I’ll admit it: When the ukulele craze started catching-on a few years ago, I kind of made fun of it. I’m not sure why–but I did.
The other day I was seduced by the uke’s sound & vibe I had something of an epiphany which resulted in this tenor uke “following me home.”
Guess I’ll keep it.
A couple of weeks a go, I released my version of Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song” and offered the recording as a FREE download and asked only for a single Tweet in return.
The response was inspiring! All over the world came these lovely notes of appreciation for the track. They still come through now and again. Everyone seems to dig the reharmonization towards the end. It’s been really cool. There is even another video that Mike Conaty made the very first day of the song’s release here!
During one day of the recording sessions, I filmed some of the guitar and bass takes just to give a glimpse into the process. This was an overdub affair as I played everything on the tune except the drums which were beautifully performed by my first-call drummer Joe Shotwell.
I’ve also decided to make the song available via the Atmos Trio Store. As usual, the song can be streamed, embedded or downloaded at a “Pay What You Want (even nothing) price.
Artwork by the wonderful Linda Palmer.
Here is the Atmos Trio functioning as “The guys” in support of singer Cynthia Tarr. We’ve held down this regular gig in Glen Ellen CA at Olive & Vine for a couple of years and have developed a very enthusiastic audience there.
Here’s a fairly up-tempo tune that the band stretches out on a little. Good times!
This was filmed on a Creative Vado HD cam. Audio was EQ’d/ compressed using Ableton Live and video edited in Final Cut Express.
Here’s the classic “Cry Me a River” from my gig last Friday night in the California wine country. Glen Ellen, CA is home the the Olive & Vine where the Atmos Trio functioned as “The Guys” to singer (and wife to our bass player Cliff Hugo who’s currently rehearsing with Super Tramp for their European summer tour) Cynthia Tarr.
A few days ago I made my jazzified version of Led Zeppelin’s Rain Song available to my twitter followers in exchange for a tweet. I was thrilled by the number of downloads and positive reactions I received. You can still get the track for a tweet.
My biggest surprise came from Mike Conaty who, upon hearing the track, was inspired to film, edit and post this gorgeous video. It really captures the vibe of the tune. Thanks Mike!!
I always love it when these spontaneous collaborations occur. I hope to see much more of this in the future.
I’ve been working away in my studio with some new toys and thought I would share some results. It’s my gift to you, and all I request in return is a tweet.
This is my favorite Led Zeppelin tune The Rain Song. It features me playing guitars (Acoustic steel-string, hollowbody & my trusty Strat), bass guitar and some software synths. I thought I had nailed some super-great electronic percussion when my favorite drummer, Atmos’ Joe Shotwell came to the studio and blew my work away with his perfect and effortless playing.
So, please enjoy today’s musical offering with my compliments. If you have any questions or comments, I would love to know what you think!
Special thanks to @CashMusic for the clever twitter tools.
In 2006, the Atmos Trio released our first self-titled CD. On that album is a beautiful ballad written by our then bass player Jeff Obee called “Her Eyes.”
Around that time, in order to move music around the web, I used to have to store MP3s on my web server and link back to the files. A music streaming company has been leeching from my web server for years serving up the DEMO version of this tune to their listeners. It has received thousands of hits over the years. I saw no harm in this and took no action to stop it.
But it made me wonder if the demo was better than the “Real” version.
Here is the demo circa 2004.
Here is the officially released version.
Which one do you like better?
Rob Michael has been “Living the Dream” of an active professional musician and has enjoyed a very successful private teaching practice in the San Francisco Bay area.
He leads the instrumental Jazz group: Atmos Trio.
