Pistol Slapper Blues cover

[sbrennan970]

Hi all,

I recently got my hands on my second MM Lightning, after selling my last one 10 years ago as a broke student.

I decided to keep this one in standard and for the anniversary of Rory Gallagher I recorded this cover of Pistol Slapper Blues - I hope you all like it!

[Michael Messer]

Hi Stephen,

You two sound great together....MML0029 sings again!

Sometimes the passing of time and of people can feel so surreal. Watching you play that just now made me think of the fifteen year old me with my friends all sitting on the floor at a Rory Gallagher college gig, as I did many times at that time in my life. Nobody, especially Rory, would have dreamed that 52 years later young people would be picking up National guitars and learning his repertoire. He was always very humble and friendly to his audience and would spend time after the show saying hello, shaking our hands and signing autographs, but that was it and he was very much a fixture on the live music circuit. After the early 70s period my tastes moved on and I wasn't particularly interested in what he did through the rest of his life, though with hindsight I do respect and admire his work. One of my favourite things Rory did was to play on the Jerry Lee Lewis London Sessions album in 1973. However, for me nothing can surpass his 1972 "Live In Europe" album, as that captures the Rory Gallagher I used to see as a young teenager. Many years later in I was playing at a WOMAD festival with my band and after the show a very polite, shy and complimentary Rory Gallagher came over and shook my hand. As I say, it's funny how life is sometimes!

Keep playing that guitar Stephen, Rory would be proud and humbled.

Shine On
Michael

PS... I just remembered seeing Rory and the wonderful Joe Ely band from Texas sometime in 1979/80. They were fantastic together again many years later in 1991 and '93 I ended up recording and touring with Jesse Taylor from Joe's band. Jesse always spoke fondly of the times Rory would turn up and sit in with them.

[snakehips]

Hi there !

Sounds great. Great playing AND singing.
Are you recording that straight, audio & video into a device (like a mobile phone ?), or perhaps record the audio seperately then combine it to the video footage after ?
Thanks !

[sbrennan970]

Hi Michael,

Thanks so much for your kind words, I'm humbled by your feedback. I never had the opportunity to see Rory play in real life, but I have listened to the Live In Europe album extensively! If you ever have the chance I'd recommend checking out the Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon, Donegal. It's a fantastic weekend of blues music and a really lovely homage to Rory's legacy.

@snakechips - thank you! The setup here is:

Video - Recorded on phone
Audio - All recorded with the condenser mic on screen (SE Electronics X1 with a -10dB cut switch because the resonator is LOUD!), then some Reverb/EQ/Compression* added in post with Ableton.

I then sync up the video and audio using DaVinci Resolve (An incredible free piece of video editing software).



*Plugins used:
Main Guitar/Vocal Track
- Waves CLA Vocals (Main vocal and guitar track) - I use this on nearly every track I record, it makes everything nice and sparkly!
- Ableton Reverb on a Return Channel

Duplicated Guitar/Vocal Track
- Waves H-EQ - I duplicate the main track then apply a bandpass filter to cut out the <20Hz bass and capture the mid/lows
- Waves RBass - Apply this to the duplicated filtered track to introduce some sub harmonic bass frequencies (just to warm up the sound a bit)
- Volume of this track is super low in the mix, barely perceptible!

Master Track
- Waves Mixdown - Just to glue it all together
- iZotope Ozone Light - Ran the Mastering Assistant at Medium intensity for Streaming, then made some minor tweaks

[bonzo]

And I thought you were just singing and playing your Lightning!
I play my Lightning until my wife leaves the room or tells me to! 😊
Nice playing by the way 👏

[blueshome1]

Nicely done, but it's nice to goo all the way back to the source with BB Fuller and Sonny Terry

[Michael Messer]

It is of course wonderful and important to go back to the source of a song and Rory would always talk about where his material came from.

I am far from being the world's biggest Rory fan, however it has to be acknowledged that occasionally a version of a song is recorded that makes it the definitive version of that particular song, and with this song it is certainly the case. Pistol Slapper Blues will for eternity be rightfully known for how Rory Gallagher played it and not for its original. Interestingly Rory is covering the song lyrically, but I can now hear that he is paying more of a homage to Doc Watson and Spider John Koerner than he is to Blind Boy Fuller. Rory's unplugged part of his set was always special and always brought the house down.





Shine On
Michael

>>>
On June 14th 1995 I was recording my album, MOONbeat, in North London with a friend of Rory and Donal Gallagher. The phone rang and the news came through that Rory had died. We were all shocked and silenced by the terrible news. That album, MOONbeat, was dedicated to Rory Gallagher.

[mikeholland]

Really enjoyed that Stephen!

[thinline72]

This is great, Stephen! Just re-watched it again, very energetic! It's a pleasure to see someone enjoying playing and singing so much.

Thanks for sharing your setup and tools that you use btw. I've been struggling with iMovie for quite a while and was wondering what might be a good free substitution for it. Looks like now I know what!

[blueshome1]

Jun 16, 2022 18:10:50 GMT Michael Messer said:

It is of course wonderful and important to go back to the source of a song and Rory would always talk about where his material came from.

I am far from being the world's biggest Rory fan, however it has to be acknowledged that occasionally a version of a song is recorded that makes it the definitive version of that particular song, and with this song it is certainly the case. Pistol Slapper Blues will for eternity be rightfully known for how Rory Gallagher played it and not for its original. Interestingly Rory is covering the song lyrically, but I can now hear that he is paying more of a homage to Doc Watson and Spider John Koerner than he is to Blind Boy Fuller. Rory's unplugged part of his set was always special and always brought the house down.





Shine On
Michael

>>>
On June 14th 1995 I was recording my album, MOONbeat, in North London with a friend of Rory and Donal Gallagher. The phone rang and the news came through that Rory had died. We were all shocked and silenced by the terrible news. That album, MOONbeat, was dedicated to Rory Gallagher.

I think this all comes down to personal taste,
Rory's version, as MM says owes a lot to the flat picking style of Doc Watson and is pleasant and is likely better known, especially with the generation who spent time listening to him or going to his gigs.
I much prefer the brilliant fingerpicking and singing of BBF combined with the harp of Sonny Terry, but that's me.