Need Jaw Dropping Online Violin and Fiddle Tracks? We Have The Best!

A Nashville Trax musician delivering yet another amazing violin part for a Fiddle Trax Online client

A Nashville Trax musician delivering yet another amazing violin part for a Fiddle Trax Online client

Violin and fiddle are the same instrument, the difference is in the approach the player uses. Our players are classically trained as well as fluent in country and bluegrass styles and can play either violin or fiddle at session quality. In fact, the 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 Musician of the Year is a fiddlist who works here at Nashville Trax.

To add either to your project send an mp3 or .wav file to nashtrax@bellsouth.net and the $150 per song payment to the same e-mail via PayPal.com, be sure to cover any transaction fees. Tracks are normally turned around with 2 to 4 days.

For samples of our work, click on the photo above.


Mike Anderson Releases Single To Radio

new-release

Songwriter and singer, Mike Anderson’s new release .

Bluegrass/Gospel artist Mike Anderson of Madisonville, Tennessee has released a song produced by Bill Watson and mixed at Nashville Trax titled, “He Will Set You Free” to bluegrass radio via Airplay Direct.

Bill Watson wrote the arrangement then tracked the music and background vocals. Mike did his vocal remotely from Madisonville, TN, sending it via Dropbox. Bill assembled the parts, mixed and Mike took over from there.

It’s posted on Bluegrass Today’s website. Give it a listen!

 

 


Self-producing a music project and need session quality instrument tracks?

Available this week with no more than 2 day turnaround time: fiddle/violin, viola, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, B3 organ, and piano.

I’d need your rough mix on mp3 or .wav file and payment of $95 per instrument, per song, via PayPal.com. PM for additional details. Other instruments are available but would probably have longer turnaround.

Nashville Trax Fiddle Tracks Online

Drum Tracks Online

Pedal Steel Guitar Tracks Online

Bass Tracks Online

Other instruments are available under the “More” tab on the home page of the site.


How To Get Guaranteed Radio Airplay

Once your song is recorded what do you do with it?

As an independent artist you can’t afford to purchase advertising and getting your song played on radio stations has been difficult.

Until now!

A new concept has changed the game for artists, songwriters and others who aren’t signed to a major label. It’s called:

Radio Airplay

  • Free monthly radio airplay just for signing up!
  • Additional airplay can be purchased very affordably!
  • Report your spins to ASCAP or BMI and receive royalty checks!
  • Build your fan base!
  • Support download sales!

 


Nashville Trax Welcomes a new Dobro and Steel Player to Roster

Need a dobro or steel guitar track to add to your self-produced project? Or maybe you need those instruments on a demo song or album you’d like Nashville Trax to produce for you?

To order dobro work for your project, visit steel guitar tracks online or contact Nashville Trax producer, Bill Watson, via e-mail at nashtrax@bellsouth.net


Starting production on Hall & Oates “She’s Gone”

Do you need:

Performance tracks to enhance your live act’s sound

Tracks to make your self-produced recordings sound more professional

OR

Quality tracks for karaoke at your next party

We have you covered with tracks you can download individually for total control of your mix, or pre-mixed on .wav or MP3!

First up:

“She’s Gone” by Hall & Oates

For more info please visit our “Cover Tracks” page:

Karaoke Cover Song Tracks


Mandolin Tracks Online Delivered Over The Internet!

Do you need a mandolin track on your project? How about a world class mandolin track?

It’s AMAZING how much a well played mando can add to some songs.

It’s EASY to add a mando part to yours! Just click here: Mandolin Tracks Online!

JeneeMandoCrop


Nashville Studio Full Band Demo Price

How much should you pay for a full band demo using Nashville session quality players?

Every studio will have it’s own pricing and overhead but this will give you a reasonable guideline,

Session musicians charge studios $50 to $75 per song for a demo session. Singers charge $80 and up. $125 is average but some charge much more.

Some musicians can play two instruments at session quality and may do a second pass at a discount.

There is also a studio rate which may or may not include the producer and engineer.

The typical full band demo will involve 1 day of work for the studio and production team. At $50 per hour that’s $400.

Five musicians at $60 each is $300. A singer for $125.  Grand Total for a 5 piece demo: $825.b.e. watson


Songwriting Tips On Avoiding Three Huge Amateur Format Mistakes

Nashville Numbers Chart created for a client's project

A Bad Chart Is Almost As Bad As No Chart At All!

Wow! where do I start?

I received a Tracks Online Project yesterday. It was sent in by another producer who wanted us to add fiddle and steel guitar to it, probably because the area of the U.S. he worked in didn’t have any world class players on those instruments. Or on any instruments judging by the recording. But the biggest problem I noticed, and the fiddle player did too, was four bars of the root chord just prior to where a fiddle solo came in.

The bars were useless to the song. They added nothing. Worse, if we left them blank there was nothing happening which means: boring!. If we put a little fiddle in there it sounded like solo and detracted from the impact of the fiddle entering at the real solo point. The fiddle player and I looked at each other dumbfounded…knowing exactly what the other was thinking: “Why are those bars even there?”

Sometimes extra bars are indeed necessary. Maybe you end a chorus and need a tonic chord for a couple of bars so the singer ends on a note compatible with the root key or maybe to separate the verse so the chorus singing doesn’t overlap.

But songwriters have a tendency to place useless bars after verses, after choruses, in intros and other places where taking them out would benefit, not hurt. Other “too many bars” situations may include introductions that are longer than necessary and “turns” that are double the length they should be. Typically this “turnaround” would be four bars long. Eight bars is usually to long and it starts to feel more like the main solo area of the tune. Try it both ways and if the shorter solo or turn feels better, go with it. Nothing is gained from weirdness or boring your audience.

Analyze your song for unnecessary bars and eliminate them.

Excessive use of stops and diamonds is a second pitfall best avoided (a diamond is when you play a chord on the first beat of a measure then simply let it ring through the next three beats). Diamonds can sound cool in the right spot but overuse starts to give the whole song a disconnected vibe. Ditto stops where the band stops on the initial downbeat then comes back in after four or eight beats. They are great tools that can add interest, just don’t overuse them to the point your song sounds strange and disjointed.

A third sign of an amateur is over use of pushes. A push is when the band plays a chord on the upbeat before the downbeat where it would normally occur. Tap your foot as you play and see if some chord changes are happening when your foot is up instead of down. That’s a push that would be noted on a chart with a check mark above the pushed chord. Pushes can work well at times but Adele’s “Hello” aside. you don’t usually want to turn your song into a pushfest!

All that being said all these points aren’t set in stone and I could cite examples of hits that ignore these “rules”. It’s a song-by song thing. What sounds downright weird in one song and needs to be fixed might work well in another. – b.e. watson


Red, White and Blue Songwriter’s Shocking Feedback On Demo.

Bill Watson, Nashville Trax music producer Nashville Trax, Play It Again Demos

Nashville Trax Producer, Bill Watson

I was nervous about this one, after all I practically tore the original rough apart and rebuilt the song. A simple copy of it with better playing and vocals would have sufficed, ensuring the songwriting team who wrote it would be good with it.

But I’m not in this business for “play it safe,” “content” or “pretty decent job.” The aim is always higher… far higher.

Rob and his co-writers are elated with the prior two songs they had produced here, but rather than imparting a “no problem, we got this” sentiment, it only increased the pressure to outdo the previous two projects. Patriotic songs can be exceptionally difficult, because to work, they must evoke passion, stir the soul if you will, without resorting to male-female relationship emotive techniques. The arrangement has to do it.

I knew we had something special going on during tracking but decided to hedge my bets by working on the morning of May 26th, 2014 long enough to mix Red White and Blue. Crazy I guess, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Mixing a patriotic “troops coming home” tune on Memorial Day? Making this song exceed all expectations was no longer a vague hope or abstract concept, mentally backed into a corner, there simply was no other option.

When the mix went out and I didn’t hear back from Rob right away I started wondering if he hated it but didn’t want to say anything? A couple more days passed and all I receive is Rob cryptically saying he’d listened “but had to run it by his co-writers and others,” I’m really freakin’.

More time drags on. “Man, I thought we nailed that song to the wall so hard we busted right through to a place where eagles soar and Churchill is shouting, ‘We shall fight on the beaches. We will fight in the streets, We shall not fail!’ as the allies begin the D-Day assault. F-15s are tipping their wings to acknowledge our efforts as fireworks light up the sky.

“What went wrong?” I pondered.

Finally the word came in today:

Hey Bill,

I needed to get every one’s input, Jimmy love’s it, as so do I , and all that I played it for, Jenee is really incredibly talented and truly gifted, You All put you heart into this song and did a great job, BILL U ARE A GREAT PRODUCER, HAT’S OFF TO YOUR WHOLE TEAM !!! So thanks! GREAT JOB !! GOD BLESS AMERICA !! Rob C. and everyone in Winston Harold


Don Carr Resigns from Oak Ridge Boys Band

After 23 years in the saddle, The Oaks long time guitarist, Don Carr, has resigned to take a position with Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His duties will include teaching classes, clinics, shows and studio work at Sweetwater’s world class recording studio. Don has played on many tracks at Nashville Trax as well as at Java Jive We wish him well!


Breaking News: Initial Mix Clip of “Rednecks Do It Like That”

Singer and songwriter Dan Thompson

Singer and songwriter Dan Thompson

Here’s the initial mix of the first song completed for the Dan Thompson debut album. It’s titled “Rednecks Do It Like That”

It still has some engineering work scheduled but this is fairly close to what it will sound like. The mastering process will also add some polish.

The picture above was taken as Aaron McDaris actually played his part on the recording using the banjo that Sonny Osbourne used on the original recording of Rocky Top in 1967!

The banjo part is occasional and subtle but is still a very important part that keeps the song chugging along.

“Dan Thompson is singing and playing rhythm guitar. When He wrote Rednecks Do It Like That the original hook line/title used a word that rhymes with “it” but might have limited potential radio airplay. Just as I was about to mention to Dan that maybe we should reconsider using a “swear word” repeatedly throughout the tune that might limit its appeal, Dan realized the problem and rewrote it replacing the word with “it”.

I recently discussed the subject of the current state of country radio airplay yesterday with a friend who’s well connected with radio programmers and the powers that be on Music Row. These days song after song is about the same few subjects, “Why is that? I asked.” What they related, is that basically, due to a few monster hits, if a song isn’t about pickup trucks. tailgating out in the woods, tractors, rednecks, mud. etc. people are afraid to cut it, fearing it won’t be a hit. So Rednecks Do It Like That doesn’t break any new ground in that regard, but rather, aims right at what country has become in 2014- b. e.

Our guy Aaron playing his historic “Rocky Top” banjo on “Rednecks Do It Like That”

Rednecks Do It Like That is © 2014, Dan Thompson, produced by Bill Watson. Used by permission. Intended for demonstration of production values only. All other uses prohibited under U.S. and International Copyright law. If you’re interested in recording or performing this song please let us know and we’ll forward your request to the songwriter and music publisher