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Re: "Acre of Land" +"OLS Sessions" Notes ( Posted By CARL FRANKLIN  ) 7/2/06

OK, so I've just listened to the Acre Of Land cuts. Let me tell you about them, at least as much as I can remember.

Some of these I have never heard before. Most of them are in mono (which is very unlike me) and a couple were recorded live at the Oddfellow Theater on the Early Evening Show. If any of this turns out to be the result of my bad memory I will post a correction.

So these were recorded before the One Lonesome Saddle recordings - at least the ones I had a part in.

Acre of Land
I loved this song. Ray is playing the chords and I'm playing the "color", the high picking part in the intro and the noodling around. I believe we did this at the theater. Great song.

Big Boned Woman
Ray had a serious love-hate relationship with this song. Everyone loved it, and he thought it was a little corny. We joked a little that it was "too happy" for him. We re-recorded it again at my studio (I think this one was also done at the theater) but he ultimately didn't want it on the album (OLS). Eventully I got him to agree that we should hide it as an MP3 file on a mixed-mode CD. Everyone loved this song, especially our wives. :-) I am playing the second acoustic guitar (lead).

Buzz
The correct title of the third song is Buzz. He played it live on the Early Evening Show one night and I loved it. I'm playing lead on this also. I still think he should do this song with a band. We tried it during the OLS sessions but it was a bad day or the guitar wasn't right, or the planets were out of alignment or something, and we scrapped it.

Hobo Blues
Now, this is the third arrangement of this song I've heard. He did an absolutely smoking rocking blues version of this live at the Odfellow on the night Maine PBS was recording the show. He was wearing his mechanic's shirt with someone else's name on it. I've forgotten the name. Bill, maybe. Then there's the slow version he did on OLS. Then this one has some a interesting intro. I don't know if that's me playing lead behind him. It sorta sounds like me, but a) I don't remember recording it, and b) if it was me I was holding back. So, it was probably someone else.

Roadhouse Girl
I'm so glad that this version got on to the net. I've been holding on to it for years and was afraid nobody would ever hear it. This is the first time I heard it. Man... what a song, and this version is the best, I think. It's even better than the remake we did in the studio with Jay (my brother) on piano, Jon Morse (drums), me on bass, and Dan Nugent who came in to do the steel guitar part. Jay and I are doing all the background vocals on the OLS version. In spite of all the work we did on that one, I still think this version is the best one.

Skinny Dippin'
This is one of the ones I may need to come back and correct. I *think* we did this at the Oddfellow. I definitely didn't mix it. To tell you the truth, I don't remember much about it.
I know that it's me playing the lead. That's about all I know.

Thinkin' About You
Same as above. Me on lead. Don't remember anything else. Maybe I'll come back to this one after I talk to my friends in Maine.

Back On The Mountain
First I've heard of it.

Change Your Mind
Seems vaguely familiar. Great song. Sounds like Cole Porter or something. I don't think I had anything to do with it.

Still Can't Feel The Gin.
I didn't record this. If it was done at the Oddfellow, I might have been there, but I don't remember anything about it.

My Weakness
This was recorded live at the Oddfellow on the Early Evening Show. You can hear the host Mike Miclon yell "Raycharles Lamontagne" at the end, and the co-host of the show was Maine Personality Randy Judkins. He can be heard at the end too.

As for the One Lonesome Saddle zip that showed up in the I AM FUEL blog post, there are some new ones there that nobody has heard before. Let me comment:

Vigilante Man
I played Ry Cooder's version of Vigilante Man from his album Into the Purple Valley for Ray one day during the OLS sessions, and he loved it. Ray's playing guitar and singing and I'm doing everything else.

Everything I need
Ray played a guitar track and sang it. He didn't really like the song to begin with but we laid it down anyway. I heard some old Eagles in there and I went to town with adding the other tracks and the production while he was back in Maine. He totally hated it. He said at one time "you can have that song. I never want to hear it again" I can't say as I blame him. It's really not at all his style, but it was fun for me. Of all of the tunes that have resurfaced, I think Ray would be the most mad about this one. It must have come from an interim mix of the album that was just for his listening purposes only.

If I figure out anything more about those other cuts I'll let you know.

Carl

Correction...

Vigilante Man
In my post above I said Ray did the guitar and I did the rest. Not true. Brother Jay is playing piano and bass. I'm playing drums and lead. And yes, the first part of the guitar solo is slide. The last part is fingers. Jay does a great piano solo too. I don't know why he wasn't into this one. Heck, I even bought the rights to produce 1000 copies of it (It's a Woody Guthrie song and royalties must be paid.)

So you can tell that I'm now listening to the One Lonesome Saddle cuts. This CD was a demo cut before the one that got released on this board.

Whiskey Train
No drums or electric guitar. Just guitar, bass, and vocals.
We added those later.

Big Boned Woman
This is the version we did in my studio. The one from "Acre of Land" was done at the Oddfellow.

Carl