A member of the Bardic Arts group on Facebook shared this article called “Create Your Masterpiece”. I read this, and recognize the steps I went through in getting Hidden Gold done. It’s powerful stuff, and worth your time.
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Studio Day: We Are the East
Recording with Arden again is a much fun as ever. (And yes, we will share about the project this is part of after the holidays. Promise.)
Sweet! Season Two has arrived!
This past Saturday was the Bjorn’s Ceilidh event up in Concordia, and it was my family’s first SCA event together since Pennsic. Things were a bit subdued with everyone processing the results of the presidential election, but it was really good to get a day with so many of our friends once more.
The Baron and Baroness held a competition to select their new Bardic Champion, and I elected to compete. Last year I was keeping my powder dry while preparing for King’s and Queen’s, but that meant I had expanded my repertoire a bit, and had some pieces in my pocket that hadn’t been seen yet.
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Halloween CD Sale!
It’s Halloween weekend, and as some of you recall Halloween (or Samhain as it was once known) is the setting for “Tam Lin of the Elves”. So I’m having a Halloween sale for the Hidden Gold CD on Kunaki! (Equally important, it’s close to 6 months since my last Kunaki sale, and they delete the thing from their system if I go 6 months without new sales. The world of the indie artist.)
So from now until midnight on Halloween, the CD is only $9.00 plus shipping. (In the US, that means you can get it delivered to your door for just $13.30 total. That’s less than it sells for at events, this weekend only!)
So help keep this thing of beauty in the catalog, support independent music, and all the proceeds go to a school that helps kids with special needs.
This is the last video from this year’s Pennsic concert. The start of the song is missing, and there are some camera issues (especially at the start), but it’s an opportunity to hear Duchess Caoilfhionn and me performing “We Are the East” together (with Efenwealt on guitar), which was an incredible treat. I hope you enjoy.
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Studio Day: Special Guest Vocalist
Tonight was a recording session I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I got to record vocals for “We Are the East” sung by the duchess who inspired it. Caoilfhionn is one of the most beloved Eastern royals in the last few years with good reason, but there are still many who have not experienced her incredible voice. She is a talented singer (and songwriter), and arranging this song as a duet with her is a true privilege. Geeking out with her about music and our very different experiences in the SCA…that was an added pleasure, because she is a thoughtful and wonderfully honest person.
I promise, I will share more details about the project for which the song is being recorded. Soon…
Lorelei Skye was kind enough to share some videos she took of my Pennsic concert, which include two performances with people I’d been dying to work with onstage. The first of these is a rendition of “Tam Lin of the Elves” that the audience absolutely loved, featuring the fantastic Sir Kenneth MacQuarrie and Mistress Adelaide de Beaumont, aka Ken and Lisa Theriot. It plays very differently from last year’s performance with Heather Dale.
Unfortunately, the first verse didn’t get captured, but this is the only video we were able to get of the bulk of the song. Still, I hope you enjoy.
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Hosting a bardic circle this weekend
This Sunday, we will be hosting a bardic circle once more at our home in Paramus, from 1-6 pm. (Note that this is an hour earlier than we had been doing them, to make it easier for people to get dinner afterward.) Modern dress, come to perform or come to listen. (Email or PM me if you need the address. I will be sending it by PM to everyone who indicates on the event that they are interested or planning to go.)
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Studio Day: Lead Vocals
I spent time in the home studio today, banging out lead vocals for a few different projects. The main one, of course, was “We Are the East”, which now has a complete set of male vocals in place. I’m excited, because this is a sign that I’ve learned from experience. Working on Hidden Gold, I left pretty much all my finalized lead vocals for the end of the project. This was a mistake, because (a) it meant the other musicians and singers didn’t have a finalized lead track to match up with, so I had to do a lot of digital editing at the end, getting things lined up, and (b) I had to cram in weeks of singing at the very end of the recording process without time to recover in between, so at the end it got really challenging (and painful).
I also did vocals for my filks, though I want to check what I need to do to be in the clear before I share those. Still, all in all a very productive day. A couple of hours of recording, a few hours of editing and compositing the vocal tracks. It’s enjoyable to see that the muscles I developed on my last recording project are still available for me to use.
I look forward to sharing the results of these endeavors with you when the time is right.
Drake Oranwood 