Reviews and Stuff.

[Deleted]

You might be interested in this review of my demo "Pinner Court Sessions" in the recent issue of Blues in Britain magazine. I do not currently have a resonator guitar and on this recording I played my Fylde Goodfellow, tuned to either D or G, played with a heavy glass slide and put through a Fender 5W valve amp to give the electric blues effect.

I'm not sure what the reviewer means about my singing. I am Anglo-Saxon, took singing lessons for a while in order to get the breathing technique right and in the process discovered that I was a tenor. If you are interested you can go to my website, click on the image of "Pinner Court Sessions"and download the recording of "Dust my Broom". I'd be interested in what people think.

The latest CD "Keep a Good Thing Alive" was recorded at the same time but contains 11 of my own songs: the four originals on the review album and 7 others.



Blues in Britain Review of Barry Reeves' "Pinner Court Sessions " Demo CD



"...........All eight tracks feature just Barry on bottleneck and vocals and it is evenly split between 4 Robert Johnson covers and 4 originals.

"Dust my Broom" gets proceedings underway and there's some really good guitar work here with the whole gamut of Elmore style slide riffs going into the mix! The other R J tunes include a steady "Rambling On My Mind", a good up- tempo "Sweet Home Chicago" and a nice slow take on "Love In Vain". The original songs cover a number of bases. "What Do You Think We Get Elected For?" is a political protest song in a folk/blues style with the blues aspect accentuated by the bottleneck guitar. "25,000 Volts" is a modern train blues about the need to get back home (the title refers to the overhead line voltage). The gentle "Keep A Good Thing Alive" is a song about a love lost and found. The last track, "Sick Vigilante" is a protest against any form of religious fundamentalism. That might sound a bit heavy but actually the song rocks along nicely.

The CD contains an interesting mix of material with straight blues covers being interspersed with Barry's own songs. The guitar work is good throughout especially on "Dust My Broom" and
"25, 000 Volts". Barry's vocals are a light, which is fine on his own songs but can sound a bit forced on the RJ covers......................."

Cheers

Barry

[Deleted]

Hi Barry... I visited your website and listened to a few tracks. Very nice playing but, and this is my personal but objective opinion, I couldn't help feeling that your singing somehow lacked conviction. I think what the reviewer means, when he says that your voice can sound a bit forced, is that it doesn't carry much "weight" and although it sounds as if you are placing plenty of emphasis on certain words and phrases in an attempt to give it some feeling, it still doesn't seem to match the suffering in the lyrics. Maybe, as an experiment, you could try a lower key?
I hope Barry that you're not offended by my opinion... it is meant to be constructive, and I hope that you can manage to find that certain something that will bring your voice to the same level as your playing.

Best wishes.... Hansi

[Deleted]

Hansi

Thanks for taking the time to listen. The recording was done "live" so I was in full performance mode. I have the full emotion of the songs I sing, especially those that I write. Which tracks did you listen to?

Best Wishes

Barry

[Deleted]

Hi Barry

I listened to Pinner Fair, Coal Train, South Hams Blues, and Dust my Broom... I think ( in my humble opinion), from those four tracks, that you come across best in South Hams Blues, your voice is more relaxed and seems suited to the song... whereas, in Dust my Broom for example, I'm just not 'feeling' it....

Once again, I have to stress that this is just my personal opinion, others will no doubt tell you the complete opposite... I find your playing excellent though.... nice sound too.

Best

Hansi

[teacherman]

Barry and Hansi

I teach music in all it's forms to 6th form pupils. I love the blues. really Barry you are asking for anybody to complain about your voice by asking for comments. I have read the Blues in Britain review and also heard lots of tracks from your website. How can anyone tell what is good or bad when listening on a PC or laptop? The sound quality is nothing like good enough.

I think you sing very well: your control is better than many people I have paid to hear.

Hansi...have you ever played bottleneck? To drop from D to a lower key involves retuning to open C (C_G_C_G_C_E) which is a good folk tuning but you would not get the Elmore James riffs with that sort of tuning.

I think that Barry sings very well, lots of feeling and lots of 'balls'. But, this is a guitar group that I have been visiting for sometime and I think singing is not about the guitar. Perhaps Michael should delete this thread?

Simon

[Michael Messer]

Teacherman, welcome to our forum.

I think this is an interesting thread and I respect Barry for putting his review on show and asking for forum members opinions about what the reviewer has said. I understand that Barry finds it hard to accept the critisism (whether justified or not). I have been in that position on more than one occasion myself.

Anyone who makes records and sends them to a magazine for review has to take the rough with the smooth. I have had my music reviewed by journalists for the past 25 years. Mostly what they say is very complimentary, but sometimes it is not. I have received negative comments in reviews that have sometimes annoyed me, sometimes hurt me, and other times....made me think about what they have said and learn from it. Reviewing a record is not like marking an exam and giving points for effort, the journalist either likes or dislikes what they hear. At that point, we the recording artists are at their mercy!

My first album, Diving Duck, received some wonderful reviews and media comments when it was first released. I built my career on those first few reviews. However, there was one review in quite an important British mag at the time that said something like....'Diving Duck....More like a lame duck to my ears'. At the time I was very upset about it , but I had to take it on the chin and let it go. All press is good press - the longer I have been in the industry the more I believe that to be true.

To drop a tone from open D A D F# A D to put it into the key of C, you do not have to use a tuning with different intervals and a different voice, you can tune the same intervals down or up, to suit the singer's range. Open D down a tone would be C G C E G C and you can still play Elmore James licks, but be in C. I use that tuning a lot, especially on my 12 string guitar.

I do not see this forum as strictly a guitar group, I hope it is more of a place where people with similar taste in music & instruments can meet and share their knowledge. I agree there is a fairly large amount of guitar stuff talked about, but singing, recording, performing, new albums, old albums, blues, folk, rock, reggae, jazz, Hawaiian steel, drumkits, bass guitars....etc......all sorts of stuff gets discussed here (but mostly guitars!!!! ....mostly resonator guitars and slide playing )

I would not delete this or any other thread unless I though it was offensive. If I was to police the forum in that way it would no longer be a 'forum' in the true sense of what a forum should be.
Then people would not post certain comments in fear of me deleting it. That would not work at all. I do delete porn, sales spam and the occasional offensive messages, but that is all.

One last comment - an artist has to have self-belief in what they do. When the art is critisized, that self-belief sometimes gets questioned. Well that is how I have reacted in those situations.

Shine On
Michael

[Deleted]

Good points MIichael,

I suppose it all goes back to the 1960's question "Can white men sing the blues?" It seems that to some they can sing their own blues but not a Black man's blues.ie not an original blues. This may well be right. Given that my songs come from ME and not always very easily, perhaps there is more feel,love and pain in them when I sing them than when I sing other people's songs.

Self belief is not dead! And a lot more people have seen the website now!

Teacherman, thank you for your kind comments. I actually teaching singing technique from time to time.

Cheers

Barry

[teacherman]

Michael

Yes, of course you are right about the tuning. And don't 12 strings usually get tuned a pitch or 2 lower than concert?

Not sure that Barry found it hard to accept criticism, rather he was puzzled by it. But there are plenty of people; teachers and critics who complain and condemn because they have the power so to do.

Glad that Barry has not lost his self-belief. I think Coal Train and Sick Vigilante are 2 of the best songs I've heard in a long time.

Simon