Ten Year Anniversary of Oak Ridge Boys & Session Drummer David Northrup and Nashville Trax!
Posted: March 28, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: country drum track over the Internet, David Northrup, Doug Stone, Nashville Session Drummer, Oak Ridge Boys, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, Wynnona Judd Leave a comment
David Northrup Nashville Session Drummer
Yes it’s been ten years since David cut his first drum track here! Back then he was with Travis Tritt and also played occasionally for Wynnona Judd, Doug Stone, Tanya Tucker and others. Now he’s moved up to one of the hardest working and brest paying bands in Nashville, The Oak Ridge Boys!
His drumming can be heard all over the Nashville Trax site. You can have him play on your rock, blues or country drum track over the Internet at Drum Tracks Online.
Male Session Singer Online Rock, Pop, Christian and Country Vocal Tracks Over The Internet
Posted: March 12, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Vocal Tracks Online, Vocal Tracks Over The Internet Leave a comment
Nashville Lead and Background Vocal Specialist, Tim
You wrote a song or you’re ready to produce a song but don’t have the right vocalist? Try our Male Vocal Tracks Online service!
Here you’ll find the correct male session singer to complete your rock, pop, Christian or country tune, right over the Internet!
Female Country Singer Tracks Online Over The Internet For Songwriter Producers
Posted: February 28, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blues, country, female country singer tracks online, female singer online, Kassie, singer, soul Leave a comment
Kassie will sing on your country, blues or soul tune!
If you produce original music, either your own or for a client, and you’ve been looking for a female singer online to do the vocals on your track look no further than Kassie. Country, blues and soul are her thing. Take a listen to her sing this guitar/vocal country song:
Her voice is high quality, on pitch and features tremendous tone. Why in the world would you look elsewhere?
It’s best to choose your singer prior to recording the music so it’s in the proper key for them to do their best. But if you’ve made the mistake of recording first, or the singer you planned on bailed or didn’t work out, Kassie can make most any key work.
All we need is your lyric, mp3 rough to set the key. As little as an acoustic guitar or piano track is fine. Then we’ll need am mp3 of your rough mix, started at the very beginning of your recording window, for Kassie to lay vocals to. You’ll receive a high quality .wav file that will lock right up to your mix, no positioning or bumping necessary.
Interested? e-mail nashtrax@bellsouth.net for pricing OR
Go to Nashville Tracks to check out other singers we have available.
Kassie can sing some blues now! Click her pic!
Songwriting Tip: How To Self-Critique Your Own Country Lyric
Posted: February 20, 2014 Filed under: Songwriting Tips, Uncategorized | Tags: Bridge, self-critique your own lyric Leave a comment
Before pitching your songs or even before recording, have your lyric critiqued for free by clicking here!
If you intend to pitch your country lyric with the hope of obtaining a hit record, know this: it will be scrutinized for flaws by the gate keepers- industry pros like music publishers and screeners- before it ever gets near the eyes of an artist. Here are several fatal flaws you should avoid, preferably before cutting the demo. Review your lyrics to see if they have any of these.:
1.“Too Wordy” Many times your first efforts will be long winded. You can usually convey the same message with fewer words, both in the song as a whole, as well as in individual lyric lines. Cut the fat.
2. “Cramming In” If you’re singing along with your melody and find you’re struggling to make the words quite fit in a given space it’s going to sound that way to a listener. Writing more words in a line than the singer is comfortable singing, unless done intentionally for the effect, is bad writing. Take some out or rewrite the line.
3. “The Song Goes On Forever” If you have crafted five verses doubled up on every chorus and put in both a solo and bridge, your song is going to land at 5 to 7 minutes in length. That’s too long if you’re aiming for radio airplay. Radio likes 2 1/2 minute songs. It may be painful but you need to delete several sections.
4. “A Too-Long Bridge” Often a song is rolling along, holding the listener’s interest but bogs down in the bridge that’s twice as long as it needs to be. Can your bridge convey what you need it to in 8 bars instead of 16? 4 instead of 8? Do it!
5. “Stale Ideas” Does your lyric have a lot of clichéd phrases? Instead of “She drinks like a fish and gets stupid” which everyone has heard before, replace that phrase with something unique and fresh such as, “She’s an alcohol drain, a meatball brain”. And no place is more critical to replace clichés in than the hook.
6. “Reversed Order”. Don’t reverse the natural order of words just to create a rhyme. Country lyrics should be conversational. If you wouldn’t speak it quite that way,, unless your only listener will be Yoda, don’t write your country lyric that way.
While hardly comprehensive, this list will help get your lyric on the right track- b.e. watson
Jenifer L Doing Banjo’d Up Country: Romance and Rodeo
Posted: January 31, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aaron McDeris banjo, Fiddle: Jenee Fleenor, KC Steele, Pedal Steel: Mike Douchette Leave a commentNot only is Romance and Rodeo Jennifer L’s very first country song recorded in Nashville, the very banjo used on the original recording of the most famous bluegrass tune ever, Rocky Top, was played on it by Aaron McDeris. Pedal Steel: Mike Douchette. Fiddle: Jenee Fleenor.
Aaron McDaris shows off his historic “Rocky Top” banjo.
The song is hot off the press with publishing open and right of first release intact. If you’d like to publish or record it we’d be glad to forward your interest to the songwriter.
Romance and Rodeo is © 2014 KC Steele. All rights reserved, presented here as a demonstration of production values, all other use prohibited under U.S. and International copyright law.
Why not have our Nashville session singer Jennifer sing your song?
Interested in having Jennifer sing your song? We can make that happen!
Female Country Singer Online Tracks Available Now! Meet Jennifer!
Posted: January 25, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: female country singer, female country singers tracks online over the internet Leave a comment
Nashville session singer Jennifer
Are you looking for a female country singer to add to your project; the project you’re producing at your home or local recording studio? Meet Jennifer! She sings country in a powerhouse style similar to Jo Dee Messina. Great harmony vocals too. And Nashville Trax now offers female country singers Tracks Online, over the internet. Yes, you can put Jennifer’s singing on your project by trading files that will lock right up to your work!
Her session over, Nashville vocalist Jennifer takes a well deserved break
Living Life Unchained, Courtesy of The Eagles
Posted: January 4, 2014 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Already Gone, and Never Even Know We Have The Key, The Eagles, We Live Our Life In Chains Leave a comment
I’ve listened to a lot of songs in my time and few had any lasting impact on my life that I’m aware of. But there are a handful of lyric lines that have, one of which is The Eagles song Already Gone.
“So often times it happens, that we live our lives in chains and never even know we have the key.”
That line has resonated and echoed in mind ever since I first heard it, more because I lacked the courage to just throw the chains off, than for actually doing anything to live up to its implied promise. And looking back I see that it was a mistake to stay in the chains because the longer you go in that direction the tighter they get, the harder it is to cut them off and the less choices you have.
Meanwhile, time you’ll never get back has passed away- b.e.
Now Tracking : Two Demos For A Client In England
Posted: November 1, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blake Shelton, Forever & Me, full band demo, Jenee Fleenor, Santa Fe Leave a commentTwo songs in today from “across the pond.”
Both are by a working musician from England named Charlie Kelland. “Santa Fe” is an uptempo country tune that’s getting the full band demo treatment. The original rough sounds like a song playing in a 1960’s western movie so it needs updated. “Forever”is a piano/vocal/hand drum demo featuring a lot of soulful background vocals.
We just logged them in this morning so it will be a little while but I’ll post a finished demo of SF if Charlie allows.
Update 12-12-13 Here’s Santa Fe produced in a modern country style with both fiddle and lead vocal by Jenee Fleenor who plays for country recording artist Blake Shelton:
Santa Fe © 2013 Charles Kelland is posted by permission. All rights Reserved. Unauthorized use is a violation of U.S. and International copyright law.
Pro demos make everyone- friends, family, artists, record company A & R and music publishers- take notice. Have 3 or 4 pro demos to peddle and they’ll brand you as a pro-level songwriter every time you pitch them.
We would be thrilled to do that for you, simply drop an e-mail with your rough mp3 or mp4 attached to: nashtrax@bellsouth.net with the details of what you want and request a quote.
Tough Gig and Tougher Crowd: The Battle of Franklin TN
Posted: August 5, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Dixie, Robert E. Lee's right hand man in The Battle of Gettysburg, Sherman Drove Old Dixe Down, Southern General John Hood, Winstead Hill Leave a comment
Plaque describing the Battle of Franklin. The lower right corner is where the quote below was pulled from.
On November 30, 1864 the Southern General John Hood held a position on the hill where the park is now located. He decided to attack the Northern troops located toward Franklin. His line was the largest single array of troops in the entire war, some 19,000 men moving shoulder-to-shoulder across the fields at the foot of the hill.
The plaque pictured above tells it best:
At 4 p.m. here on Winstead Hill, launched the single largest attack made during the American Civil War. The Federal soldiers never forgot the sheer spectacle of the Confederates sweeping across the fields before you with bands playing “Dixie” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag.” One Union observer later wrote that “we were spellbound with admiration, although they were our hated foes.”
Maybe the musicians should have altered the playlist with a tune less controversial than “Dixie.” The Union troops listened for a bit then opened fire. When the smoke cleared at day’s end there were over 6,000 Southern casualties. The action was a disaster for the South.
If I were the general I’d have suggested playing “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”
In just the first few minutes of battle, five Southern generals lost their lives in the field just to the right of the hill. Altogether 15 Southern Generals were killed in the fierce fight. Hood’s forces were rendered incapable of effectively engaging in battle for the remainder of the war.
If memory serves correctly Hood was Robert E. Lee’s right hand man in The Battle of Gettysburg, afterwards going to GA to harass Northern General Sherman near Atlanta as Sherman “Drove Old Dixe Down.”
Imagine walking from Gettysburg to Atlanta and on to Nashville as these troops must have done, including the musicians. Tough gig, tougher crowd– b.e.
One of many markers on the site detailing the battle. Man, I greatly enjoy history but let’s inject wisdom in all situations and pour out understanding, tolerance and love instead of hate so we never get to this point again as some are now calling for. Our nation torn in two, boys not yet in their prime being slaughtered and killing each other by the truckload? It can’t be near as much fun as it sounds.
https://twitter.com/mal_pal14/status/374002758439153664
https://twitter.com/SeaRavenPress/status/374117426394562560
https://twitter.com/shnake_10/status/374048717541621761
Brentwood Church of the Nazarene
Posted: July 14, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentHey, if you’re a Christian visiting Nashville and need a church to attend during your stay, or if you’ve recently moved here, I highly recommend Brentwood Church of the Nazarene. At the urging of legendary session musician Wanda Vick, I attended this morning for the first time and it was fantastic!
No need to hurry to Heaven. When Wanda starts playing her banjo and everyone in the congregation starts smiling and clapping along, you’re just about there anyway.
If you’re not Christian, attend at your own risk. They may just start playing It Is Well With My Soul. By the time they finish, you will be- b.e.
584 Franklin Rd
Franklin, TN 37069
Every Sunday Morning
8:30 & 10:45 AM
Nashville Recording Studios
Posted: April 23, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Angello Sound Studio, Mocking Bird Hill Studios, nashville recording studios, RFM nashville studio, Shadow Lane Studios, Tom Angello nashville Leave a comment
You Can Be On The Next Nashville Trax Session!
It may seem strange for a studio owner to recommend other Nashville Recording Studios but the deeper I get into my relationship with Jesus the more I realize that when He walked the earth, among other things, he was trying to tell us that in many regards our way of thinking is wrong. We sometimes believe we’re thinking logically when we’re not, because we leave God out of the equation. Let me rephrase: Sometimes we’re thinking logically just not God-logically, and therefore we’re doomed to failure.
It was typical of Jesus to not do things or say things according to man’s logic. Presented with an “A or B?” answer to a question Jesus, as usual, went to weirdness: “You can have that coin,” He said, “I made the fish.” I’m paraphrasing here, but basically, that was what he answered when asked a question about paying taxes.
“Lose your life and you will find it.”
“Drink, for this is my blood.”
The King of Kings, the only king with absolute ultimate power was also the only one to never take physical territory, to never occupyland. Instead, He established His kingdom in hearts and minds, The Good News, the gospel, was a concept revealed to just a handful, a tiny ripple in the fabric of history that has become a mighty wave and changed the world like no other concept ever conceived. Today, over 2,000 years after that little band of His direct followers last walked the earth, the concept and kingdom only expands.
A King who washed the feet of His subjects. Really? Yes, really.
The religious leaders of the day repeatedly tried to trap Jesus on some big issue or other. If they presented Him with a reductio ad absurdum argument, he’d counter with dilemma syllogism, confounding the religious leaders attempts to outwit the greatest thinker that ever walked the planet.
In business, our little mind tells us to destroy our competition. But “Jesus thinking” using our bigger mind, reveals that work doesn’t come from hurting others or minimizing other’s efforts, but rather, reveals that He is the source of blessings. Follow His example, do things as He might, counter-intuitively even, and for you, He might just decide to do something outside the bounds of man logic, outside the bounds of physics.. perhaps satisfy multitudes with just a few loaves of bread?
Or maybe give you work in abundance when your actions would logically suggest a different outcome.
Of the many Nashville Recording Studios, these are some of the unsung heroes. These are studios that I’ve used and can recommend:
Shadow Lane Studios Owned by engineer Phillip Wolfe. Phil is a truly nice man and a most excellent tracking and mixing engineer.
RFM Ron has been a good friend for years now, a great engineer, and usually has the chili cooking.
Palm Tree Dreams: There’s no link here because the studio is no longer in business but it used to be down on 17th Ave. South on Music Row, housed in Chet Atkins’ old studio. the Engineer/owner Ronny Palmer absolutely deserves a mention. I recorded there prior to building my own studio and I don’t think Ronny ever received, or does receive, credit for just how good of a tracking and mixing engineer he is.
Mocking Bird Hill Studios Steve is an excellent musician and engineer and we worked together on several projects. I can’t find his studio link and it may be that he’s no longer involved in music to the degree he once was but I believe he still has the studio and he’s worth mentioning regardless.
Angello Sound Studio. This one is out on the fringes in Hermitage, TN but worth the ride because Tom is a great guy and excellent guitar player who also believes in passing it along. He went out of his way to help me out once when my gear was down and I needed a place to record and hopefully with this I’ll send it on back around.
Other great studios I heartily recommend around Nashville area include:
Dark Horse Recording Studio is located south of Nashville in Franklin, TN
Fiddle & Steel Country Music Demo Sample
Posted: March 7, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThe above track is a sample of the skilled Nashville session musicians we use on demos. Steel and fiddle often are used in the same song as they are here.
Interested in having either steel, fiddle or both added to a recording you are working on in your home or studio?
e-mail us at nashtrax@bellsoyth.net or text 615-319-8616
A Songwriting & Recording Blog 