Grain By Grain

Hi Duane,

That was very cool intro, love those synth washes. Very different for you! I love the pay-off line at the end of each verse, how it hangs in a melancholy way. Nice.

Very well put together song Duane, I can tell you've put a lot of thought into the arrangement here.

Yes, I think a guitar or possibly a sax solo would work well in that middle section.

Good work pal!

James: You don't have ANY idea how much your comment encoraged me. I was really trying hard on this one to start to break out of the mold I was casting myself into. I know I've got a long ways to go, but at least now I think I see a flicker wayyyyy down there at the end of the tunnel! I'm sending you an E-mail.

Tom: Hey guy, thanks for listening. Yea, the last thing I want to write is a "whiny" song, so thanks for letting me know I'm on the right track in that sense. I'm thinking about that lead part pretty seriously now. Thanks for the confirmation on that.

DuRod

Great tune!!! Whatever you were felling when writtng this song comes straight forward... ( stange comment ?? ) I´ll explain....

These days, we´re all used to hearing whatever radio stations/tv stations and record labels want to broadcast to the general public and thank GOD i "found" this forum where you can listen to " untouched" music, where is all about the passion we all share ( music ) without people telling us what to sound like.... do you get me felling???

Bottom line is thanks you for sharing your music !!!!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=773257

Cheers,

Pedro

Duane, hey, man ... remember what I said in my post on your last song? Try different waters, etc. With this one, my friend, you already jumped into these waters without hurting yourself.
Wonderful, Duane, simply wonderful. What a nice arrangement, nicely held in the minor keys, great touch with the intro and the synths all throughout. Lyrics, as usual, strong and meaningful. Great ending, too. All in all, this is the first song that doesn't 'bear' your traditional trademark sound/chords so distinctly.
To answer your question: Personally, I would have gone 'unplugged' all the way. I would have continued with the wonderful sounds of the intro, would have faded in the acoustic, slowly. I would have skipped the drums and bass. The singing would have been much slower. Almost spoken. In a Leonard Cohen kinda way, just more melodic .
But, as said above - I love it the way it is, it's the first song I can truly call 'different' from your other songs. I'm proud of you buddy!
Heinz.

Nick, you mean I actually have enough bass in it?? LOL I know how you like to hear that bass!! Thanks Nck, and I might take you up on that offer, I'm talking to James about it now but it depends on what all he has going right now. I haven't heard back from him yet. "Lush production".........that's music to my ears!!

Pedro, welcome to the forum and great to have you on board. Thank you for the compliment and yes I know what you're talking about. Stuff on the radio all starts to sound the same after a while; but here everyone is free to express themselves and it's really cool to hear all the different ideas coming out. Again, great to have you here and welcome.

Hey Matt, the thumbs up on the recording quality is greatly appreciated. Yea, this message is pretty "in your face", but it's something I need to hear at least once a day too, so you could say I'm singing this one to myself as much, or more, than to everyone else.

Heinz, whassup??!! Yea, I took your suggestion very seriously on your last post, and now reading your present comments really gives me a huge boost of encouragement to try even harder on the next one. I think I can do this thing!! That is a very interesting take you have on an alternate way to do the song.........almost like there could be two versions...............hmmm, something to think about.

John, thanks man. These type of words coming from guys like you who have been into this for so many years means much more to me than you realize. Haven't had a chance to listen to your latest keyboard offering yet, but I fully intend to. You guys just keep pointing me in the right direction and I'll do my best to follow!! Stay on the straight and narrow dude! Blessings.

Thanks to all,
DuRod

Larry, hey buddy, what's going on??? Thanks for the comments and the encouragement. Funny you should mention that about a song with just vocals and acoustic, I just recently wrote a song about the loss of my father many years ago now, and I've been working on putting music to it; and I think it is going to be a prime candidate for this type of style. Thanks again Larry.

DuRod