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The Campfire Sessions 2014 (Jan - Jun)

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.

Thick As A Duck With A Bit Of Ling (Jethro Tull Thingy)

Recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Campfire Tuesday 18th Fevruary 2014.

 

Recorded on my mobile phone yesterday evening and edited today for the Campfire. I have always been a big fan of Jethro Tull and Thick As A Brick as always been my ultimate album of theirs. This 9 minute live performance is far from perfect and with the use of improvisation in between parts I have managed to stitch an arrangement of Thick As A Brick with One White Duck On A Wall and a touch of Aqualung together.

Slidin' Rory (Not Gallagher But Tosh)

Recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Campfire on Tuesday 4th March 2014.

 

This one I dedicated to dedicate to my good friend who takes part in the Campfire and plays a very nice slide guitar on quite a few of his posts to the campfire. This is a simple improvisation and done right from the top of my head including the words that come out of it. Though it is in fact done in 2 parts as I done 2 takes and both had different starts and endings and as the first one I done the words that came out of my head were a bit naff, and I felt in the second one there was no more words and just guitar playing, so I made this out of two half's of two sessions.

 

The reason I thought of Rory is down to the fact that I myself have never had a Slide for my guitar and never really bothered getting one to have a go. So I thought I would show Rory my own slide technique played with my finger. Not as good as Rory of coarse but was fun doing it, and this one's for you Rory mate...

Driven By Dirt (original song)

Recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Campfire on Tuesday 25th March 2014.

 

Driven By Dirt is my latest composition done on the guitar. The song came to me really quick and really was just a matter of picking up my guitar one day and playing a group of chords in the way of a Rif that happened enough to like to write a set of words for it. The video is really the bare bones of the song and it's one that I shall work on later for a studio version with more instrumentation such as electric guitars, bass, drums and harmonica. The video was shot on my phone

The Green Green Grass Of Home (Cover)

Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Campfire on Tuesday 15th April 2014.

 

The Green Green Grass Of Home is a super ballad of a song done by Tom Jones way back 60's. It's really one of those simple songs to play that goes to show how some of the finest songs ever made are really all very simple to do. Here is my simple arrangement of the song and I hope you enjoy...

When I Want You (Original Demo Of A Demo 20 Years Later)

Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night Campfire on Tuesday the 20th May 2014.

This is an acoustic version of a song I recorded as a demo 20 years ago on an electric guitar back in 1994. Back then all the words I sang on that demo were from the top of my head, and no words have been written for it even now, and in this version once again the words are from the top of my head.

 

The main reason for never writing any words for this one is because I intend for it to be done with more instrumentation in the way of a band, and just like originally did with my other song Oldtime Street which was also done in the same year. I want it to start off acoustically and then the drums come in and kick it off with electric guitars.

I Am A Child (Neil Young Cover)

Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Campfire on Tuesday 22nd April 2014.

 

"I Am A Child" is a lovely one of Neil's early written songs which he wrote way back in 1968 whilst he was with the band Buffalo Springfield. The song appeared on the final album of 3 he done with them and the title of the album it came from was "The Last Time Around" though the album was in fact put together after they had disbanded.

 

My own rendition here will never cut the mustard with Neil that is for sure, but it's certainly another one of his finest songs and a lovely song to play. I did not spend a lot of time with the visuals for the video here so they might not be that fitting with the song and all was just really thrown together, but anyway I hope you enjoy...

One (U2 Cover)

Recorded for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Night Campfire on Tuesday the 6th May 2014.

This is my acoustic arranged version of U2's classic song "One" and my all time fave of songs from the band. Must admit I am not a major fan of this band and this was in fact the only record I ever brought of them when it came out.

This performance also lacks big style as I never learnt the words and had to spend most of the time looking at them written down on a piece of paper, but at least I can only get to murder one of their songs (LOL)

1,000 x (original song)

Recorded for the Tuesday Open Mic Night Campfire on Tuesday 21st January 2014.

 

A 1,000 X is a new short song which I started to write on Sunday couple of days ago and got the chance to finish off the lyrics today. The song was videoed via my mobile on the same evening and edited in Cubase and my Video editor.

Biko (Peter Gariel Cover)

Recorded late for the Tuesday Night Open Mic Campfire on Wednesday 18th June 2014.

Lee is back this week with his creaky floorboards and cleanly shaven for the first time since he was 16 years old. The video was edited and posted today on the 19th June 2014.

I have always been a fan of Peter Gabriel and his song Biko dedicated to Stephen Biko is regarded as his anthem and often ends his live shows with it. Armed with only an acoustic guitar and no array of percussion to put the song over, this is my acoustic version of the fine song.ctric guitars.

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