This site exists because I started to realize that I’m doing quite a lot of old-timey (in a fairly loose sense rather than the stricter Wikipedia sense – hence the notably imprecise name of the blog) music in various contexts these days, and I might need a home for some demo recordings separate from my own songs.
Apart from the name of the blog, it has nothing to do with Dr. Who. Nevertheless, you might want to watch this space. (Sorry!)
David Harley
Small Blue-Green World
This is me in strictly make-it-up-as-you-go-along mode. Even the words changed in the course of the thirty minutes or so I spent on this, so I won’t put them up here yet. The whole thing is quite rough, but at least the tune seems to be all there.
[Original recording removed as the vocal was really rough.]
This is a banjo-ish version, taken down a tone so that the vocal is a little more comfortable. (I’ve practised it a little, too, which helps.) I like the ‘Lowest Pair‘ feel to the accompaniment, but the final version will probably restore the acoustic guitar with some slide and less banjo, and maybe bass or baritone guitar. So right now we’re still in demo mode.
Words and music copyright David Harley, 2017.
Both guitars need serious re-recording, but I like the underlying ideas, and the vocal harmony works well. I intend to get back to it, but this is for a possible collaborative project.
David Harley
Roger Waters’ song for Pink Floyd probably isn’t the most obvious candidate for an old-timey treatment (and frankly, this isn’t very old-timey at all), but I thought it would be interesting to do it with some mandolin and banjo behind the acoustic guitar, and just a little electric guitar. Unusually for me, that really is a banjo, not a guitar pretending to be a banjo. I do intend to come back to it, and the instrumentation might well be different. Actually a sketch for a collaborative project that probably won’t happen, now.
Alternate take (but still very much a demo): without the mandolin, banjo and electric guitar, but added some slide (resonator, not electric). Definitely not old-timey. Oh well.
David Harley
Not the most traditional of versions, either in the tempo or instrumentation, but I felt like indulging in a little experimentation, and I like this enough to intend to go back to it in due course.
A version of a song also well known as Loving Hannah. I’m not sure at this point where I got this set of words from, but the tune is (very approximately) as I remember it being sung in Bangor by Topsy Christie in the late 60s.
David Harley
Small Blue-Green World
