I heard Rosanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache” on the radio the other day, and it killed me how good it was. Rosanne wrote the song, and Rodney Crowell produced it^[1] (who I hope to meet at the 2010 Songwriter’s Symposium in Austin next month). It’s just a phenomenal song that holds up just as well today as it did when it when it hit #1 on the country charts in 1981. Right off the bat it subtly and gently beats you over the head with a killer melody coming out of the warmest 80’s synth you’ve ever heard (are you responsible for this, Rodney? If so, NICE). Right out of that, the verse comes in, and Rosanne nails the colorful and yet somehow vague lyrics with such swagger that you’ve floated into the heart-wrenching chorus before even knowing it. One of the things I think is so great about this song, other than the melody and the performance, is that you know exactly what the song is about from the title, but the verses dance all around “You #$%* cheated on me, you $%#*!” without spelling things out so specifically. Instead, broad strokes of scenes and situations are allowed to float around in your brain, allowing the listener to patch the story together.

When I started off working on this one, I was going to sing it myself (like I normally do), so I transposed it down (or up) to E from C, because that’s where my voice was comfortable. But then my wife, Dixie, volunteered, so we tried it out. The vocal is at the very top of her range, but she pulled it off. The quality of her voice is way different than Rosanne’s take, of course, and due to the key it seems a little high for the song, but I’m proud of her for knocking it out.  It was fun to play the role of producer for someone else, too. I played on the midi piano a LOT on this one, from the synths to the rhythm piano to the drum sequencing, and I feel like I’m understanding it better than ever. Inverting chords and playing in different keys and such. Then I tracked bass, guitar and vocals and a little lead-ish guitar to fill in for where the steel solo was in the original.

Mixing is still a challenge for me. I don’t have monitors or even a pair of decent headphones, so this was done mostly through crappy headphones and some Dell computer speakers. Atrocious, I know, but it’s what I have for now. I did try to work with this Redline Monitor plug-in that I found to try to compensate for doing headphone mixes, and going back and forth between using that and not using it helped a bit, I think, but it’s still muddy and too bright in places, among other issues. Overall, I’m happy with how this study turned out, though.

A friend of mine suggested I learn Randy Travis’s version of “Forever and Ever, Amen,” and being as it was a song I already had thought of learning, it seemed like a good fit for my next song study. This #1 hit was written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz^[1], a duo with an impressive songwriting resume. Another #1 the duo penned together is Keith Whitley’s “When You Say Nothing at All,” which I swear has been stuck in my head ever since rediscovering it as I was learning “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.”

From the religious “Amen” at the end of the chorus to the theme of a playboy straightened out after meeting the right woman, “Forever and Ever, Amen” is full of emotional hooks aimed right at the country and western audience. Can you imagine the girls hearing young Randy Travis telling them he’s going to love them even after their hair falls out? I imagine there was more than one who couldn’t handle it. Even Dolly Parton seemed pretty smitten when Randy came onto the scene.

One of the things about this song that I’ve found notable is just how smooth it is. It comes in, runs its verse-chorus, verse-chorus course, repeats the last line, and is over. There isn’t too much in the way of dynamics. Or there is a lot, from the electric guitar, dobro and steel to the background vocals, but they’re so subtle in relation to the bopping backbeat that it feels pretty one-level. Yet its story, its singalongability and Randy’s delivery just sold it all the way.

One interesting thing I noticed in this song is that one of the hooks involves a change to the II chord in the verse.  I feel like those slightly-less-than-expected changes really work to make a melody that’s interesting and holds the listeners’ attention. I tend to write from the vocal melody first, just filling the accompaniment chords in as support for the melody I’ve dreamed up. I wonder, though, if throwing a II or a VII chord into the mix in the middle of a verse might help out the melody and the song.

Anyway, here’s a pretty rough cut of “Forever and Ever, Amen.”

I was drinking a bourbon while I was recording this song, which seems rather appropriate as ol’ Keith Whitley was a noted alcoholic and ultimately met an unfortunate and early death on account of alcohol poisoning^[1]. Maybe that’s how he got such a rich sounding voice… but even as perfect a country voice as his was, it couldn’t have been worth it to check out early at 34.

Considering his lifestyle, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain” seems like a perfect fit for Keith. The theme is undoubtedly dark, almost relentlessly so in the bridge, until there’s a little glimmer of hope in the third verse. But even that slight turn of hope is clearly in line with the reckless side that ultimately got him. The song has a happy-go-lucky bounce that provides a nice contrast to its darkness, but if you’re thinking about it, even that seems akin to a false drunken smile. Put it all together, though, and the song is solid. That’s one of the things that I love about pop music. While the theme of a song, specific passages of lyrics or the music might not be individually captivating in their own right, when put together in the right way, something truly special can be created. I think this song is one such example.

It’s sung in E, so I put a capo on the second fret and played it in D. There’s some really beautiful acoustic guitar featured at the beginning of the song that I kind of hinted at in my version, but I didn’t bother to learn it note-for-note. Most of the song is standard I, IV, V chords, but the inclusion of a switch to the VII adds some really nice tension and helps to keep this song interesting.

Keith’s voice is really warbly; he’s just all over the place but somehow always in key. I found it hard to recreate a lot of what he does in his version that is so great. It was interesting to note all his dips, scoops and jumps, though. It’s really a phenomenal vocal performance, and it was definitely appreciated, landing him and the songwriters Ron Hellard and Sonny Curtis a #1 hit.

A strange thing happened last night. Some folks must have read my blog, because I awoke this morning to find a bunch of song suggestions in my email inbox. One of them was from my Dad, who requested/suggested “City of New Orleans,” as performed (I assume) by Willie Nelson, one of his favorites. Another one was from an old friend of mine from high school, Mike “kindofabig” Deal, who I’m guessing found the blog through one of my facebook posts. One of Mike’s suggestions was “You Never Even Call Me By My Name,” as performed by David Allen Coe.

According to the only pseudo-reference source I’ve used for this blog so far, Wikipedia, Steve Goodman broke into the music industry after pitching “City of New Orleans” to Arlo Guthrie one night in a Chicago bar^[1]. Arlo liked it so much he recorded it, it became a hit for him, and the song was soon a country standard, with Willie Nelson’s version charting #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles in 1984. Steve didn’t have too much commercial songwriting success after “City of New Orleans,” save one other song that he co-wrote with John Prine^[2], “You Never Even Call Me By My Name.” Kind of a two hit wonder, I suppose, and both songs hit my inbox last night. Weird.

Anyway, I took a shot at learning “City of New Orleans.” I’ll learn the other one (notice how I didn’t use its name) next. “City of New Orleans” reminded me of a board game in that it took minutes to learn, but could take a lifetime to master. The chords are pretty basic. I played it in G, with a capo on the 5th fret, so I guess I sung it in B. The only curve ball is a B-flat chord on the chorus. Other than that there are several quick changes that are hard to get right. I miss a couple in different places each time I play the song, anyway. Vocally, the song chugs along, appropriately enough, but the lyrics are pretty dense and easy to stumble over. The lyrics are perfect for the time and for country music; train songs are pretty classic and this is one with a dose of nostalgia for fading Americana thrown in. It’s easy to see why from the moment he played it for Arlo, “City of New Orleans” became an instant classic.

This song is a perfect definition of a classic golden-age country song. Written by Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser, and first recorded by Stafford in 1973^[1], the song charted a handful of times before really landing a hit recording with George Strait’s version in 1983. From the song’s structure to its subject and delivery, “Amarillo by Morning” is just straight-up (no pun intended) good country music.

The verse–pre-chorus–chorus structure is repeated twice, then a third time modulated up a step. That modulation is wonderful, and is something that I feel is lacking in a lot of more contemporary songwriting, as if it went out of style. Another structural note about this song: I really like how the verses flow back into just one basic progression for the breaks before the verses.

The song is an easy strummer in D until the modulation, though, where it throws you a G#m and a B7, which, while still basic chords, aren’t ones that I play every day, so I had to gently remind my hands that they knew how to hit those changes. But after a couple of run-throughs, I had it. Vocally this wasn’t a challenging song for me. While my performance wasn’t anywhere near as good as Mr. Strait’s, it’s a comfortable song for my range, so I didn’t have to work too hard for it. Maybe I should have, though…