Dennis Ferraro of the University of Nebraska has released a new CD of field recordings, “Frog Calls of Nebraska”. From Extension.
Herpetologist Dennis Ferraro says frog songs are all about attracting a mate. Male frogs produce a simple bass line to say they’re in their own territory and a higher-pitched melody to coax females to come over.
Sounds like the frogs have a pretty good formula there. Actually, it doesn’t seem all that different than how James Brown put a song together.
Dennis looks like he’s having fun there. Click here to listen to a sample of the Plains Spadefoot Toad.
A lot of people have been asking me when I’m going to release some new music. Long story short-I’ve got a stack of songs, I haven’t done any “deal” shopping (meaning either some kind of label or publishing agreement) so, it’s a question of how is the best way of going about it while making sure I have quality recordings and, at the same time, keeping my costs down.
The plan is to record one song at a time and do a series of digital only releases. Which is really what I’ve wanted to do all along, approach each song as a “single” while recording it, as opposed to thinking of it as one piece of a larger puzzle.
Anyway, I’m going up to Lou’s on Saturday morning to cut a song. Lloyd is going to come in and play drums so, it will be just the three of us on the floor. Right now, we’re talking about a blues that I wrote a while ago, “Market Street” but, I reserve the right to make a last minute change of direction.
I don’t know what the turn-around time on this is going to be because, we haven’t done this before.
I was listening to this Flatt and Scruggs record, “The Complete Mercury Recordings”, the other day.
I noticed something that I never noticed before. Many of these songs feature vocals and there are instrumental solos in between verses or choruses. A lot of them are in 4/4 or 2/4 time, depending on how you count it. I’ve known different people that insist on one or the other.
Anyway, after the solo, there is an extra measure (if you count it in 2/4) or, a half measure or a measure of 2/4 (if you are counting in 4/4) before the singer comes back in. It’s a little structural stutter step. They didn’t just do it some of the time, they did it most of the time.
Coincidentally, I saw an old clip of Flat and Scruggs, the same day and, sure enough that extra two beats was in there after every solo. In the live setting they were getting the “audience acknowledges the solo applause” at these points. Now, on the record there is no audience so, I’m wondering if they put that in there for the purpose of leaving a little space for the crowd to respond.
You know I’m not a bluegrass guy so, maybe all those guys do this and I just now noticed it. Or, is this a Flatt and Scruggs deal?
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