This song was an experiment with acoustic recording, vocal harmony, and singing. It features a guitar, three voice tracks, and a ukulele. I didn't plan the vocal harmonies beforehand. Instead I punched in and out a lot until I found something that I liked. I'm glad I don't have to mine coal. Aren't you?
Come and listen you fellows, so young and so fine,
And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mines.
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul,
'Till the stream of your blood is as black as the coal.CHORUS:
It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where danger is double and pleasures are few,
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.It's a-many a man I have seen in my day,
Who lived just to labor his whole life away.
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mines.The midnight, the morning, or the middle of day,
Is the same to the miner who labors away.
Where the demons of death often come by surprise,
One fall of the slate and you're buried alive.I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll,
My body will blacken and turn into coal.
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home,
And pity the miner a-diggin' my bones.
P.S. This song was written by Merle Travis.
February 27th, 2009 - 8:49 AM
This is a nice song. The ukulele is a great touch. It's like a mandolin. There's something about the recording that sounds kind of 60s to me (not a bad thing necessarily). I'm not sure what is though. Could be the background noise or the EQ.
February 27th, 2009 - 2:57 PM
Very cool, good to hear some blue grass on hellagems. The background harmony sounds awesome, and I think you perfecty represented the bluegrass style. I feel like you are trying to sing too low for your range on the lead though. On "where the rain never falls" your voice goes so low that I can barley hear you. I don't know if that was intentional but it gives me the feeling that you are trying to sing too low. The guitar slap pause is tight too.
February 27th, 2009 - 3:11 PM
The low now thing might be a problem with how I eq'd it. I had this really bassy popping P that was annoying me, so I took out some low end on the whole thing, but I think some of the "rain" is getting lowered in volume as well.
February 27th, 2009 - 6:05 PM
You should make a melodramatic music video to this with a montage of you building excessive D in a heavy in renegades on Tribes 1. That's what I imagined LOL
March 8th, 2009 - 6:46 AM
Totally sweet. This reminds me of the Carter Family and this song.