Recording my new CD again!

So what does Mr. Billy do when he's on tour and has gigs on the weekends but no shows Monday to Thursday? MAKE ANOTHER CD!

The plan was to record one or TWO, new CDs while we were on tour here in North Carolina, but something went horribly wrong with my last CD, somewhere between mixing and mastering, the whole thing sounded very bad...and (I have no idea how) it went to CD Baby and iTunes like that!!!!! Nooooooooo!

I think this was the first time I actually let my 12 CD deadline affect the quality of my work. My bad. So, I am re-recording the entire CD, yep! I will not release junk just to make the deadline.

So Wil and I spent the day at the transportation museum where our gear is and recorded new tracks for the last CD and even some tracks for the next CD "BOOGALOO ZOO".

Here is a video of what we did today (BTW, it's the first videoI ever edited in iMove), hope you like it, comments?

Zoo animals love my new lyrics, how about you?

Zoo animals talk about my new song by BillyGrisack on GoAnimate


Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Just wrote this in my motel. title track for the next CD.

Here are the lyrics, music to follow soon...thoughts, comments?


Boogaloo Zoo
By William Charles Grisack III (c) September 2012

Boogaloo Zoo, Boogaloo Zoo
Looking at the animals watching what they do
At the Boogaloo Zoo, Boogaloo Zoo
Lets try to match and mimic, me and you!
Here we go...

Move like an elephant
Swing your trunk from side to side
Wiggle your floppy ears
Take a villager for a ride
Jump like a kangaroo
Bouncing north and south
With a baby “Joey”
Hiding safely in your pouch!

Boogaloo Zoo, Boogaloo Zoo
Looking at the animals watching what they do
At the Boogaloo Zoo, Boogaloo Zoo
Lets try to match and mimic, me and you!
Here we go...

Swing like a monkey
Going from vine to vine
Grab a banana
You eat ‘em all the time
Listen, you’re a lion
Make is mighty roar!
Show your teeth like the king of beast
And then you roar some more!

Boogaloo Zoo, Boogaloo Zoo
Looking at the animals watching what they do
At the Boogaloo Zoo, Boogaloo Zoo
Lets try to match and mimic, me and you!
Here we go...

Like a Boa Constrictor 
Hiss up in the trees
What a powerful snake you are
Show me how you squeeze
Now try to hold your head up
As high as that giraffe 
I wonder with a neck that long
What you’d sound like if you laughed?

Talk Like a Pirate Day Video!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is next week (9/19/12)! To get in the mood, check out this new video for the song I wrote with me scurvy mate, Monty Harper!

Not only that, but we have put five piratical songs together in a package you can download for just $2 on BandCamp CLICK NOW!

Please enjoy Talk Like a Pirate Day, and share with your shipmates!

Mixing, mastering and making lemonade

I'm so excited, I'm actually mixing and mastering my new CD called "A Boy and His Guitar". If all goes well by the weekend I should have it uploaded to my distributor and manufacturer and it should be for sale on the Internet sometime next week.

After I'm done with this project, I plan to take a few days off before I leave for my next four of North Carolina. I'll be doing two weeks with Thomas the Train. This will be my last "A Day Out with Thomas" event for 2012.

Once I get to North Carolina I'll begin production on the next CD called "Boogaloo Zoo" a collection of songs about animals.

I'll talk more about that CD later, but here is the list of songs that will be on the new CD. The unusual thing is about this CD project is that I've actually been playing many of the songs live for a while… Usually I write the CDs and try to figure out what will work out well live and then I start performing them. I keep the songs that work out, the songs that don't work out I drop (this is why many fans of the song super monkey have never heard it live, just doesn't go over well… Sorry). Anyway here's the list of songs that made the final cut.

1. A Boy and His Guitar
2. Roar Like a Dinosaur
3. How Much is That Doggie in the Window?
4. A Green Day (March 17)
5. Brick House
6. Blackbird
7. Talk Like a Pirate
8. You Tube World (My Video Camera)
9. Chores, Chores, Chores
10. Hush Little Alien
11. A Pirate Song
12. Lemonade Stand

Before I go let me share one more song with you, the song is called "lemonade stand". I got the idea for this song when I was thinking about things that kids enjoy doing. One thing I remember is that my kids used to love setting up lemonade stands. Then I found an interesting story about a boy from Detroit who set up a lemonade stand to raise money to help save his city, amazing. You can read about here, click this link.

I then asked my friend Dave Kinnoin if he would be interested in taking a shot at this topic. One night while he was on the road he recorded a wonderful demo in a Motel 6. And I've got to tell you, the demo was so awesome I had no idea if I could even come close to matching the emotion, passion and storytelling he achieved in that cheap hotel. But I did my best and Dave and my wife both cried. I don't really want you to cry… But I hope you like it. Here is my last free sample from the CD, comments?

LEMONADE STAND

words and music by Dave Kinnoin

©2012 Song Wizard Music (ASCAP)

verse one:

It is easy—take some lemons,

Cut ‘em and squeeze out a cup of juice,

Add a cup of sugar and five cups of water,

Add ice, stir it up.

verse  two:

Not so easy—take some bad stuff. (misfortune?)

Something I don’t like that makes me sad.

Add a friend who listens and says they’re sorry.

Add hugs as I shake.  Pretty soon, it’s time to take…

chorus:

My lemonade stand-- I’ll sweeten the sour.

My lemonade stand.  In this uncertain hour,

I won’t give up--

I’ll let hope take my hand

As I take my lemonade stand.

verse three:

Dad’s not working.  He’s been looking

For a new job that I hope he gets.

Goes out every morning and smiles at the sunrise

He’s strong, very brave.

verse four:

I have lemons, I have sugar,

Plenty of water and paper cups.

Made a quirky sign: QUICK QUENCH FOR A QUARTER.

I smile at passersby.  Oh, well, it’s worth a try.

(repeat chorus)

bridge:

Dad comes home, and he has some leads.

Goes to the kitchen, sees those lemon seeds,

And he hugs me, and I hug him.

last chorus:

Our lemonade stand-- We’ll sweeten the sour.

Our lemonade stand.  In this uncertain hour,

We won’t give up--

We’ll let hope take our hand

As we take our lemonade stand.

Our lemonade stand.

Judge a CD by it's Cover?

Yes William, a rose by any other name still would smell sweet, but would anyone pick it up and sniff if it looked like a dung beetle?

I've experienced this phenomenon firsthand. One of my better CDs that was recorded long ago had what I thought was a wonderful cover, but it just never sold very well while other CDs next to it that featured dancing bananas, monkeys, animals, trains… Stuff that kids really liked went flying off the shelves. 

Yes, you think I would know the importance of artwork when it comes to CD sales and getting attention. I did all the artwork for my new CD "A Boy and His Guitar" before I reported a note. However… I knew from the start it was going to be an all acoustic guitar CD, so why did I draw myself holding a red electric guitar??? See...

I have at least one friend who would pick that up right away and start sending e-mails and messages about how if kids here are an acoustic guitar they should see an acoustic guitar, not an electric guitar on the cover.

I thought about this last night and while the family watched my son play heavy rain on his PS3 I reviewed the artwork, but I kept the guitar red, I think it works. What do you think?

Before you go, here's another song from the new CD. This is a song by me, Oliver and Dave Kinnoin about the joy of doing chores, kinda. There still needs to be some editing done to this track, some of the cuts are uneven and the effects seem a little too deep. But overall, I really like this song. Hope you like it too…

My next CD is a bit out of my comfort zone

"A Boy and His guitar", the CD that I'm finishing hopefully today, was supposed to be a simple little in and out collection of acoustic guitar and voice songs. Something to help me get back on track after my non-stop crazy summer.

But the old Mr. Billy slowly began creeping in and I started to overproduce the tracks adding extra guitars, harmony vocals and even (gasp!) percussion parts! This was not the manifesto for love next step in my musical madness marathon.

You see, even though there are a lot of people out there that say they like my voice and think I'm a good singer, frankly my singing kind of frightens me. I like it just fine when there are many distractions, like cool guitars, big drums, sound effects and…autotune! But once I striped all that away my insecurity came back with a vengence.

Honestly, it wasn't until I played my cover version of the Beatles, "Blackbird" (which my daughter, the ultimate Beatles fan absolutely hated!) That I realized I had gone too far.

Today, I'm looking back at the tracks that are recorded and I'm tweaking and fixing them, simplifying things and... recording the last new tracks, one traditional tune and two songs by members of the Kinnoin songwriting family (they are so cool!).

Here's my final version of "Blackbird" (daughter approved), I hope you don't hate it too much. Was this CD adventure a bad idea? What do you think? Gentle comments...pretty please? 

My Next CD Cover is Sick, Me Too

I was in a really great roll with the new CD "A Boy and His Guitar" six songs done in 2-3 days, until I got sick.

So while I've been recovering and visiting with my in-laws from Wyoming I've been sitting on the couch and at the table with my iPad working on my NEXT CD cover, "Boogaloo Zoo". The cover is totally sick (thats what the kids say, right? Sick is good?) All songs about animals. The album title was my daughter Taelors idea and the artwork is a takeoff of the Beatles Abby Road album cover.

The current CD cover and this one were totally designed from the ground up on my iPad. What do you think? Will the kids dig it?