Factory Yoyo sadly presents: "I Know", a tribute to the late, great Jimmy Gentry

Yesterday I was searching for some inspiration and started working on the remix of Jimmyman's "I Know (Original Version)", featured Frank Tanton.  Jimmy and I worked on it about two years ago, and it just kinda fell off our collective map. I had gotten some new plugins that I thought would go great on Jimmy's voice.

In fact, I PM'ed Reece this morning to see if he had any news on Jimmy.

I finished the remix about 30 minutes ago, and while it was bouncing down, I checked in and saw the terrible news.

Though I never spoke with him, I thought the world of him. And I know all of us did. Just a great, kind soul.

So, as a fitting and eerily-timed tribute to our good friend, take a listen and open a cold one in his honor. As he sings in this song, "Ain't Life a wonderful thing?" Indeed it is, and we shall miss him...

Rest in peace, friend.

"I Know".

thank you James.  this is a wonderful tribute to our friend.  bless you.

THANKS for posting, James.
Rest in Peace, Jimmy.

Janet


There's no way I could listen to this now, but I will try soon.  Thanks, Jim. 

ditto

I remember this one.  Thanks for sharing your collab.

Listening to this is bitter-sweet. Lovely song and nice remix.

Beautiful song and a stellar mix....one tiny nit:  It sounded like maybe the crash hits were a tiny bit hot....i may have just fried my cans.

Thank you, James, for posting this lush piece.

Well done... Thanks James... that took me back... Jimmy and I had a few long phone conversations about the music scene in Nashville, guitars, motorbikes, recording-studios, song-forums, musicians we both knew, or had met... future projects, life and death... he was a lovable guy and always a pleasure... 
I will miss him...
 

Bump for Jimmy's memory....

for Jimmy he will be missed
 
for the tribute James.

James, great job on this..sounds killer! What a great tune to remember Jimmy by. Sorry for my ignorance, but can you tell me who played what on this? Whew...some serious guitar going on. Sounds like 2 different guys...they both compliment each other so well. Great drum track too and I like what you did on the vocals. Awesome job James, thanks for sharing this.

I played the opening guitar licks and and all the licks that are panned more to the right... Jimmy played the piano and the licks that are panned left...

jamesyoyo

Danny Danzi


James, great job on this..sounds killer! What a great tune to remember Jimmy by. Sorry for my ignorance, but can you tell me who played what on this? Whew...some serious guitar going on. Sounds like 2 different guys...they both compliment each other so well. Great drum track too and I like what you did on the vocals. Awesome job James, thanks for sharing this.

Funny thing, Danny: two years ago with the first pass through this I had a real humanized midi drum track, lotsa swing,and Jimmy hated it, said it didn't sound pro! I wanted to re-mix it as a faux "live" feel to it, so I added some imperfect crashes and lots of crowd noise. So to make Jimmy happy, I re-did the beats a little more  straight, and he liked it better.


I probably should have done some more panning to make Frank's lead more distinctive from Jimmy's, but if you listen, you can clearly hear both a different style and sound: Frank's has more blues bite, and Jimmy's is more country-clean.

James: Well God Bless you for even having the patience to program the drum stuff like you did here and in your tunes as well. Sometimes the human feel thing can mess up a groove once in a while though...and maybe that's what Jimmy had a problem with. I notice that on some of the created drum parts by others, that the human feel or groove they try to add in, still has a quantized feel to it as well which can mess with a person's mind...whereas a real drummer has some human timing inconsistencies that seem to work well because it may drag a little etc. You know what I mean I'm sure. :)
 
I think the worst offender is when the creator of a tune has a certain something etched in stone in their brain, and then you send something at them that they weren't expecting. Sometimes they have to let it grow on them, other times it just goes against their vision. That's happened to me a few times while working with philz. He has a vision, invites me along to help paint the picture, he has this nice vision in mind, and I send him back a canvas that looks like a baby threw up all over it to where he says "pff, you call that art...this is a joke, right?!" LOL! Most times, it grows on him if he gives it a chance...but there's been a few times where I popped off a few duds or a few ideas that just might not have been what he had in mind stylistically. :)
 
I really respect people that put the time into these drum parts because I know how tedious it can be. I thank God every day that I'm a drummer and have a real kit as well as a V-Drums kit or I probably wouldn't get anything done or I'd have to pay someone to create a drum track for me. Playing drums for real is a bit tedious at times especially when my chops may not be up to par (due to me being more of a singer/guitarist these days, but drums were the first instrument I learned)...but it's been a lot more fun than programming them, that's for sure. LOL! I think you did a good job with this though. The pans are fine and the guitar tones are different from each other so they cut through nicely showing the identity of both players. Really well done, don't change a thing bro. :)
 
Frank: Thanks, I was wondering who did some of the keyboard lines as well. Man, you and Jimmy tore this up with those leads! Killer tones and though the 2 styles are different shades of "blues", they really worked really well together. Some nice call and answer type stuff that didn't sound like one guy trying to out-do the other....it was teamwork. Really fine playing brother. :)

Yo James,
 
Good song and production with an Allman Brothers vibe.
 
A fitting tribute to Jimmy.
 
 
Thanks for posting,
 
 
Bert

Incredible, I haven't been here for a month or more and return to find we've lost Jimmy. I listened to the song and liked it but I found myself subdued by thoughts of our mortality and pondering weightier issues. Well done James and Frank