floorboards and was going to put this out but knew my Bro was coming over in the evening so I decided to stick Little Known out first.
Hearts is a great ballad of a song of Ian's and originally played in the key of A. The original is also played with more pace than my version here to which I arranged acoustically in the key of D. The original song is also backed on the harmonies by the great late Sandy Denny who also accompanies Iain on piano too.
Maybe It's Not Much Of A Christmas (original song)
Recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Campfire on Christmas Eve 2013. Posted on Christmas Day.
Maybe It's Not Much Of A Christmas is a new song I wrote on my 54th Birthday on the 13th December 2013. The song is very much a Christmas song and reflects the bad year 2013 has brought to me and my family and the loss of my son earlier this year. The video was shot on my mobile phone last night and edited today on Christmas day for the campfire.
Little Known (Iain Matthews Cover)
IRecorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night 1st October 2013.
No creaky floorboards this week and a cover of an Iain Matthews song entitled Little Known from his 1971 album If You Saw Thru My Eyes. It's very much one of my all time favourite albums and it's the very first time I have played this song. As a rule I always singed this one only whilst my brother Martin played it. Martin popped round and we recorded the video on my phone in the kitchen.
Twist & Shout (My Acoustic Arrangement)
Recorded on my mobile phone and edited in Cubase on Tuesday the 24th September 2013 for Tuesday's Open Mic Night.
This week see Lee & The Creaky Floorboards doing his own version and arrangement of The Beatles classic hit Twist & Shout.
I must admit I do not own one single Beatles record and they have never really enticed me to buy them at all. I was much more of a stones fan myself back in those days. But these days I do not mind hearing them one bit on the Jukebox in my local pub and this song of theirs I very much arranged like this and have always played it like this for a good 10 years now.
Sorry That The World Didn't End Last Night (Arranged)
Recorded on my mobile phone and edited in Cubase on Tuesday the 17th September 2013 for Tuesday's Open Mic Night.
Sorry That The World Didn't End Last Night is a song written by Pravinand Maharaj formerly known on Soundcloud as Johnny Minstrel. Johnny writes great songs with great words and this is one of those I chose of his to do this week.
Must admit I would of liked to have done this without the Capo which would of been better for my voice to sing it, but being as my C and G Harps are pretty much knackered and I need new ones, I had to use an A Harp with the Capo on the 2nd Fret.
Breathe (Pink Floyd Acoustic Arrangement)
Recorded on my mobile phone and edited in Cubase on Tuesday the 10th September 2013 for Tuesday's Open Mic Night.
Lee and The Creaky Floorboards takes on a classic song from Pink Floyd's classic 1973 album Dark Side Of The Moon. Must admit I rushed this one out and never got the mix right and went a bit to overboard on it. I also never had any time to sort out any really cool visuals for it either.
It was also the very first time I have ever played it in this way by adding in the Reprise section of the song which comes after Time on the album. Considering it was not rehearsed I felt it came out quite OK on that score. But would of really liked to have done it again if I had the time to do so, before putting out this live shot at it.
Mary Rosso (A Song By Return To Normal Arranged)
Recorded on my mobile phone and edited in Cubase on Monday the 2nd September 2013 for Tuesday's Open Mic Night.
Lee and The Creaky Floorboards are back with another cover of an SC artists song, and this is one from the fabulous couple Marty & Corinne Lucas formerly known as Return To Normal.
Mary Rosso is a fabulous song from their 2nd album Blinking in the Brackens. It's an album I have in my collection and a purely solid one at that with all the great songs upon it. These guys craft out fabulous songs in my book. If you have not got this album then I highly recommend it. Not trying to plug it for the guys here, but it really is a superb album.
Freebird (Acoustic Cover)
Recorded on my mobile phone and edited in Cubase on Monday the 26th August 2013 for Tuesday's Open Mic Night.
Freebird is a classic song originally done by Lynyrd Skynyrd back in 1971 and released on their debut album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)
It's very much a song I have not played in ages, well not since my good friend Robbo (who was the lead guitarist in the band I was in) died a few years back now. In reality it's a song that needs a lead guitarist to really make it work, and me and Robbo jammed this one many of nights, and he could play the lead work on this song spot on I can assure you, something that is not a part of my speciality at all, being just a guy who plays and sings the odd song on the guitar along with the rhythm now and then.
So this acoustic version is never really gonna be anything remotely near that exiting, and it reality it's a very simple song to play for a rhythm player. But also in reality most of the best ones are, and this was certainly one classic of a song done by Lynyrd Skynyrd that certainly made its mark in history.
I can also remember my hands being in bits playing over and over those 3 chords at the end whilst Robbo done the biz. Here's to you Robbo my old friend up there, and maybe he's a Freebird now.
I Don't Wanna Talk About It (Arranged Cover)
Recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Campfire Monday 19th August on my phone and mixed in Cubase.
A bit of a rush job this one to get done for the Open Mic Night Campfire with having a lot on and being extremely busy. Must admit I have played this song for some years now and I know for a fact that this is a long way from how I know I can do this one, but for the Campfire If felt it will just have to do.
"I Don't Wanna Talk About It" was originally written by singer songwriter Danny Whitten back in 1970 who was the singer and rhythm guitarist for the band Crazy Horse to which Neil Young was part of. It was released on the band's first debut album back in 1971, to which they only made 2 albums without Young.
Rod Stewart made it more popular in 1975 when it appeared on his album Atlantic Crossing and it was put out as single in 1977 to which he had a UK Number 1 hit with it. It's a song I have always liked done by Rod and I have heard nobody do a finer job of it than what he done.
Yeah But It's A Good Night (A Song By Gary Sunshine Arranged)
Recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Campfire Sunday 11th August on my phone and mixed in Cubase.
I must admit I am fond lover of Gary's fine songs, and quite fan of him to be honest. He as the knack to be able to craft out damn fine songs with an hard edge and true grit, and you always get a great story along the path of them with his great words.
Gary has a superb edge to his voice, and I must admit it's quite a task to try and emulate, and it's also very hard for me to even do a lot of his songs on that score. I have many faves of his fine songs I would put above this one here, which I would of loved to have done, but for the life of me I just cannot get my voice to work around them.
"Yeah But It's A Good Night" is certainly one of his great songs and it comes from his brilliant debut album "The Nerve Of Some People". It's perhaps one that was a lot easier for me to get to grips with regarding singing it, and here I just stripped it down basically and done a simple acoustic arrangement of it, and threw in a bit of additives to round it all off.
Yeah It's A God Night (Written by Gary Sunshine)
Performed by Lee Lucas & The Creaky floorboards.
Old Man (Live)
My rendition of the Neil Young classic song that as always been my all time fave of his songs. The video itself was recorded on my Samsung Galaxy S3 Mobile Phone and was shot in my bedroom on Friday the 2nd August. The footage comes with the sound of the traffic outside as it was quite an hot day and the bedroom window was open. It also comes with the sound of creaky floorboards as I moved about during the performance.
This was the very first time I had ever used my phone to record a video, and I must say I was quite impressed with the overall sound quality from the S3. I was even more impressed having exported the audio into Cubase and applied a bit of EQ and reverb to give it a lift and get an authentic live sound.
I must confess I am a big fan of Neil Young and I have been playing his songs for many years now, but never ever recorded one until this one, and the end result even surprised me, and I was well chuffed by this performance and the mix I got here.
The video footage itself I decided to add a few graphic FX and a rolling train, as in the words of the song "rolling home to you" It's far from perfect and in reality I should of used my more top flight video editor to be able to cut out all the bedroom scenery and leave myself just in the picture.
Another thing you will always notice with a lot of my video's is the fact that the majority of them are done with either cartoon FX and graphic FX rather than show the actual footage. There is a reason for this, and that is that I have a nasty habit of sticking my tongue out for some reason, its' most likely a concentration thing with me. So I always apply FX to the footage to hide that, but you can actually see me stick my tongue out still on this footage, but it would not be nowhere near as bad had I actually put the actual footage up.
Nice To Almost Know You (A Song By Steph Casey Arranged)
Having recently purchased Steph Casey's brilliant new debut album Whisper & Holler I decided to do my own acoustic version of my favourite song from the alum "Nice To Almost Know You". It's very much a song I have listened to loads of times along with all the other purely fantastic tracks on the album.
It's also very much a song that as quite a lot of other elements of fine instrumentation on the studio version that was never ever gonna be captured by just me and my acoustic guitar. So what you are seeing here is basically the raw bones of the song with all its rawness about it.
The video was taken in my bedroom with my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. I was not overall impressed by the audio from this device, but managed to get a decent enough LoFi mix by exporting the audio in Cubase to mix. I certainly would not consider using this device again to do such a thing with, and it really is poor in comparison to the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mobile Phone.
Once again the footage comes with outside traffic from the bedroom window being open, and creaky floorboards, even more so on this footage, as I must of stood on the creakiest part of the house, and it sounded like an array of fireworks going off.