It is with sadness that I learnt of the death of Mark Linkous today – some of the music he recorded as ‘Sparklehorse’ provided much inspiration for me.
Below is a cover of one of his songs ‘Happy Man’ I recorded a few years ago with Iain Macleod on banjo. Aplogise for the slight american twang in my delivery, it was a few years back when I was still finding my voice!
http://pitchfork.com/news/38114-rip-sparklehorses-mark-linkous/
photo by Lisa Robins
photo by John Gower
photo by Lisa Robins
photo by Lisa Robins
Well perhaps more ‘uploaded’ than ‘launched’ but what the hey… you can now hear and download it. I have just had an almond slice to celebrate.
The cd will be available in the new year, in the meantime you can order it from bandcamp and get an immediate download of the album included in the price.
It features the talents of Barbara Bartz, Iain Macleod, Joe Allen, Lawrence Williams, Ben Oliver, Beth Dariti, Madelaine Hart, Victoria Couper, Tom Pie and me. Full credits on bandcamp.
1. Younger Looking Skin 05:31
2. Till Dawn 04:21
3. I Love Leonard Cohen 04:00
4. The Suitors Ballyhoo 04:56
5. Montreal 04:38
6. Shakes & Shudders 04:59
7. Ninety Days 03:36
8. Roses From Africa 05:15
A few more photos of rehearsing action from the blue door – this time a rehearsal inside.
Amy is doing her playing three instruments at once thang… who’d have thought you could play a glockenspiele with one foot whilst on bass and tambourine too!
Photos from Barbara’s blog – http://basiabartz.blogspot.com/2009/09/music-music-music.html
As well as being quite the violin player, Barbara is also big into her photography. Here are some shots she took a while back of a rehearsal we had on the roof of my studio.
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Last month I spent another day recording with the wonderful Dean Firth but this time I brought some friends along.
My favourite take of the day was this cover of ‘Golden Brown’ by The Stranglers which I have uploaded for your listening pleasure here – http://www.robingrey.com/mp3/goldenbrown.mp3
I am hoping to do much more live recording work like this. Capturing a live performance with an ensemble is such a different experience to over dubbing instruments in my little studio!
Christian Lewcock – Percussion and Backing Vocals
Iain Macleod – Banjo and Backing Vocals
Barbara Bartz – Violin
Dean Firth – Electric Bass
Annabel took a few shots of me and Iain when we were down in Herne Hill a few weeks back. This is my favourite. More of her work can be seen here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/annabelvere
