"Sunny, I Was Wrong" earliest demo

Friends,

Sorry for the absence. I was on tour in USA for a couple weeks, and then came back to Canada & started preparing for our June 6 full band show in Toronto. Had been a while since I played a gig with a full band, but I had not forgotten how much energy I expend getting it all together. Lucky for me (and for whomever got to see the band gig), I played with some musicians who—to a person—make me look like the cowboy-chord songwriter I am.

Yours truly in NYC, doing some recording for an upcoming session for No Depression magazine. Not sure who took the photo.

I hope to be doing more touring the near future. The ONLY possible impediment to touring is money. It’s a drag, but that’s how it goes.

You may purchase a copy of the LP here.

A shot off the roll from the LP cover photo shoot. The photo was taken by Colleen Nicholson.

Back to business. I’m including the earliest demo of the title track to my new album.

If you listen to the demo and know the LP version, you’ll notice the latter has been truncated a fair amount. It ends after the single accurence of the chorus. The demo version includes an intended lead break section (over a verse chord progression), and a second chorus.

Listening back to the demo after having written/recorded it, I was pretty sure the song had said all it had to say after the first chorus. The lead break and second chorus seemed like a hat on a hat. I still think shrinking the song was the right move, but listening this morning I think the right instrumental break followed by a second chorus wouldn’t have capsized the album. Might do my songs a bit of good to let them spread out and breathe a bit. I find I’m letting my new, yet-to-be-tracked songs do just that. So I guess I am living and learning.

The version included today was tracked to logic. Pretty sure I used a click track. I know that because my timing is not all over the shop. I played a Taylor acoustic guitar that I have since sold because I have three other guitars that make basically the same sound. And I used the dough from the sale to pay for some of the mixing of the LP proper. The serpent ate its own tail.

It’s a decent demo, if not a bit slow.

I’ll be back very soon with a few more posts to make up for my absence while touring/playing live. But tomorrow I am vanishing into some Ontario bush country with some likeminded weirdos. It’s going to rain the whole time, and I can’t wait.

As always, thanks for listening.

Take care of yourselves and those around.

JP